Football in the UK - A Brief History and Overview of the The Premier League - By: Dave Page

The Premier League, also affectionately known as The Premiership, is the pride of football in the United Kingdom. The league is relatively young and was formed in response to the decline of the sport in UK during the 1980s. Football stadiums were being neglected and English football clubs were banned from competition in Europe as a result of the disaster that occurred during the 1985 European Cup Tournament at Heysel Stadium in Brussels. The Football League First Division, which had been the major English football league since 1888, lagged well behind its Italian and Spanish rivals and numerous top English players chose to play abroad.

Around the early 1990s, things begin to turn around as England successfully reached the semi-finals in the 1990 FIFA World Cup. And Europe’s governing body of football, UEFA, lifted the five year ban on European competitions in that same year. The league has seen an explosion in growth and is currently the most watched sporting league in the world.

In February of 1992, The FA Premier League was formed and the first games were played in August of the same year. Originally, there were 22 clubs in league. However, currently there are 22 teams in the league. The FA Premier League’s name was officially changed to the The Premier League in 2007. The league is also known as Barclays Premier League since its official sponsor is Barclays Bank. Currently the league is at the top of the English football league system and at the end of the 2007-2008 season had completed 16 seasons of football.

The Premier League’s football seasons run from August to May and each team plays a total of 38 games. Over the years, a total of 40 football clubs have participated in The Premier League. However, of the 40 teams that have competed in The Premier League, only 4 have won the UK Premiership title – those teams include Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The current football champion is Manchester United who holds the record of winning the most Premiership titles – Manchester United boasts a total of 10 UK Premiership titles.

The Premier League is structured as a corporation with the 20 participating football clubs holding interest in the league. Each participating club in The Premiership is treated as a shareholder and is entitled to one vote on the issues such as contracts and rule changes. The chairman, chief executive, and board of directors oversee daily operations of The Premier League are elected by the shareholders. Though the Football Association is not involved directly in the daily operations, it is treated a special shareholder and holds the power of veto during the election of the chief executive and chairman whenever new rules are put in place by the league.

The UK Premiership is wildly popular throughout the world and owes much of its success to media coverage of football sporting events. The decision in 1992 to assign broadcasting rights to BSkyB has paid off enormously. Over a half a billion people follow the league and it is particularly popular in Asia, where it is the most widely promoted sports program.

With growth and statistics like these, it seems The Premier League has stumbled upon a golden formula. As long as they continue to refine and improve it, The Premiership should continue to bask in success for years to come.

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