The Premier League (officially known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons, colloquially known as The Premiership), is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the English football league system. making it England's primary football competition. The Premier League is currently contested by twenty clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League.
The competition formed as the FA Premier League in 1992, following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from The Football League to take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. Since then it has progressed to become the world's most watched sporting league, and the most lucrative football league, with member club revenues totalling a figure in excess of £1.4 billion.[1]
A total of 40 clubs have competed in the Premier League, but only four have won the title: Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The current Premier League champions are Manchester United, who won their ninth title in the 2006–07 season. Manchester United also hold the record for titles won, six ahead of nearest rivals Arsenal, who have three titles.
Origins
The 1980s had marked a low point for English football. Stadiums were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European competition following the events at Heysel in 1985.[2] The Football League First Division, which had been the top level of English football since 1888, was well behind leagues such as Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga in attendances and revenues, and several top English players had moved abroad.[3] 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, European football's governing body, lifted the five-year ban on English clubs playing in European competitions in 1990 and the Taylor Report on stadium safety standards, which proposed expensive upgrades to create all-seater stadiums, was published in January of that year.[4]
Television money had also become much more important; the Football League received £6.3million for a two-year agreement in 1986, but when that deal was renewed in 1988, the price rose to £44m over four years.[5] The 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league; ten clubs threatened to leave and form a "super league", but were eventually persuaded to stay.[6] As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the country's top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalize on the growing influx of money being pumped into the sport.
[edit] Foundation
In the 1991 close season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League.[7] The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. This was seen to be necessary so that English clubs could once again compete with and beat the best of Europe, while attracting the best talent in the world, something which in 1991 seemed practically unthinkable.
In 1992 the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at the then Football Association's headquarters in Lancaster Gate.[8] This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would operate with a single division and the Football League with three. There was no real change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained on the same terms as between the old First and Second Divisions.
[edit] Establishment
The league held its first season in 1992–93 and was originally composed of 22 clubs. The first ever Premiership goal was scored by Brian Deane of Sheffield United in a 2–1 win against Manchester United. Due to insistence by FIFA, the international governing body of football, that domestic leagues reduce the number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams were relegated from the league and only two teams promoted. On 8 June 2006, FIFA requested that all major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007–08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.[9] Ultimately the 2007–08 season kicked off again with 20 teams. The league changed its name from the FA Premier League to simply the Premier League in 2007.[10]
[edit] Structure
The Premier League is operated as a corporation that is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is considered a shareholder with one vote each on such issues as rule changes and contracts. The clubs elect a Chairman, Chief Executive, and Board of Directors to oversee the daily operations of the league.[11] The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, but has veto power as a special shareholder during the election of the Chairman and Chief Executive and when new rules are adopted by the league.[12]
The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Forum, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. The European Club Forum is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Cup.[13]
[edit] Competition format and sponsorship
[edit] Competition
There are 20 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (which lasts from August to May) each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for a total of 38 games for each club per season. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned as champions. If points are equal the goal difference and goals scored then determines the winner. If still equal they are deemed to occupy the same position; if the champions, teams for relegation or qualification for other competitions thus cannot be decided, a play-off match is played between the affected teams at a neutral venue.[14] The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Football League Championship and the top two teams from the Championship, together with the winner of play-offs involving the third to sixth placed Championship clubs, are promoted in their place.[15]
[edit] Qualification for European competitions
The top four teams in the Premiership qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top two teams directly entering the group phase. The third and fourth placed teams enter the competition at the third qualifying round and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. The fifth placed team automatically qualifies for the UEFA Cup, and the sixth and seventh placed teams can also qualify, depending on what happens in the two domestic cup competitions. If the FA Cup winners and runners-up both finish in the top five of the Premier League, the FA Cup's UEFA Cup spot goes to the sixth placed team in the League. If the League Cup is won by a team that has already qualified for Europe, the League Cup's UEFA Cup spot also goes to the next highest placed team in the League (unlike the FA Cup spot, it is never transferred to the losing finalist).[16] The highest placed team that has not qualified for the UEFA Cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, provided they have applied to enter the Intertoto Cup in the next season. This provides another means of getting into the UEFA Cup, as winners of all eleven third-round Intertoto Cup ties qualify for that tournament.
Bolton Wanderers and Fulham compete in the FA Cup.An exception to the usual European qualification system happened in 2005, when Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League, but did not finish in a Champions League qualification position in that season's Premier League. UEFA gave special dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England five qualifiers.[17] UEFA subsequently ruled that the defending champions of the trophy qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing.
The Premiership was recently promoted to second in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five year period, behind Spain's La Liga and now above Italy's Serie A.[18] The top three leagues in Europe are currently allowed to enter four teams into the Champions League. The UEFA president Michel Platini, had proposed taking one place from the Premier League's quota, and allocating this place to the FA Cup winners. This proposal though, was rejected in a vote at a UEFA Strategy Council meeting.[19]
In the same meeting that Platini's suggestion that FA Cup winners should qualify for the Champion's League rather than the UEFA Cup was rejected, it was however agreed upon that the third-placed team in the Premier League would receive automatic qualification for the group stages, rather than entry into the Third Qualifying Round as at present.[20]
[edit] Sponsorship
Since 1993, the Premier League has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:
1993–2001: Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
2001–2004: Barclaycard (Barclaycard Premiership)
2004–2010: Barclays (Barclays Premiership (2004–2007) then Barclays Premier League (2007–2010))[21]
[edit] Finances
The Premier League is the most lucrative football league in the world, with total club revenues of over £1.4 billion in 2005–06 season according to Deloitte, 40% above its nearest competitor: Italy's Serie A.[22] Revenues will increase to approximately £1.8 billion in the 2007–08 season,[23] when new media rights deals start. Based on November 2007 exchange rates, £1.8 billion converts to a gross annual league revenue of about US$3.7 billion. For the past few seasons, the Premier League's gross revenue (£1.4bn) has been the fourth highest for any sports league worldwide, behind the annual revenues of the three most popular North American major sports leagues (the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association), but ahead of the National Hockey League.
In terms of world football, the Premier League clubs are some of the richest in the world. Deloitte, who annually release figures on club revenues through its "Football Money League", listed eight Premier League clubs in the top 20 for the 2005–06 season.[24] No other league has more than four clubs in this table, and while La Liga rivals Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona are currently ranked #1 and #2, no other Spanish clubs are listed in the top 20. Premier League teams have dominated the list for many years, and even topped the list for almost a decade until the 2004–05 season. After the Premier League's new TV deal comes into effect, the league-wide increase in revenues is expected to increase the Premier League clubs' standing in the list, and a Premier League club may become top of the list.[24][25]
Another significant source of regular income for Premier League clubs remains their revenue from stadium attendances, which, with the 2005–06 average attendance of 34,364 for league matches, is the fourth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world, ahead of Serie A and La Liga, but behind the German Bundesliga. This represents an increase of over 60% from the average attendance of 21,126 recorded in the league's first season (1992–93).[26] However, during the 1992–93 season the capacities of most stadiums were reduced as clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the Taylor Report's 1994–95 deadline for all-seater stadiums.[27][28] The 2005–06 figure, however, is lower than the Premier League's record average attendance of 35,464, set during the 2002–03 season.[29]
[edit] Media coverage
[edit] United Kingdom
See also: English football on television
A 2004 match between Manchester United and Tottenham HotspurTelevision has played a major role in the history of the Premier League. The money from television rights has been vital in helping to create excellence both on and off the field. The League's decision to assign broadcasting rights to BSkyB in 1992 was at the time a radical decision, but one that has paid off. At the time pay television was an almost untested proposition in the UK market, as was charging fans to watch live televised football. However, a combination of Sky's strategy, the quality of Premier League football and the public's appetite for the game has seen the value of the Premier League's TV rights soar.
The Premier League sells its television rights on a collective basis. This is in contrast to some European Leagues, including Serie A and La Liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to a much higher share of the total income going to the top few clubs. The money is divided into three parts:[30] half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottom club, and equal steps all the way down the table; the final quarter is paid out as facilities fees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs generally receiving the largest shares of this. The income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs.
The first Sky television rights agreement was worth £191 million over five seasons.[31] The next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997–98 season, rose to £670 million over four seasons.[31] The third contract was a £1.024 billion deal with BSkyB for the three seasons from 2004–05 to 2006–07. The league brought in £320 million from the sale of its international rights for the three-year period from 2004–05 to 2006–07. It sold the rights itself on a territory-by-territory basis.[32] Sky's monopoly was broken from August 2006 when Setanta Sports was awarded rights to show two out of the six packages of matches available. This occurred following an insistence by the European Commission that exclusive rights should not be sold to one television company. Sky and Setanta paid a total of £1.7 billion, a two-thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had been widely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapid growth. The BBC has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons (on Match of the Day) for £171.6 million, a 63% increase on the £105 million it paid for the previous three year period.[33] Sky and BT have agreed to jointly pay £84.3 million for delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in full on television and over the internet) in most cases for a period of 50 hours after 10 pm on matchday.[34] Overseas television rights fetched £625 million, nearly double the previous contract,[35] and there was also a smaller deal for mobile phone rights. The total raised from these deals is more than £2.7 billion, giving Premiership clubs an average media income from league games of £45 million a year from 2007 to 2010. They also receive smaller amounts from media rights for the domestic cups and in some cases substantial amounts from media rights for European matches.
The TV rights agreement between the Premier League and Sky has faced accusations of being a cartel, and a number of court cases have arisen as a result. An investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002 found BSkyB to be dominant within the pay TV sports market, but concluded that there were insufficient grounds for the claim that BSkyB had abused its dominant position.[36] In July 1999 the Premier League's method of selling rights collectively for all member clubs was investigated by the UK Restrictive Practices Court, who concluded that the agreement was not contrary to the public interest.[37]
[edit] Worldwide
Promoted as "The Greatest Show On Earth", the Premier League is the world's most popular and most watched sporting league, followed worldwide by over half a billion people in 202 countries,[38] generally on networks owned and/or controlled by NewsCorp, which owns BSkyB and thus the primary UK and Ireland TV rights. In the United States coverage is shared between Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports North America.
The Premier League is particularly popular in Asia, where it is the most widely distributed sports programme.[39] In the People's Republic of China, matches attract television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreign sport.[40] Due to this popularity, the league has held three pre-season tournaments in Asia, the only Premier League affiliated tournaments ever to have been held outside England. In July 2003 the FA Premier League Asia Cup was held in Malaysia, featuring three Premiership clubs, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Birmingham City, and the Malaysia national team.[41] In 2005 the Asia Trophy featured a similar format, held in Thailand and featuring the Thailand national team competing against three English clubs — Everton, Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers, the latter of whom won the trophy.[42] In 2007, the FA Premier League Asia Cup took place in Hong Kong, to be renamed the Barclays Asia Trophy and featured Liverpool, Portsmouth, Fulham and the Hong Kong FA Cup winning team, South China.
Radio coverage of the Premier League can also be heard in the United States and Canada on Sirius Satellite Radio; several other countries also have radio broadcasters with Premier League coverage.
The FA has faced difficulty fighting internet copyright infringement. In an effort to stop the broadcasting of streams of live games on the net they have hired NetResult, a company that specializes on protecting trademark rights online. The BBC reported that NetResult, on behalf of the Premier League, emailed a warning to 101greatgoals.blogspot.com, an independent website that links to youtube videos, that forced its temporary closure.[43]
Recent overseas TV rights deals have sometimes included internet and/or mobile phone rights, taking advantage of technology to restrict usage to the countries included under the contract.
[edit] Criticisms
One of the main criticisms levelled at the Premier League is the increasing gulf between the Premiership and the Football League. Since its split with the Football League, many established clubs in the Premier League have managed to distance themselves from their counterparts in lower leagues. Owing in large part to the disparity in revenue from television rights between the leagues,[44] many newly promoted teams have found it difficult to avoid relegation in their first season in the Premier League. In every season except 2001–02 (Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and Fulham F.C.) at least one Premier League newcomer has been relegated back to the Football League. In 1997–98 all three promoted clubs were relegated at the end of the season.[45]
The Premier League distributes a small portion of its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachute payments". Starting with the 2006–07 season, these payments are in the amount of £6.5 million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues, although this is set to rise to £11.2 million per year for clubs relegated in 2007–2008.[44] Designed to help teams adjust to the loss of television revenues (the average Premier League team receives £45 million while the average Football League Championship club receives £1 million[44]), critics maintain that the payments actually widen the gap between teams that have reached the Premiership and those that have not,[46] leading to the common occurrence of teams "bouncing back" soon after their relegation.
Second season syndrome is a frequent problem which has affected teams in the second season following their promotion. On several occasions, a team has won promotion to the Premier League and performed very well in their first season, only to suffer a substantial downturn in fortunes during their second season.[47] An example of this is Ipswich Town, who were promoted to the Premier League in 2000, finished fifth in 2001, but were relegated on the last day of the season in 2002.[48]
Another major criticism is the development of the so-called, "Big Four" clubs.[49] In the past 12 seasons only three different clubs have won the Premier League title — Manchester United (seven times), Arsenal (three times) and Chelsea (twice). In addition, Liverpool, while without an English league title since the pre-Premier League era, have not finished lower than fifth since 1999.[50] In recent years, this has led to these four teams being increasingly referred to as the "Big Four". This developed with Chelsea's rise in status after their takeover by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003, which has led to multiple league and cup successes. The Big Four clubs currently receive the benefits of Champions League qualification. The benefits include increased revenue and this has widened the gap between the Big Four clubs and the rest of the Premiership.[49]
