The English Premier League, now also known as
the Barclays Premier League, was founded in the year 1992 as the FA Premier
League. The Premier League is a great crowd puller with a recorded average
attendance of 35,363 for the 2010 – 2011 season. It is also the most watched
football league around the globe with the league being broadcasted in more than
212 territories and an estimated TV audience of 4.7 billion, which is
increasing every season. The FA Premier League was the result of a decision by
the top clubs of the Football League First Division to pull out of The Football
League. This decision was to make the most out of the lucrative television
right deals which is worth £1 billion a year.
The Format
The Premier League consists of 20 teams. Each team
is scheduled to play 38 games, which means that each club plays each other twice.
One would be a home game that will be played at the club’s home stadium. The
second is the away game that is played at the opponent’s home stadium. The
teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and no points
for a loss. The team with the most points at the end of the season gets to lift
the silverware. If the points are equal, the winner is decided first by goal
difference and if that is also equal then the winner is decided by the most
goals scored. The last three teams in the table are relegated to play in the
Football League Championship and the top two teams, along with the play-offs
winner from Football League Championship are promoted to the Premier League.
Clubs
From the time of its inception in the year 1992, 45
clubs have played in the league. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal,
Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur are the seven
clubs that have been part of the club right from its first edition. Currently,
there are six Welsh clubs that are also part of the English football league
system thus giving them a chance to qualify for the Premier League. So far only
two Welsh clubs have qualified to play in the Premier League and they are
Cardiff City and Swansea City.
Stadiums
Since the start of the league, Premiership games
have been played in 50 stadiums. There has been a constant effort to improve
the facilities and the capacity of the stadiums around England. Old Trafford,
the home ground of Manchester United has a capacity of 75,957, which is the
highest for a club stadium and second highest in the country behind Wembley
Stadium.
Tickets
The main source of income for the Premiership Clubs
is the money collected by selling tickets for games played in their stadium.
The Premiership games have been a great crowd puller, with fans wanting to see
their team and their favorite stars in action. According to reports in the 2009
-2010 season around 13 million people watched the games from the stands.
The popularity and fanfare of the Premiership is so
great that most of the games are sold out and the stadiums are packed with
spectators cheering their team. Matches like Manchester United vs. Chelsea,
Manchester United vs. Arsenal, Chelsea vs. Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur vs.
Arsenal are some of the known rivalries of the English Premier League and
matches between these teams are always high drama games that cannot be missed.
The English Premier League has a life of its
own, the players, the managers, the fans and their chants are a testimony that
it is something more than just a game. It is the quest for glory, the quest for
success and silverware.
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