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. This was worth £2 billion in 2008–09. The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to an audience of 643 million viewers. In the 2010–11 season the average Premier League match attendance was 35,363, the second highest of any professional football league behind the German Bundesliga, and stadium occupancy was 92.2% full. The Premier League 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 the Spanish La Liga and German Bundesliga.

Jonjo Shelvey (born 27 February 1992) is an English footballer who plays for Liverpool as a midfielder. He has represented and also captained England at Under-19 level. He previously played for Charlton Athletic, being their youngest-ever first-team player, making his first appearance at the age of 16 years and 59 days. He made a £1.7 million move to Liverpool in the summer of 2010.

Born in Romford, London, Shelvey was in the youth setups of Arsenal and West Ham United the club he supports before moving on to Charlton. Shelvey made his breakthrough in the 2007–08 season after scoring 14 goals in 23 appearances for Charlton's Under 18s. When making his first-team debut in April 2008, against Barnsley, he became Charlton's youngest-ever player, at the age of 16 years and 59 days — beating the previous holder, Paul Konchesky.

On 3 January 2009, Shelvey became Charlton's youngest-ever goal-scorer, with a strike against Norwich City in the FA Cup, 54 days before his 17th birthday, breaking the previous record held by Peter Reeves who was aged 17 years and 100 days when he scored – also against Norwich – in May 1966, He picked the ball up just outside the box, before striking it right footed into the corner of the net. Shelvey had a lively first half, but tired as the game drew on. Despite interest from several Premier League clubs, on the morning of 27 February, his 17th birthday, Shelvey signed his first professional contract with Charlton. On 9 September he signed a one-year contract extension until 2012. He scored his first league goal in the 3–2 win against Southampton on 4 April 2009.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro,OIH, (born 5 February 1985), commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo became the most expensive footballer in history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid in a transfer worth £80 million (€93.9 million/$131.6 million). In addition, his contract with Real Madrid, in which he is paid €12 million per year, makes him one of the highest-paid footballers in the world, and his buyout clause is valued at €1 billion as per his contract.

Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for two years, before moving to C.D. Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Portuguese giants Sporting Clube de Portugal. Ronaldo's precocious talent caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who signed him for £12.24 million (€15 million) in 2003. The following season, Ronaldo won his first club honour, the FA Cup. He also played at Euro 2004 with Portugal and scored his first international goal in the opening game of the tournament against Greece, in addition to helping Portugal reach the final. He was featured in the UEFA Euro All-Star Team of this competition.

Thierry Daniel Henry (French pronunciation: [tjɛʁi ɑ̃ʁi]; born 17 August 1977) is a French footballer who plays as a striker for New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer.

Henry was born in Les Ulis, Essonne (a suburb of Paris) where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed instantly, making his professional debut in 1994. Good form led to an international call-up in 1998, after which he signed for the Serie A defending champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season playing on the wing, before joining Arsenal for £11 million in 1999.

It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world-class footballer. Despite initially struggling in the Premier League, he emerged as Arsenal's top goal-scorer for almost every season of his tenure there. Under long-time mentor and coach Arsène Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal's all-time leading scorer with 228 goals in all competitions. The Frenchman won two league titles and three FA Cups with the Gunners; he was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year twice, was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year twice, and the FWA Footballer of the Year three times. Henry spent his final two seasons with Arsenal as club captain, leading them to the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.

Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( /sʉˈdeɪkɨs/ sə-DAY-kis; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor and comedian best known for starring as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. He also has had a notable breakthrough in the film industry in 2011, starring that year in Hall Pass, Horrible Bosses, and A Good Old Fashioned Orgy.

Sudeikis was born Daniel Jason Sudeikis in Fairfax, Virginia. He is the son of Kathryn (née Wendt), formerly a travel agent at Brennco who was president of the American Society of Travel Agents, and Daniel Joseph "Dan" Sudeikis, a vice president of business development. His uncle is actor George Wendt, who is best known for his role as Norm Peterson from Cheers. His maternal grandmother's father was photographer Tom Howard. He is of Lithuanian descent on his father's side and German and Irish on his mother's.

As a child, Sudeikis moved with his family to Overland Park, Kansas, which he considers his hometown. He attended Brookridge Elementary School before transferring to Holy Cross Catholic School, both of which are located in Overland Park. He began high school at the Jesuit Rockhurst High School in 1990, later transferring due to academic reasons to Shawnee Mission West High School, where he won the state title in forensics with Drew Keiter, and was a point guard for the boys' basketball team, and graduating in 1994.