Sports league

A sports league is a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and compete on weekends; at its most complex, it can be an international professional league making large amounts of money and involving dozens of teams and thousands of players.

Terminology

Synonyms

In many cases, organizations that function as leagues are described using a different term, such as association, conference, leaderboard, or series. This is especially common in individual sports, although the term "league" is sometimes used in amateur individual sports such as golf.

The term "league" is also sometimes applied to competitions that would more traditionally be called tournaments, such as the UEFA Champions League, which is organized with multiple small round-robin competitions followed by a single elimination tournament to choose an overall winner.

Leagues and league systems

Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew (currently stylized as Mtn Dew in the United States) is a carbonated soft drink brand produced and owned by PepsiCo. The original formula was invented in 1940 by Tennessee beverage bottlers Barney and Ally Hartman. A revised formula was created by Bill Bridgforth in 1958. The rights to this formula were obtained by the Tip Corporation of Marion, Virginia. William H. "Bill" Jones of the Tip corporation further refined the formula, launching that version of Mountain Dew in 1961. On August 27, 1964, the Mountain Dew brand and production rights were acquired from Tip by the Pepsi-Cola company, at which point distribution expanded more widely across the United States and Canada.

Between the 1940s and 1980s, there was just one variety of Mountain Dew, which was citrus-flavored and caffeinated in most markets (see Caffeine-Free Mountain Dew below). Diet Mountain Dew was introduced in 1988, followed by Mountain Dew Red, which was introduced and subsequently discontinued in 1988. In 2001, a cherry flavor called Code Red debuted. This product line extension trend has continued, with expansion into specialty, limited time production, region-specific, and retailer-specific (Taco Bell, 7-Eleven) variations of Mountain Dew.

Premier League

The Premier League is an English professional league for men's 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. Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify.

The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each (playing each team in the league twice, home and away), totalling 380 matches in the season. Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; others during weekday evenings. It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and thus officially known as the Barclays Premier League and is colloquially known as the Premiership. Outside the UK it is commonly referred to as the English Premier League (EPL).

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 deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively. The league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion.

Football Weekly

Football Weekly is a podcast about football, hosted by The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Originally provided weekly (as its name suggests), its popularity led to a mid-weekly spinoff, Football Weekly Extra. Football Weekly airs on Mondays during the European football season, after the weekend's fixtures, while Football Weekly Extra airs on Thursdays. During the Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014 tournaments the podcast aired daily.

It is presented by James Richardson, who is joined by various Guardian journalists and correspondents, most regularly Barry Glendenning. Despite being an English production, the show takes a notably Eurocentric view of world football matters. Particular emphasis is placed on the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

Origin and listening figures

The podcast began on 11 May 2006 as The World Cup Show, produced daily throughout the 2006 World Cup, and returned during the season under its new name on 29 August 2006, due to popular demand.

League

League may refer to:

See also