Premier League

Premier League

 The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the top tier of men's soccer in England. League (EFL) and operates on a promotion/relegation system. The season typically runs from August to May, with each team playing 38 matches (both home and away against 19 other teams). Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with occasional weekday evenings.

Origins

After enjoying great success in Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s, the late 1980s were a period of stagnation for English soccer. Stadiums collapsed, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rampant, and English clubs were banned from European competitions for five years following the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster.Since 1888, the first division of the Football League, the pinnacle of English soccer, has been the Italian lagged behind Serie A and Spain's La Liga in attendance and revenue, and several of England's top players had moved abroad.

Foundation.

At the end of the 1990-1991 season, a proposal was made to create a new league that would bring more money into the soccer world, and on July 17, 1991, a Founding Members Agreement signed by the top league clubs set the basic principles for the creation of the FA Premier League. The newly created Top League was to be commercially independent of the Football Association and the Football League, and the FA Premier League was to be given a license to negotiate its own broadcasting and sponsorship deals. It was argued at the time that the increased revenue would allow English clubs to compete with European teams.

Competition

There are 20 clubs in the Premier League, and during one season (August-May) each club plays 38 matches, twice against other clubs (in a two-round-robin format), once at their home stadium and once at the opponents' stadium. A win is three points, a draw is one point, and a loss is no point. Rankings are determined in the following order: total points, goal difference, and points. If there is still a tie, the teams will be considered to be in the same position. In the event of a tie for the championship, relegation, or qualification for another competition, the results of the head-to-head match between the tied teams will be taken into account (in the order of points scored in the match between the teams and away goals scored in that match). If there is still a tie, a playoff will be held on a neutral site to determine the standings.

Promotion and Relegation

A promotion/relegation system exists between the Premier League and the EFL Championship. The bottom three teams from the Premier League are relegated to the Championship, the top two teams from the Championship are promoted to the Premier League, and one team is promoted through a playoff between the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth place clubs. In 1995, the number of clubs was reduced from 22 to 20, four teams were relegated, and only two were promoted. The Top League was expanded to 22 teams at the start of the 1991-92 season, the year before the establishment of the Premier League.

On June 8, 2006, FIFA requested that the major European leagues, including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga, reduce their size to 18 teams by the start of the 2007-08 season. The Premier League, in turn, announced its intention to resist such a reduction. In the end, the 2007-08 season was restarted with 20 teams.