English Premier League
The Premier League is officially the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons. It is a British professional league for football clubs.
Twenty clubs dispute this league. The seasons are from August to May. All teams play 38 games each.
The competition began as the FA Premier League on February 20, 1992. The first game took place on August 15 of that year. Some clubs in the First Division of the Football League decided to separate from the Football League to take advantage of a profitable television right contract.
The Football League has been hosting the main football competition in England and Wales since 1888. Since then, the Premier League has become the most followed sports league.
It is the highest paid soccer league. In 2005–06, the club’s combined revenue was around $1.4 billion. It may rise to $1.8 billion in 2007-08 due to rising media revenues.
Only four of the 40 clubs have won the top league title. They are Arsenals, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea and Manchester United. The current champion of this league is Manchester United. They won the ninth title in 2006-07. No team has won the title so many times.
The English Premier League:
It is a series of leagues organized by football clubs in England. However, a small number of Welsh clubs also compete in the English Premier League for historical reasons.
There are around 140 leagues containing around 480 divisions. The system has an orderly design for promotion and delegation between the leagues at different levels.
The exact number of clubs varies each year. Clubs join, leave or merge to form new teams. However, there is an estimated average of 15 clubs per division. This means that more than 7,000 clubs are members of a league in the English Premier League.
Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a tie. Total points and goal differences decide the ranking of the teams. At the end of the season, the club with the highest point is the champion. Goal difference and goals scored decide the winner if the teams have the same points.