Monday, February 6th, 2012
The English Premier League is the result of an elite grouping of professional football clubs from the English football association. It is the numero uno of all football leagues in England and regarded as the best competition in the land. There are a total of 20 clubs in the EPL and it is joined with the Football League through the age old tradition of promotion and relegation. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. The clubs play each other twice a season that runs from August to May, which means having 38 games each and 380 games in total for the whole season. The schedule of the games are mainly held on both days of the weekends although they will also occur during weekdays in order to fit them all in. Some know it as the Barclays Premier League as the league’s main sponsor is Barclays Bank.
The Premier League was thus given birth on in 1992 after the 20 member clubs agreed to sell television rights for EPL live matches to broadcast companies for millions of dollars and they left the previous First Division. Backed by powerful marketing and media, it is no wonder the Premier League has topped viewership figures in football around the world. It is also tops in terms of the money list with clubs taking home almost 2 billion pounds in total every season. In terms of European football, the Premier League is also now ranked tops by UEFA in the list of regional competitions that have provided the best quality and results.
From the beginning of the new era of English football till today, strangely, only four out of the 43 clubs to have been involved in the Premier League have lifted the title and they are Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Blackburn Rovers. The current champions are Manchester United, who won their eleventh EPL title in the 2008–09 season, the most of any Premier League team. This title triumph also levelled United and Liverpool on 18 top-flight championships altogether.
There was not only hurt but also tragedy to befall English football with the arrival of the late 1980s, after enjoying a successful period in the 70s and early 80s. Stadia were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European competition for five years following the events at Heysel in 1985. It was at this point that saw an exodus of the top British players to pastures anew in Spain and Italy, leading to the leagues in both countries overtaking the old English First Division as the premier football competition in Europe. However, by the turn of the 1990s the downward trend was starting to reverse; England had been successful in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, reaching the semi-finals. UEFA did their part by allowing English clubs to return to European competitions in 1990 while locally, English football also worked with the government to improve their facilities and security to world class standards prompted by the Hillsborough tragedy. Manchester United went on to win the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in the following year.
The Football League also started to reap the financial rewards of broadcast rights as revenue rose from almost 7 million pounds in 1986 to 44 million pounds in 1988. It was also in 1988 when the 44 million pound deal was negotiated that initial signs of a breakaway super league became evident as the ten most popular clubs only agreed to stay after much persuasion. With the top Football League teams becoming better developed and enjoying greater support and revenue, the topic of breaking off to take advantage of the growing riches in English football cropped up again quickly.
Tags: English football history, English Premier League, English Premier League history, EPL, EPL live