Premier League

This article is about the English association football league. For other uses, see Premier League (disambiguation).

Premier League
Founded20 February 1992; 32 years ago (1992-02-20)
CountryEngland[z 1]
ConfederationUEFA
Number of teams20 (since 1995–96)[z 2]
Level on pyramid1
Relegation toEFL Championship
Domestic cup(s)
League cup(s)EFL Cup
International cup(s)
Current championsManchester City (8th title)
(2023–24)
Most championshipsManchester United (13 titles)
Most appearancesGareth Barry (653)
Top goalscorerAlan Shearer (260)
TV partners
Websitepremierleague.com
Current: 2024–25 Premier League

The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL). Seasons usually run from August to May, with each team playing 38 matches: two against each other team, one home and one away.[1] Most games are played on weekend afternoons, with occasional weekday evening fixtures.[2]

The competition was founded as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992, following the decision of First Division (the top-tier league from 1888 until 1992) clubs to break away from the English Football League. However, teams may still be relegated to and promoted from the EFL Championship. The Premier League is a corporation managed by a chief executive, with member clubs acting as shareholders.[3] The Premier League takes advantage of a £5 billion television rights deal, with Sky and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 128 and 32 games, respectively.[4][5] This deal will rise to £6.7 billion for the four seasons from 2025 to 2029.[6] The league is projected to earn $7.2 billion in overseas TV rights from 2022 to 2025.[7] Clubs were apportioned central payment revenues of £2.4 billion in 2016–17, with a further £343 million in solidarity payments to EFL clubs.[8]

The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes, with a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.[9][10] For the 2023–24 season, the average Premier League match attendance was 38,375,[11] second to the German Bundesliga's 39,512,[12] whilst aggregated attendance across all matches was the highest of any association football league at 14,508,981,[13] and most stadium occupancies are near capacity.[14] As of 2023, the Premier League is ranked first in the UEFA coefficient rankings based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons, ahead of Spain's La Liga.[15] The English top-flight has produced the second-highest number of European Cup / UEFA Champions League titles, with a record six English clubs having won fifteen European championships in total.[16]

Fifty-one clubs have competed in the Premier League since its inception in 1992: 49 from England and two from Wales. Seven of them have won the title: Manchester United (13), Manchester City (8), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (3), Blackburn Rovers (1), Leicester City (1), and Liverpool (1).[17] Manchester City hold the distinction of having won the most successive titles, with four. Only six clubs have played in every season to date: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur.[18]


Cite error: There are <ref group=z> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=z}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "When will goal-line technology be introduced?". Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. The total number of matches can be calculated using the formula n*(n-1) where n is the total number of teams.
  2. ^ "Why is there a Saturday football blackout in the UK for live streams & TV broadcasts?". Goal India. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  3. ^ Smith, Rory; Draper, Kevin; Panja, Tariq (9 February 2020). "The Long Search to Fill Soccer's Biggest, Toughest Job". The New York Times. London. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  4. ^ "English Premier League broadcast rights rise to $12 billion". Sky News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Sky and BT pay less in new £4.46bn Premier League football deal". Sky News. London. Archived from the original on 19 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Premier League agrees record £6.7bn domestic TV rights deal". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  7. ^ "U.S. Deal Vaults Premier League International Rights Over Domestic Rights". Front Office Sports. 15 February 2022. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  8. ^ "Premier League value of central payments to Clubs" (Press release). London: The Football Association Premier League Limited. 1 June 2017. Archived from the original on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  9. ^ "History and time are key to power of football, says Premier League chief". The Times. 3 July 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
  10. ^ "Playing the game: The soft power of sport". British Council. Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  11. ^ "English Premier League Performance Stats – 2023–24". ESPN. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  12. ^ Bundesliga 2024/24 » Zuschauer (in German) weltfussball.de, Spectator figures 2023–24 . Retrieved 23 October 2024
  13. ^ "English Premier League Performance Stats – 2018–19". ESPN. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  14. ^ Chard, Henry. "Your ground's too big for you! Which stadiums were closest to capacity in England last season?". Sky Sports. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  15. ^ uefa.com (6 May 2021). "Member associations – Country coefficients – UEFA.com". Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  16. ^ O, Gerard. "Champions League: What Country Has Been the Most Successful". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Premier League Competition Format & History | Premier League". Archived from the original on 24 July 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  18. ^ "How long have Everton been in top-flight, which other clubs have never gone down". 14 May 2023. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.