premier league relegation

the premier league (often referred to as thebarclays premiership for sponsorship reasons or as thebarclays english premier league internationally)is a league competition for football clubs located at the top of the english footballleague system (above the football league), making it england's primary football competition.it is the world's most watched sporting league, and the most lucrative football league. itis widely regarded as one of the best leagues in the world along with spain's la liga anditaly's serie a. the fa premier league (as it was then known)was formed in 1992 from the clubs in the top division of the football league, and is currentlycontested by twenty clubs. in a total of fourteen seasons, the title has been won by only fourteams: arsenal, blackburn rovers, chelsea

and manchester united. of these, the mostsuccessful is manchester united, who have won the title eight times and are the onlyteam to have won the title three consecutive times. the current premier league championsare chelsea, who won their second consecutive title in the 2005--06 season.the fa women's premier league, more specifically the national division, is the premiership'sfemale counterpart, as most of its clubs are affiliated with premiership and football leaguesides; however, the league is semi-professional and has a much lower profile than the men'sgame even within its national boundaries. contents • 1 historyo 1.1 origins

o 1.2 establishment• 2 structure • 3 competition format and sponsorshipo 3.1 competition  3.1.1 qualification for european competitionso 3.2 sponsorship • 4 finances• 5 media coverage o 5.1 englando 5.2 worldwide • 6 playerso 6.1 transfer records • 7 premiership-football league gulf• 8 premier league clubs o 8.1 premier league championso 8.2 current premier league members o 8.3 former premier league members• 9 top scorers

• 10 see also• 11 notes • 12 external linkshistory premier league championsseason winner 2005--06 chelsea2004--05 chelsea 2003--04 arsenal2002--03 manchester united 2001--02 arsenal2000--01 manchester united 1999--00 manchester united1998-99 manchester united 1997--98 arsenal1996--97 manchester united 1995--96 manchester united1994--95 blackburn rovers

1993--94 manchester united1992--93 manchester united further information: ]origins for more details on this topic, see historyof english football the 1980s had marked a low point for englishfootball. stadiums were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganismwas rife,and english clubs were banned from european competition following the events at heyselin 1985. the football league first division, which had been the top level of english footballsince 1888, was well behind foreign leagues such as italy'sserie a and spain's la ligain 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 beenhugely successful in the 1990 fifa world cup, losing the semi-finals on penalties. uefa,european football's governing body, lifted the ban on english clubs playing in europeancompetitions in 1990 and the taylor report on stadium safety standards, which proposedexpensive upgrades to all-seater stadiums, was published in january of that year.television money had also become much more important; the football league had receivedonly â£6.3 million for a two-year agreement in 1986, but when that deal was renewed in1988, the price had risen to â£44m over four years. the 1988 negotiations were the firstsigns of a breakaway league; ten clubs threatened to leave and form a "super league" but wereeventually persuaded to stay. as stadiums

improved and match attendance and revenuesrose, the country's top teams again considered leaving the football league in order to capitaliseon the growing influx of money being pumped into the sport.establishment the league held its first season in 1992--93and was originally composed of 22 clubs. the first ever premiership goal was scored bybrian deane against manchester united in a 2--1 win for sheffield united. due to insistenceby fifa, the international governing body of football, that domestic leagues reducethe number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when fourteams were relegated from the league and only two teams were promoted. on 8 june, 2006,fifa requested that all major european leagues,

including italy's serie a and spain's la ligabe reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007--08 season. the premier league respondedby announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.the league changed its name from the 'fa premier league' to simply the 'premier league' onfebruary 12 2007. structurefile:fa premier league trophy.jpg premier league trophythe premier league is operated as a corporation that is owned by the 20 member clubs. eachclub is considered a shareholderwith one vote each on such issues as rule changes and contracts.the clubs elect a chairman, chief executive, and board of directors to oversee the dailyoperations of the league. the football association

is not directly involved in the day-to-dayoperations of the premier league, but has veto power as a special shareholder duringthe 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 forum, the number ofclubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to uefa coefficients. the european club forumis responsible for electing three members to uefa's club competitions committee, whichis involved in the operations of uefa competitions such as the champions league and uefa cup.competition format and sponsorship competitionthere are 20 clubs in the premier league. during the course of a season (which lastsfrom august to may) each club plays the others

twice, once at their home stadium and onceat that of their opponents for a total of 38 games for each club, with a total of 380games in each season. 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 differenceand then goals scored. at the end of each season, the club with the most points is crownedas champion. if points are equal the goal difference and goals scored then determinesthe winner. if still equal they are deemed to occupy the same position; if the champions,teams for relegation or qualification for other competitions thus cannot be decided,a series of play-off matches are played between the affected teams at neutral venues (thisis yet to occur). the three lowest placed

teams are relegated into the football leaguechampionship and the top two teams from the championship, together with the winner ofplay-offs involving the third to sixth placed championship clubs, are promoted in theirplace. qualification for european competitions bolton wanderers and fulham compete in thefa cup. the top four teams in the premiership qualifyfor the uefa champions league, with the top two teams directly entering the group phase.the third and fourth placed teams enter the competition at the third qualifying roundand must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. the fifthplaced team automatically qualifies for the

uefa cup, and the sixth and seventh placedteams can also qualify, depending on what happens in the two domestic cup competitions.if the fa cup champions and runners-up both finish in the top five of the premier league,the fa cup's uefa cup spot goes to the sixth placed team in the league. if the league cupis won by a team that has already qualified for europe, the league cup's uefa cup spotalso goes to the next highest placed team in the league (unlike the fa cup spot, itis never transferred to the losing finalist). the highest placed team that has not qualifiedfor the uefa cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the uefa intertoto cup, thewinner of which is automatically entered into the uefa cup. the premiership is third inthe uefa rankings of european leagues based

on their performances in european competitionsover a five year period, behind spain's la liga and italy's serie a.sponsorship since 1993, the premier league has been sponsored.the sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. so far, all sponsorshave referred to the competition as the 'premiership'. the list below details who the sponsors havebeen and what they called the competition: • 1993--2001: carling (fa carling premiership)• 2001--2004: barclaycard (barclaycard premiership) • 2004--2010: barclays (barclays premiership)finances the premiership boasts some of the best playersin the world, including many from outside england. the premier league is the most lucrativefootball league in the world, with total club

revenues of over â£1.3 billion in 2004--05according to deloitte, more than 40% above its nearest competitor, italy's serie a. revenueswill increase substantially by the 2007--08 season, when new media rights deals start(see below). based on january 2007 exchange rates, â£1.3 billion converts to annual leaguerevenue of about us$2.51 billion. this figure is the fourth highest for any sports leagueworldwide, behind the annual revenues of the three most popular north american major sportsleagues (the national football league, major league baseball and the national basketballassociation), but slightly ahead of the national hockey league. considering that the premierleague has only 20 clubs, and depending on exchange rates and what is defined as revenue,the premier league's average per-team revenues

are very close to, and could be ranked aheadof, the nba's. the 2005--06 average attendance of 33,875for league matches is the fourth highest of any domestic professional sports league inthe world, ahead of serie a and la liga, but behind the german bundesliga. this representsan increase of over 60% from the average attendance of 21,126 recorded in the league's first season(1992-93). however, during the 1992-93 season the capacities of most stadiums were reducedas clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the taylor report's 1994-95 deadlinefor all-seater stadiums. the 2005-06 figure is lower than the premier league's recordaverage attendance of 35,464, set during the 2002-03 season.media coverage

englandsee also: english football on television a 2004 match between manchester united andtottenham hotspur television has played a major role in thehistory of the premier league. the money from television rights has been vital in helpingto create excellence both on and off the field. the league's decision to assign broadcastingrights 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 chargingfans to watch live televised football. however a combination of sky's marketing strategy,the quality of premier league football and the public's appetite for the game has seenthe value of the premier league's tv rights

soar. it also saw the creation of regularlyscheduled games on sundays and mondays, taking a page from the national football league'ssunday night and monday night games. in both cases, the featured tv games are normallythe only ones played at that time. the premier league sells its television rightson a collective basis. this is in contrast to some european leagues, includingserie aand la liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to a much highershare of the total income going to the top few clubs. the money is divided into threeparts: half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basisbased on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottomclub, and equal steps all the way down the

table; the final quarter is paid out as facilitiesfees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs receiving the largest sharesof this. the income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs.the first sky television rights agreement was worth â£191 million over five seasons.the next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997--98 season, rose to â£670 millionover four seasons. the premier league's current â£1.024 billion deal with bskyb runs overthe course of three seasons from august 2004. the league brought in â£320 million from thesale of its international rights for the three-year period from 2004-05 to 2006-07. it sold therights itself on a territory-by-territory basis. sky's monopoly was broken from august2006 when setanta sports was awarded rights

to show two out of the six packages of matchesavailable. this occurred following an insistence by the european commission that exclusiverights should not be sold to one television company. sky and setanta paid a total of â£1.7billion, a two-thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had beenwidely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapidgrowth. the bbc has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons(on match of the day) for â£171.6 million, a 63% increase on the â£105 million it paidfor the previous three year period. sky and bt have agreed to jointly pay â£84.3 millionfor delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in fullon television and over the internet) in most

cases for a period of 50 hours after 10pmon matchday. overseas television rights fetched â£625 million, nearly double the previouscontract, and there was also a smaller deal for mobile phone rights. the total raisedfrom these deals is more than â£2.7 billion, giving premiership clubs an average mediaincome from league games of â£45 million a year from 2007 to 2010. they also receivesmaller amounts from media rights for the domestic cups and in some cases substantialamounts from media rights for european matches. the tv rights agreement between the premierleague and sky has faced accusations of being a cartel, and a number of court cases havearisen as a result. an investigation by the office of fair trading in 2002 found bskybto be dominant within the pay tv sports market,

but concluded that there were insufficientgrounds for the claim that bskyb had abused its dominant position. in july 1999 the premierleague's method of selling rights collectively for all member clubs was investigated by theuk restrictive practices court, who concluded that the agreement was not contrary to thepublic interest. worldwidepromoted as "the greatest show on earth", the premier league is the world's most popularand most watched sporting league, followed worldwide by over a billion people. it iswidely watched overseas, with matches being shown in 195 countries, generally on networksowned and/or controlled by newscorp, which owns bskyb and thus the primary uk and irelandtv rights. newscorp has purchased ad space

at some premier league stadiums to promotefox soccer channel, which is the company's us broadcaster (as in britain, the rightsare shared with setanta sport). the premier league is particularly popular in asia, whereit is the most widely distributed sports programme. in the people's republic of china, matchesattract television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreignsport. due to this popularity, the league has held two pre-season tournaments in asia,the only premier league affiliated tournaments ever to have been held outside england. injuly 2003 the asian cup was held in malaysia, featuring three premiership clubs and themalaysia national team. in 2005 the asia trophy featured a similar format, held in thailandand featuring the thailand national team competing

against three english clubs — everton, manchestercity andbolton wanderers, the latter of whom won the trophy. radio coverage of the premierleague can also be heard in the united states on sirius satellite radio.the fa has faced difficulty fighting internet copyright infringement. in an effort to stopthe broadcasting of streams of live games on the net they have hired netresult, a companythat specializes on protecting trademark rights on online. although netresult has cut downthe number of site offering free streams some see their actions as heavy handed. the britishbroadcasting corporation reported that netresult on behalf of the premier league - emailedan official dmca warning to the website www.footyclips.com, an independent site that links to youtubevideos, that forced its temporary closure.

playersat the inception of the premier league in 1992--93, just eleven players named in thestarting line-ups for the first round of matches were 'foreign' (players hailing from outsideof the united kingdom or republic of ireland). by 2000-01, the number of foreign playersparticipating in the premiership was 36%. in the 2004-5season the figure had increasedto 45%. on 26 december 1999, chelsea became the first premier league side to field anentirely foreign starting line-up, and on14 february 2005 arsenal were the first to namea completely foreign 16-man squad for a match. despite being an english competition, no englishmanager has ever actually won the premier league. only four different managers havewon the title as of 2006: twoscots (sir alex

ferguson, manchester united and kenny dalglish,blackburn rovers), a frenchman (arsã¨ne wenger, arsenal) and a portuguese (josã© mourinho,chelsea). two english managers have achieved second place in the premiership. they areron atkinson (aston villa in 1993) and kevin keegan (newcastle united in 1996).over 260 foreign players compete in the league, and 101 players from england's domestic leaguescompeted in the 2002 fifa world cup in korea and japan. at the 2006 world cup, the premierleague was the most represented league with more than eighty players in the competition,including 21 of the 23 players inengland's squad.as a result of the increasingly lucrative television deals, player wages rose sharplyfollowing the formation of the premier league.

in the first premier league season the averageplayer wage was â£75,000 per year, but subsequently rose by an average 20% per year for a decade,peaking in the 2003-04 season, when the annual salary of the average premier league playerwas â£900,000. transfer recordsthe first few seasons of the premier league saw the record transfer fee paid by englishclubs broken almost every season, a practice that resumed in the first few years of thetwenty-first century. • â£3.75million in june 1993 (roy keane,nottingham forest to manchester united) • â£5million in july 1994 (chris sutton,norwich city to blackburn rovers) • â£7million in january 1995 (andy cole,newcastle united to manchester united)

• â£7.5million in june 1995 (dennis bergkamp,inter milan to arsenal) • â£8.5million in july 1995 (stan collymore,nottingham forest to liverpool) • â£15million — world record — in july1996 (alan shearer, blackburn rovers to newcastle united)• â£18million in november 2000 (rio ferdinand, west ham to leeds utd)• â£19million in may 2001 (ruud van nistelrooy, psv eindhoven to manchester united)• â£28.1million in july 2001 (juan sebastiã¡n verã³n, lazio to manchester united)• â£29million in july 2002 (rio ferdinand, leeds utd to manchester united)• â£30-56 million in june 2006 (andriy shevchenko, a.c. milan to chelsea)none of the first five transfer records lasted

more than one year — dennis bergkamp's lasteda mere month. alan shearer's â£15-million record lasted nearly five years in england,although his worldwide record was broken within a year. rio ferdinand's record lasted nearlyfour years, before it was marginally broken in 2006 by the summer transfer of andriy shevchenkofrom a.c. milan to chelsea for an unknown figure between 30 and 56 million pounds. thecreation of the premier league, therefore, has seen the record fee paid by english clubsbroken 11 times in under 15 years. premiership-football league gulfmain article: premiership-football league gulfsince its split with the football league, many established clubs in the premier leaguehave managed to distance themselves from their

counterparts in lower leagues. owing in largepart to the disparity in revenue from television rights between the leagues, many newly promotedteams have found it difficult to avoid relegation in their first season in the premier league.in every season except 2001--02 at least one premier league newcomer has been relegatedback to the football league. in 1997--98 all three promoted clubs were relegated at theend of the season. the premier league distributes a small portionof its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachutepayments". starting with the 2006--07 season, these payments are in the amount of â£6.5million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues. though designed to helpteams adjust to the loss of television revenues

(the average premier league team receivesâ£28 million while the average football league championship club receives â£1 million), criticsmaintain that the payments actually widen the gap between teams that have reached thepremiership and those that have not, leading to the common occurrence of teams "bouncingback" soon after their relegation. if a team has "bounced back", they are generally saidto have bouncebackability, a term commonly used by football fans and created by the thencrystal palace manager iain dowie. some teams get promoted and relegated so often they'rereferred to as "yo-yo" teams. premier league clubspremier league champions for a list of winners and runners-up of thepremier league since its inception, and top

scorers for each season, see english footballchampions. current premier league members locations of the 20 premiership clubs in the2006--2007 season. the following twenty clubs will compete inthe fa premier league during the 2006-07 season. club finishing positionin 2005--06 first season in top division first season ofcurrent spell in top divisionarsenal 4th 1904--05 1919--20 aston villa 16th 1888--89 1988--89blackburn rovers 6th 1888--89 2001--02 bolton wanderers 8th 1888--89 2001--02charlton athletic 13th 1936--37 2000--01

chelsea 1st 1907--08 1989--90everton 11th 1888--89 1954--55 fulham 12th 1949--50 2001--02liverpool 3rd 1894--95 1962--63 manchester city 15th 1899--1900 2002--03manchester united 2nd 1892--93 1975--76 middlesbrough 14th 1902--03 1998--99newcastle united 7th 1898--99 1993--94 portsmouth 17th 1927--28 2003--04reading 1st in the championship 2006--07 2006--07 sheffield united 2nd in the championship 1893--942006--07 tottenham hotspur 5th 1909--10 1978--79watford 3rd in the championship (promoted after winning play-off) 1982--832006-07 west ham united 9th 1923--24 2005--06wigan athletic 10th 2005--06 2005--06

former premier league membersa total of forty clubs have played in the premier league between 1992 and 2006. twoother clubs were signatories to the original agreement that created the premier league,but were relegated prior to the inaugural premiership season and have never returnedto the top flight. for a list of all clubs past and present seelist of fa premier leagueclubs. seven clubs have been members of the premiershipfor every season (15) since its inception. this elite group includes arsenal, aston villa,chelsea, everton,liverpool, manchester united, and tottenham hotspur. newcastle united has next longest streak at 14 seasons,since being promoted to the premier league in 1993.

top scorersall-time top scorers in the premier league (please note these are just for the premiership)rank player goals 1 alan shearer 2602 andy cole 188 3 thierry henry 1744 robbie fowler 162 5 les ferdinand 1496 teddy sheringham 147 7 jimmy floyd hasselbaink 1278 michael owen 125 9 dwight yorke 12210 ian wright 113 as of 25 february 2007 (bold notes playersstill in premier league). dwight yorke is still in english football,but plays for championship side sunderland.

further information: ]former blackburn rovers and newcastle united striker alan shearer holds the record formost premiership goals with 260. shearer finished among the top ten goal scorers in 10 out ofhis 14 seasons in the premier league and won the top scorer title three times.since the first premier league season in 1992--93, eleven different players have won or sharedthe top scorers title. thierry henry won his third consecutive and fourth overall scoringtitle by scoring 27 goals in the 2005--06 season. this surpassed shearer's mark of threetitles which he won consecutively from 1994--95 through 1996-97. other multiple winners includemichael owen and jimmy floyd hasselbaink who have won two titles each. shearer and andrewcole hold the record for most goals in a season

(34) which they scored in seasons that lasted42 rather than 38 games. shearer's mark of 31 goals in 1995--96 is the highest totalin a 38 game season. manchester united became the first team tohave scored 1,000 goals in this league aftercristiano ronaldo scored, in a 4--1 defeat by middlesbrough,in the 2005--06 season, having been the first team to have conceded a premiership goal followingthe league's inception. manchester united are still the only club to have scored 1,000goals.