The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches in the season. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played during weekday evenings. It was known as the Premiership from 1993 to 2007. It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and therefore officially known as the Barclays Premier League.
The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from The Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. The Premier League has since become the world's most watched association football league. It is the world's most lucrative football league in terms of revenue, with combined club revenues of over £2 billion in 2008–09. It is ranked first in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, ahead of Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga.
Since 1888, a total of 23 clubs have been crowned champions of the English football system. Of the 44 clubs to have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, four have won the title: Arsenal (3 titles), Blackburn Rovers (1), Chelsea (3), and Manchester United (11). The current champions are Chelsea, who won the title in the 2009–10 season.
History
Origins
Despite significant European success during the 1970s and early 1980s, the late '80s had marked a low point for English football.
Stadia were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities,
hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European competition for five years following the
events at Heysel in 1985. The Football League First Division, which had been the top level of English football since 1888, was well behind leagues such as Italy's
Serie A and Spain's
La Liga in attendances and revenues, and several top English players had moved abroad. However, by the turn of the 1990s the downward trend was starting to reverse; England had been successful in the
1990 FIFA World Cup, reaching the semi-finals. The
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), European football's governing body, lifted the five-year ban on English clubs playing in European competitions in 1990 (resulting in Manchester United lifting the
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1991) and the
Taylor Report on stadium safety standards, which proposed expensive upgrades to create all-seater stadia in the aftermath of the
Hillsborough disaster, was published in January of that year.
Television money had also become much more important; the Football League received £6.3 million for a two-year agreement in 1986, but when that deal was renewed in 1988, the price rose to £44 million over four years. The 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league; ten clubs threatened to leave and form a "super league", but were eventually persuaded to stay. As stadia improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the country's top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the growing influx of money being pumped into the sport. The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe.
In 1992 the First Division clubs resigned from the Football League en masse and on 27 May 1992 the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company working out of an office at the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate. The 22 inaugural members of the new Premier League were Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, and Wimbledon.
Development
As of the end of the 2009–10 season, there had been 18 completed seasons of the Premier League. Due to insistence by the
International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the international governing body of football, that domestic leagues reduce the number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams were relegated from the league and only two teams promoted. On 8 June 2006, FIFA requested that all major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007–08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction. Ultimately, the 2007–08 season kicked off again with 20 teams. The league changed its name from the
FA Premier League to simply the
Premier League in 2007.
Corporate structure
The Premier League is operated as a corporation and is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is a
shareholder, with one vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts. The clubs elect a
chairman,
chief executive, and
board of directors to oversee the daily operations of the league. The current chairman is
Sir Dave Richards, who was appointed in April 1999, and the chief executive is
Richard Scudamore, appointed in November 1999. The former chairman and chief executive,
John Quinton and
Peter Leaver, were forced to resign in March 1999 after awarding consultancy contracts to former Sky executives
Sam Chisholm and
David Chance. The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, but has veto power as a special shareholder during the election of the chairman and chief executive and when new rules are adopted by the league.
The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Association, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. For the 2010–11 season the Premier League had 10 representatives in the Association. The European Club Association is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
Competition format
Competition
There are 20 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (from August to May) each club plays the others twice (a double
round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents, for a total of 38 games. Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then
goal difference, and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned champion. If points are equal, the goal difference and then goals scored determine the winner. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. If there is a tie for the championship, for relegation, or for qualification to other competitions, a play-off match at a neutral venue decides rank. The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the
Football League Championship and the top two teams from the Championship, together with the winner of
play-offs involving the third to sixth placed Championship clubs, are promoted in their place.
Qualification for European competitions
As of the 2009–10 season qualification for the UEFA Champions League changes, the top four teams in the Premier League qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top three teams directly entering the group stage. Previously only the top two teams qualified automatically. The fourth-placed team enters the Champions League at the play-off round for non-champions and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group stage. The team placed fifth in the Premier League automatically qualifies for the UEFA Europa League, and the sixth and seventh-placed teams can also qualify, depending on the winners of the two domestic cup competitions. If one of the cup winners qualifies for Europe through their league position, the sixth-placed team in the Premier League will qualify for the Europa League. If both of the cup winners qualify for the Champions League through their league position, the sixth and seventh-placed teams in the Premier League will qualify for the Europa League. If either domestic cup competition is contested between teams outside the top four league positions, the winner will automatically qualify for the UEFA Europa League regardless of their final league position. A further place in the UEFA Europa League is also available via the
Fair Play initiative. If the Premier League has one of the three highest Fair Play rankings in Europe, the highest ranked team in the Premier League Fair Play standings which has not already qualified for Europe will automatically qualify for the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round.
An exception to the usual European qualification system happened in 2005, after Liverpool won the Champions League the year before, but did not finish in a Champions League qualification place in the Premier League that season. UEFA gave special dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England five qualifiers. UEFA subsequently ruled that the defending champions qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing. However, for those leagues with four entrants in the Champions League, this means that if the Champions League winner falls outside of its domestic league's top four, it will qualify at the expense of the fourth-placed team in the league. No association can have more than four entrants in the Champions League.
In 2007, the Premier League became the highest ranking European League based on the performances of English teams in European competitions over a five-year period. This broke the eight-year dominance of the Spanish league, La Liga. The top three leagues in Europe are currently allowed to enter four teams into the Champions League. Michel Platini, the UEFA president, had proposed taking one place from the top three leagues and allocating it to that nation's cup winners. This proposal was rejected in a vote at a UEFA Strategy Council meeting. In the same meeting, however, it was agreed that the third-placed team in the top four leagues would receive automatic qualification for the group stage, rather than entry into the third qualifying round, while the fourth-placed team would enter the play-off round for non-champions, guaranteeing an opponent from one of the top 15 leagues in Europe. This was part of Platini's plan to increase the number of teams qualifying directly into the group stage, while simultaneously increasing the number of teams from lower-ranked nations in the group stage.
Trophy
The current Premier League trophy was created by Royal Jewellers
Asprey of London. It weighs , and is tall, wide and deep. Its main body is solid
sterling silver and silver
gilt, while its plinth is made of
malachite, a
semi-precious stone. The plinth has a silver band around its circumference, upon which the names of the title-winning clubs are listed. Malachite's green colour is also representative of the green field of play. In 2004, a special gold version of the trophy was commissioned to commemorate Arsenal winning the title
without a single defeat.
Sponsorship
The Premier League has been sponsored since 1993. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. There have been three sponsors since the league's formation.
1993–2001:
Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Premier League has a number of official partners and suppliers. The official ball supplier for the league is Nike who have had the contract since the 2000–01 season when they took over from Mitre.
Finances
The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of €2.326 billion in 2008–09, and is the second most profitable after the German
Bundesliga. The Premier League's gross revenue is regularly the fourth highest of any sports league worldwide, behind the annual revenues of the three most popular North American
major sports leagues (the
National Football League,
Major League Baseball and the
National Basketball Association), but ahead of the
National Hockey League.
In terms of world football, the Premier League clubs are some of the richest in the world. Deloitte, who annually release figures on club revenues through its "Football Money League", listed seven Premier League clubs in the top 20 for the 2008–09 season. No other league has more than four clubs in this table. Premier League teams have dominated the list for many years, and even topped the list for almost a decade until the 2004–05 season. After the Premier League's new TV deal went into effect, the league-wide increase in revenues is expected to increase the Premier League clubs' standing in the list, and there is a possibility that a Premier League club will be top of the list.
Media coverage
United Kingdom and Ireland
and
Tottenham Hotspur]]
Television has played a major role in the history of the Premier League. The money from television rights has been vital in helping to create excellence both on and off the field. The League's decision to assign broadcasting rights to
BSkyB in 1992 was at the time a radical decision, but one that has paid off. At the time pay television was an almost untested proposition in the UK market, as was charging fans to watch live televised football. However, a combination of Sky's strategy, the quality of Premier League football and the public's appetite for the game has seen the value of the Premier League's TV rights soar. The money is divided into three parts: half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottom club, and equal steps all the way down the table; the final quarter is paid out as facilities fees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs generally receiving the largest shares of this. The income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs.
The first Sky television rights agreement was worth £304 million over five seasons. The next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997–98 season, rose to £670 million over four seasons. Sky's monopoly was broken from August 2006 when Setanta Sports was awarded rights to show two out of the six packages of matches available. This occurred following an insistence by the European Commission that exclusive rights should not be sold to one television company. Sky and Setanta paid a total of £1.7 billion, a two-thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had been widely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapid growth. Setanta also hold rights to a live 3 pm match solely for Irish viewers. The BBC has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons (on Match of the Day) for £171.6 million, a 63 per cent increase on the £105 million it paid for the previous three-year period. Raidió Teilifís Éireann broadcast the highlights package in Ireland. Sky and BT have agreed to jointly pay £84.3 million for delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in full on television and over the internet) in most cases for a period of 50 hours after 10 pm on matchday. Overseas television rights fetched £625 million, nearly double the previous contract. The total raised from these deals is more than £2.7 billion, giving Premier League clubs an average media income from league games of around £40 million a year from 2007 to 2010.
The TV rights agreement between the Premier League and Sky has faced accusations of being a cartel, and a number of court cases have arisen as a result. An investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002 found BSkyB to be dominant within the pay TV sports market, but concluded that there were insufficient grounds for the claim that BSkyB had abused its dominant position. In July 1999 the Premier League's method of selling rights collectively for all member clubs was investigated by the UK Restrictive Practices Court, who concluded that the agreement was not contrary to the public interest. The BBC's highlights package on Saturday and Sunday nights, as well as other evenings when fixtures justify, will run until 2013. Television rights alone for the period 2010 to 2013 have been purchased for £1.782 billion. On 22 June 2009, due to troubles encountered by Setanta Sports after it failed to meet a final deadline over a £30 million payment to the Premier League, ESPN was awarded two packages of UK rights containing a total of 46 matches that were available for the 2009–10 season as well as a package of 23 matches per season from 2010–11 to 2012–13.
Worldwide
Promoted as "The Greatest Show On Earth", the Premier League is the world's most popular and most watched sporting league, followed worldwide by over half a billion people in 202 countries, often on networks owned and/or controlled by
NewsCorp, which owns BSkyB and thus the primary UK and Ireland TV rights. In the United States, coverage is shared between
Fox Soccer Channel,
Fox Soccer Plus and
ESPN; NewsCorp sometimes buys pitch-side advertising boards with the Fox Soccer Channel logo replacing that of Sky. In Canada, Sportsnet own the Premier League rights for three years from the 2010–11 season. In Australia,
Fox Sports, shows the games with a Viewers Choice option for up to five live games and up to nine games live on any given game-week.
The Premier League is particularly popular in Asia, where it is the most widely distributed sports programme. In India, the matches are broadcast live on ESPN and Star Sports. In the People's Republic of China, data from 2003 suggested that matches were attracting television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreign sport. However, when the Chinese rights to Premier League matches were sold to a subscription channel in 2007, the number of viewers proved to be in the tens of thousands. Due to its popularity in Asia, the league has held four pre-season tournaments there, the only Premier League affiliated tournaments ever to have been held outside England. The Premier League Asia Trophy has been played in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and China and involves three Premier League clubs playing against a local team from the host nation, often the national side.
Criticisms
"Big Four" dominance
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;font-size:90%;float:right;margin-left:1em;"
|+ "Big Four" since the start of the Premier League Since Blackburn Rovers lifted the trophy in
1994–95, only three clubs have won the Premier League title – Manchester United (nine of the club's eleven titles), Arsenal and Chelsea (three times each). In addition, Manchester United have not finished outside the top three since the formation of the Premier League. From the 1996–97 season onwards, the "Big Four" (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United) have dominated the top four spots, and thus places in the
UEFA Champions League (qualification was one club for the first four seasons, increased to two clubs in 1997, three in 1999 and four since 2002). The benefits of qualification, especially increased revenue, are believed to have widened the gap between the "Big Four" clubs and the rest of the Premier League. Following Keegan's comments, Premier League chief executive
Richard Scudamore defended the league, saying, "There are a lot of different tussles that go on in the Premier League depending on whether you're at the top, in the middle or at the bottom that make it interesting." The dominance of Chelsea and Manchester United has led some to believe that the "Big Four" has contracted to a "Big Two"; no club other than these two has won the Premier League since
2004 and that, , 19 out of the last 24 major domestic trophies have gone to either
Stamford Bridge or
Old Trafford.
Widening gap with lower leagues
One of the main criticisms levelled at the Premier League is the increasing gulf between the Premier League and the Football League. Since its split with the
Football League, many established clubs in the Premier League have managed to distance themselves from their counterparts in lower leagues. Owing in large part to the disparity in revenue from television rights between the leagues, many newly promoted teams have found it difficult to avoid relegation in their first season in the Premier League. In every season except
2001–02 (
Blackburn Rovers,
Bolton Wanderers and
Fulham) at least one Premier League newcomer has been relegated back to the Football League. In
1997–98 all three promoted clubs were relegated at the end of the season.
The Premier League distributes a small portion of its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachute payments". Starting with the 2006–07 season, these payments are in the amount of £6.5 million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues, although this rose to £11.2 million per year for clubs relegated in 2007–2008. leading to the common occurrence of teams "bouncing back" soon after their relegation. For some clubs, including Leeds United, Charlton Athletic, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday, Bradford City, Leicester City, Southampton and Wimbledon who have failed to win immediate promotion back to the Premier League, financial problems, including in some cases administration or even liquidation have followed. Further relegations down the footballing ladder have ensued for several clubs unable to cope with the gap.
Clubs
A total of 44 clubs have played in the Premier League from its inception in 1992 up to and including the 2010–11 season. Seven clubs have been members of the Premier League for every season since its inception. This group is composed of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur.
The following 20 clubs are competing in the Premier League during the 2010–11 season.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
!Club
!Positionin 2009–10
!First season intop division
!Number of seasons in top division
!Number of seasons in the Premier League
!First season ofcurrent spell intop division
!Top divisiontitles
!Last top division title
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Arsenala,b||0033rd||1904–05||94||19||1919–20||13||2003–04
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Aston Villaa,b,c||0066th||1888–89||100||19||1988–89||7||1980–81
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Birmingham City||0099th||1894–95||57||7||2009–10||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Blackburn Roversa,c||01010th||1888–89||71||17||2001–02||3||1994–95
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Blackpoolb||0266th; Championship||1930–31||27||1||2010–11||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Bolton Wanderersc||01414th||1888–89||72||12||2001–02||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Chelseaa,b||0011st||1907–08||76||19||1989–90||4||2009–10
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Evertona,b,c||0088th||1888–89||108||19||1954–55||9||1986–87
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Fulhamb||01212th||1949–50||22||10||2001–02||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Liverpoola,b||0077th||1894–95||96||19||1962–63||18||1989–90
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Manchester Citya||0055th||1899–1900||82||14||2002–03||2||1967–68
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Manchester Uniteda,b||0022nd||1892–93||86||19||1975–76||18||2008–09
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Newcastle United||0211st; Championship||1898–99||79||17||2010–11||4||1926–27
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Stoke Cityb,c||01111th||1888–89||55||3||2008–09||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Sunderland||01313th||1890–91||80||10||2007–08||6||1935–36
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Tottenham Hotspura,b||0044th||1909–10||76||19||1978–79||2||1960–61
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|West Bromwich Albionc||0222nd; Championship||1888–89||72||5||2010–11||1||1919–20
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|West Ham United||01717th|||1923–24||53||16||2005–06||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Wigan Athleticb||01616th|||2005–06||6||6||2005–06||0||n/a
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|Wolverhampton Wanderersc||01515th|||1888–89||62||3||2009–10||3||1958–59
|-
|}
a: Founding member of the Premier League
b: Never been relegated from Premier League
c: One of the original 12 Football League teams
Stadia
Premier League football has been played in 50 stadia since the formation of the Premier League in 1992. The Hillsborough Disaster in 1989 and the subsequent Taylor Report saw a recommendation that standing terraces should be abolished; as a result all stadia in the Premier League are all-seater. Since the formation of the Premier League, football grounds in England have seen constant improvements to capacity and facilities, with some clubs moving to new-build stadia. A total of nine stadia that have seen Premier League football have now been demolished. The stadia for the 2010–11 season show a large disparity in capacity: Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United has a capacity of 75,957 with Bloomfield Road, the home of Blackpool F.C., having a capacity of 16,220. The combined total capacity of the Premier League in the 2010–11 season is 770,477 with an average capacity of 38,523.
Stadium attendances are a significant source of regular income for Premier League clubs. For the 2009–10 season, average attendances across the league clubs were 34,215 for Premier League matches with a total aggregate attendance figure of 13,001,616. However, during the 1992–93 season the capacities of most stadia were reduced as clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the Taylor Report's 1994–95 deadline for all-seater stadia. The Premier League's record average attendance of 36,144 was set during the 2007–08 season.
Managers
Managers in the Premier League are involved in the day to day running of the team, including the training, team selection, and player acquisition. Their influence varies from club-to-club and is related to the ownership of the club and the relationship of the manager with fans. Managers are required to have a UEFA Pro License which is the final coaching qualification available, and follows the completion of the UEFA 'B' and 'A' Licences. The UEFA Pro Licence is required by every person who wishes to manage a club in the Premier League on a permanent basis (i.e. more than 12 weeks – the amount of time an unqualified caretaker manager is allowed to take control). Caretaker appointments are managers that fill the gap between a managerial departure and a new appointment. Several caretaker managers have gone on to secure a permanent managerial post after performing well as a caretaker; examples include Paul Hart at Portsmouth and David Pleat at Tottenham Hotspur.
Only one manager, Alex Ferguson, has remained in his position since the formation of the Premier League in 1992. Arsène Wenger has been in charge of Arsenal in the Premier League since 1996, while David Moyes has been Everton's manager since 2002. The most recent appointment was Gérard Houllier as manager of Aston Villa. No English manager has won the Premier League; the five managers to have won the title comprise two Scots Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United, eleven wins) and Kenny Dalglish (Blackburn Rovers, one win), a Frenchman (Arsène Wenger, Arsenal, three wins), an Italian (Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea, one win), and a Portuguese (José Mourinho, Chelsea, two wins).
The current managers in the Premier League are:
is the only manager who has remained in his job since the formation of the Premier League.|alt=The torso and head of a grey-haired white man. He is wearing spectacles and a black coat.]]
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Club
!Appointed
|-
| (caretaker) || Blackburn Rovers || 2010
|-
| || Chelsea || 2009
|-
| || Sunderland || 2009
|-
| || Bolton Wanderers || 2010
|-
| || West Bromwich Albion || 2009
|-
| || Manchester United || 1986
|-
| || West Ham United || 2010
|-
| (caretaker)|| Liverpool || 2011
|-
| || Blackpool || 2009
|-
| || Aston Villa || 2010
|-
| || Fulham || 2010
|-
| || Newcastle United || 2010
|-
| || Manchester City || 2009
|-
| || Wigan Athletic || 2009
|-
| || Wolverhampton Wanderers || 2006
|-
| || Birmingham City || 2007
|-
| || Everton || 2002
|-
| || Stoke City || 2006
|-
| || Tottenham Hotspur || 2008
|-
| || Arsenal || 1996
|}
Players
Foreign players and transfer regulations
At the inception of the Premier League in 1992–93, just eleven players named in the starting line-ups for the first round of matches were 'foreign' (players hailing from outside of the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland). By 2000–01, the number of foreign players participating in the Premier League was 36 per cent of the total. In the 2004–05 season the figure had increased to 45 per cent. On 26 December 1999, Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an entirely foreign starting line-up, and on 14 February 2005 Arsenal were the first to name a completely foreign 16-man squad for a match. By 2009 the average Premier League team had an average of 13 foreign players in their side with under 40% of the players in the Premier League being English. The effect of foreign players on the England national football team has been the subject of a long-standing debate with some such as José Luis Astiazarán, president of Spain's La Liga, suggesting that the high number of young foreign players is the reason behind the national side's lack of success at international football tournaments.
In response to concerns that clubs were increasingly passing over young British players in favour of signing less-expensive foreign players, in 1999, the Home Office tightened its rules for granting work permits to players from countries outside of the European Union. Currently a non-EU player applying for the permit must have played for his country in at least 75 per cent of its competitive 'A' team matches for which he was available for selection during the previous two years, and his country must have averaged at least 70th place in the official FIFA world rankings over the previous two years. If a player does not meet those criteria, the club wishing to sign him may appeal if they believe that he is a special talent and "able to contribute significantly to the development of the game at the top level in the UK." One area where the Premier League's player registration rules are more restrictive than those of some other football leagues, such as those of Belgium and Portugal, is that academy level non-EU players have little access to English football by law. As of the 2010–11 season, the Premier League introduced new rules mandating that each club must register a maximum 25-man squad of players aged over 21, with the squad list only allowed to be changed in transfer windows or in exceptional circumstances. This was to enable the 'home grown' rule to be enacted, whereby the League would also from 2010 require at least 8 of the named 25 man squad to be made up of 'home-grown players', defined as a player who:
Wages and transfer records
There is no team or individual salary cap in the Premier League. As a result of the increasingly lucrative television deals, player wages rose sharply following the formation of the Premier League. In the first Premier League season the average player wage was £75,000 per year, but subsequently rose by an average 20 per cent per year for a decade, £409,000 in 2000–01, £676,000 in
2003–04 season rising to £1.1 million for the 2008–09 season.
The record transfer fee for a Premier League has been broken several times over the lifetime of the competition. Prior to the start of the first Premier League season Alan Shearer became the first British player to command a transfer fee of more than £3 million. The record rose steadily in the Premier League's first few seasons, until Alan Shearer made a world record breaking £15 million move to Newcastle United in 1996. Chelsea broke the record in May 2006, when they signed Andriy Shevchenko, from AC Milan. The exact figure of the transfer fee was not disclosed, but was reported as being around £30 million. This was surpassed by Manchester City's transfer of Robinho from Real Madrid on 1 September 2008 for £32.5 million. The transfer of Robinho remains the largest ever paid by a Premier League club. The record transfer in the sport's history had a Premier League club on the selling end, with Manchester United accepting an £80 million bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.
Top scorers
Players in the Premier League compete for the Premier League Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer at the end of each season, as well as for Golden Boot awards for the first person to score 10, 20 or 30 goals in a season. They can also compete for the informal competitions of Goal of the Month and Goal of the Season. Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premier League goals with 260. Shearer finished among the top ten goal scorers in 10 out of his 14 seasons in the Premier League and won the top scorer title three times. During the 1995–96 season he became the first player to score 100 Premier League goals. Since then, 18 other players have reached the 100-goal mark.
Since the first Premier League season in 1992–93, 14 different players from 10 different clubs have won or shared the top scorers title. Thierry Henry won his third consecutive and fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005–06 season. This surpassed Shearer's mark of three titles which he won consecutively from 1994–95 through 1996–97. Other multiple winners include Michael Owen, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Didier Drogba who have won two titles each. Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer hold the record for most goals in a season (34) – for Newcastle and Blackburn respectively. Cole's record came in the 1993–94 season, while Shearer's came in 1994–95, both of which were 42-game seasons. Shearer's mark of 31 goals from a 38-game season in 1995–96 was equalled in the 2007–08 season by Cristiano Ronaldo. Five goals is the record individual scoring total for a player in a single Premier League game held by four players; Andy Cole, Alan Shearer, Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov. Only Ryan Giggs of Manchester United has scored in all 19 Premier League seasons.
Manchester United became the first team to have scored 1,000 goals in the league after Cristiano Ronaldo scored in a 4–1 defeat by Middlesbrough in the 2005–06 season. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are the only other teams to have reached the 1,000-goal mark. The highest-scoring match to date in the Premier League occurred on 29 September 2007 when Portsmouth beat Reading 7–4.
Player and manager awards
In addition to the winner's trophy and the individual
winner's medals awarded to players, the Premier League also awards the monthly
Manager of the Month and
Player of the Month awards, and the annual
Manager of the Year,
Golden Boot and the
Golden Glove awards.
10 Seasons Awards
In 2003, the Premier League celebrated its first decade by holding the 10 Seasons Awards:
Teams of the Decade:
* Domestic: David Seaman, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Steve Bruce, Stuart Pearce, David Beckham, Paul Ince, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen
* Overseas: Peter Schmeichel, Dan Petrescu, Jaap Stam, Marcel Desailly, Denis Irwin, Freddy Ljungberg, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Eric Cantona
* Overall: Peter Schmeichel, Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Marcel Desailly, Denis Irwin, David Beckham, Patrick Vieira, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Alan Shearer, Eric Cantona
Overall Player of the Decade – Alan Shearer
Domestic Player of the Decade – Alan Shearer
Overseas Player of the Decade – Eric Cantona
Goal of the Decade – David Beckham, 17 August 1996, Wimbledon v. Manchester Utd
Save of the Decade – Peter Schmeichel, 21 December 1997, Newcastle United v. Manchester Utd
Match of the Decade – Liverpool F.C. 4–3 Newcastle_United F.C., 3 April 1996
Photograph of the Decade – Phil Noble (PA), 11 September 1999, Michael Owen of Liverpool miss against Manchester United
Commentator of the Decade – Martin Tyler of Sky Sports
Quote of the Decade – "I would love it if we beat them. Love it!", Kevin Keegan, 29 April 1996
Manager of the Decade – Sir Alex Ferguson
Outstanding Contribution – Alan Shearer
Contribution to the Community – Lucas Radebe
Most Appearances – Gary Speed (352)
Goalkeeper with most clean sheets – David Seaman (130)
Most Coaching Appearances – Sir Alex Ferguson (392)
10,000th Goal – Les Ferdinand, 15 December 2001, Tottenham Hotspur v. Fulham
Top Goalscorer – Alan Shearer (204)
See also
List of English Football League managers
Football records in England
References
External links
Category:Premier League
Category:Football leagues in England
England
Category:1992 establishments
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