English Premier League - A Brief History

The English Premier league is frequently called the Barclays Premiership, Barclays English Premier League or EPL and is a competitive league for soccer clubs located in the top flight of English football (Soccer) establishing it as England's most important football contest. The English Premier league is the world's best viewed and most profitable football league, watched by more than a billion football lovers worldwide.

The English Premier League was born during 1992 and marketed as "The Premiership" throughout the UK and began with the 1993-94 season. It was created for teams from the old 1st division in The Football League. It is presently contested by 20 football clubs. Through all its 14 seasons, the championship has only been won by 4 teams: Arsenal, Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers,and Manchester United. From those teams it is Manchester United that have been the most successful, they have gained the title 9 times and are the single team to have acquired the championship 3 times back-to-back . The present English Premier League title-holders are in fact Manchester United.

The English Premier league played its 1st season during 1992/93 and at the beginning was made up of 22 football clubs. The first English Premier league goal was from Brian Deane for Sheffield United and was scored against Manchester United in their a 2-1 victory. Because of pressure from the FIFA, who stated that domestic leagues must cut down the amount of matches football clubs played, the total number of teams in the English Premier League was cut back to 20 during 1995 as 4 clubs were relegated to the football league but only 2 clubs were promoted to the top flight. In June 2006 FIFA called for every major European league which included Serie A (Italy)and La Liga (Spain) to be scaled down to 18 teams from the commencement of the 2007/08 season. The English Premier League answered by declaring their intent to reject such a decrease.

The English Premier League is run as a corporation which is owned by all 20 of the current English Premier league clubs. Every football club is regarded as a shareholder with 1 vote going to each one with regard to certain matters such as changes to the rules and contracts. The football clubs elect a chairperson, Chief Executive, and Board of Directors to supervise the everyday procedures of the football league. The Football Association isn't directly involved with the daily processes of the English Premier League, yet they still hold power ro veto as they are classed as a "special shareholder" when a Chairperson and Chief Executive are elected and should brand-new regulations need to be implemented by the football league.

The English Premier League sends out representatives to the UEFA Club Forum, the number of representatives allowed and the actual clubs are decided by UEFA coefficients.
The European Club Forum is accountable for electing 3 members to the UEFA Club competitions Committee, which is concerned with the procedures in UEFA contests for example the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

From 1993, the English Premier League has always been sponsored. Who ever is the sponsor can then decide the sponsorship name for the English Premier league. As yet, each sponsor has named the competition "The 'Premiership" and The sponsors so far have been
1993/2001- Carling - FA Carling Premiership
2001/2004- Barclaycard - Barclaycard Premiership
2004/2010- Barclays - Barclays Premiership