Premier League

The Premier League began in 1992 preceded by the First Division of the Football League that was founded in 1888. Today it holds the status of the best football league in the world. Even though the top clubs in England don’t win the biggest European Cups with same frequency as the top clubs in Spain, the Premier League is still considered to contain the toughest competition overall. (Premier League was earlier sponsored by Barclays Bank, thus the reason for its previous official name Barclays Premier League.)

History

The background of the Premier League was a bleak period for English club football. The attendances were record low and the league were notorious for hooligans. In the 1985-86, the league started without a TV coverage since the parts couldn't agree upon a deal. At this time, the biggest clubs in the country began discussions about launching a new independent league.

The establishment of the Premier League meant a historical divide of the top-level division from the Football League. The new league would not be part of the Football League, with traditions going back to the 1880s. Yet, it would continue to be a part of the league system – the worst placed teams in the Premier League would be relegated to the second level and the best placed teams would vice versa be promoted from the second level to Premier League.

New contracts were made with television companies that understood the potential of the game’s popularity. Sky was given the TV rights and they expanded the program to five-hours sessions. The concept were highly influenced by the American NFL broadcasting, features such as Monday Night Football was introduced for the TV audience.

League system

Premier League is since the 1992-1993 season the top tier of the English football league system (before that Division One had the same function). The next three tiers are incorporated in the so-called English Football League (EFL). When follows two additional tiers, which are part of the National League. An overview of the current league system in England is presented in table 1.

Table 1. English football tiers

Club	Tier
Premier League	1
Championship	2
League One	3
League Two	4
National League	5
National League North / South	6

Below National League North and National League South follows several other tiers divided by regions.

Teams and players

Teams with most titles

Statistics of all English clubs that have won the Premier League, concerning the period 1993-2024.

Table 2. Clubs and Premier League titles

Club	Titles
Manchester United	13
Manchester City	9
Chelsea	5
Arsenal	3
Blackburn Rovers	1
Leicester City	1
Liverpool	1

This is only based on the seasons after the league changed name, see Clubs and English Football League titles. If all seasons going back to the year 1888 would be included the list would look different. Manchester United would still be on top with 20 titles, but Liverpool would come as the second best with 18 titles.

Premier League winners year by year

All winners since first season including collected points per season by the winner.

Table 3. Accumulation of points by the winning team

Season	Winner	Points
2023-24	Manchester City	91
2022-23	Manchester City	89
2021-22	Manchester City	93
2020-21	Manchester City	86
2019-20	Liverpool	99
2018-19	Manchester City	98
2017-18	Manchester City	100
2016-17	Chelsea	93
2015-16	Leicester City	81
2014-15	Chelsea	87
2013-14	Manchester City	86
2012-13	Manchester United	89
2011-12	Manchester City	89
2010-11	Manchester United	80
2009-10	Chelsea	86
2008-09	Manchester United	90
2007-08	Manchester United	87
2006-07	Manchester United	89
2005-06	Chelsea	91
2004-05	Chelsea	95
2003-04	Arsenal	90
2002-03	Manchester United	83
2001-02	Arsenal	87
2000-01	Manchester United	80
1999-00	Manchester United	91
1998-99	Manchester United	79
1997-98	Arsenal	78
1996-97	Manchester United	75
1995-96	Manchester United	82
1994-95	Blackburn Rovers	89
1993-94	Manchester United	92
1992-93	Manchester United	84

The league consists of 20 teams (except the three first seasons in which 22 teams were included), which meet each other two times (home and away) per season; 380 games are played in total. Most points by a team in a season, 100 (2.6 per match), were collected by Manchester City in the 2017-18 season.

Top goalscorers

Alan Shearer holds the record in the Premier League with 440 goals from the years in Newcastle. Other notable top scorers are Andy Cole (187 goals), Wayne Rooney (187 goals), Frank Lampard (177 goals), Thierry Henry (175 goals), Robbie Fowler (163 goals) and Michael Owen (150 goals). Extra impressive is Henry with most goals per match: 0,68.

Football League titles

Statistics of all English clubs that have won the Football League, including Premier League, with number of titles and the first winning season concerning the period 1888-2024.

Table 4. Clubs and League titles

Club	Titles	1st title	Football League titles
Manchester United	20	1907-08	7
Liverpool	19	1900-01	18
Arsenal	13	1930-31	10
Manchester City	10	1936-37	2
Everton	9	1890-91	9
Aston Villa	7	1893-94	7
Sunderland	6	1891-92	6
Chelsea	6	1954-55	1
Sheffield Wednesday	4	1902-03	4
Newcastle	4	1904-05	4
Blackburn	3	1911-12	2
Huddersfield Town	3	1923-24	3
Wolverhampton	3	1953-54	3
Leeds United	3	1968-69	3
Preston North End	2	1888-89	2
Burnley	2	1920-21	2
Portsmouth	2	1948-49	2
Tottenham	2	1950-51	2
Derby	2	1971-72	2
Sheffield United	1	1897-98	1
West Bromwich	1	1919-20	1
Ipswich Town	1	1961-62	1
Nottingham Forest	1	1977-78	1
Leicester City	1	2015-16	0

In total, 24 clubs have been English league champions.

Only one tier existed until the 1892-93 season, when Division Two was created. For the 1920-21 season the Third Division was created and when for the 1958-59 season the Fourth Division was created. The Division 1, 2 and 3 was before the 2004-05 season renamed to The Championship, League 1 and League 2.

The audience

Soon after the start of Premier League, the terraces for standing were forbidden and instead the whole audience was to sit down to watch the games.

Capacity of Premier League stadiums

Table 4 shows the capacity of all Premier League club stadiums (based on the teams that participated in the league season 2016–2017). Manchester United's Old Trafford is the biggest in the league with capacity for over 70,000 people.

Table 5. The stadium capacities in the Premier League season 16-17

Team	Stadium name	Capacity
Arsenal	Emirates Stadium	60,260
Bournemouth	Dean Court	11,464
Burnley	Turf Moor	21,401
Chelsea	Stamford Bridge	41,631
Crystal Palace	Selhurst Park	25,456
Everton	Goodison Park	39,572
Hull	KCOM Stadium	25,450
Leicester	King Power Stadium	32,312
Liverpool	Anfield	54,167
Manchester C	City of Manchester	55,097
Manchester U	Old Trafford	75,653
Middlesbrough	Riverside Stadium	33,764
Southampton	St Mary's Stadium	32,505
Stoke	Stoke-on-Trent	27,902
Sunderland	Ellis Short	49,000
Swansea	Liberty Stadium	20,972
Tottenham	White Hart Lane	36,228
Watford	Vicare Road	21,977
West Bromwich	The Hawthorns	26,852
West Ham	Olympic Stadium	60,010

To put the capacity in relation to the actual audience per match we could take Manchester United as an example. During the 2015/2016 season the average attendance was 75,279. The tickets are mostly sold in season package, but for comparison, a match-day ticket in season 2015/2016 would cost from £22 (Leicester) to £52 (Chelsea).

Attendance per season

The matches in Premier League are well sought after and the big stadiums are regularly full or almost at the competition.

The money

Premier League is a league with lots of money involved. The television contracts are extremely expensive and result in big revenues for the association and the clubs. The matches are broadcasted in more than 180 countries. The gap of revenues is huge between Premier League and the EFL Championship (within the 15 years following the initiation of Premier League, the collective revenues for the clubs would grow over 1000%).

The broadcast payments are divided into three parts: 1) Equal share payments – the biggest part which all teams get in the same size; 2) Facility fees – payment for a club being featured in a live match; 3) Merit payments – based on performance.

The money is also generated by ticket sales to the matches and the prices has increased significantly during the Premier League era.

The rise of the Premier League made its members rich and foreign players and managers were imported in a scale never seen before in England. It would forever change the character of the game in the league.

The kit sponsorship revenues from the Premier Legues is enormous and expected to be over €100 million per year.

Qualification for European Cups

The Premier League has four places in the Champions League and one place in Europa League (winners of the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup also qualify for the Europa League).

Relegations

The three teams placed at the bottom of the table (places 18-20) will be relegated to EFL Championship, the second level.

By Oscar Anderson

References:
Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, The Club (2018)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League
http://www.football-league.co.uk