Football League First Division (1892-1992)

The football league first division                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               The Football league first division 1892-1992 was the top flight in english football it fist began i 1888 when  Aston Villa director Charlie Fossey decide to creat a compitition were the best teams in the country could play each other and the one team with the most wins was the best team in england. It originally consisted of a single division of 12 clubs (Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke (now Stoke City), West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers), simply known as The Football League. When the League admitted additional members from the rival Football Alliance in 1892, it was split into two divisions; the original League was expanded (the two best Alliance members joining) and renamed the First Division, while the rest of the Alliance members were admitted into the Second Division.

Size
The First Division initially consisted of 12 founder clubs; since then it has undergone a series of expansions as football became more popular and the number of quality teams increased. There were also a series of contractions in the late 1980s, although they were soon reversed, as follows:

† as the second tier of professional football in England (from 1992)

The Trophy
The English Football League Championship trophy, designed and manufactured by Vaughtons of Birmingham in 1890, is the same one that England's champion team received until the FA Premier League came into existence in the summer of 1992.

Known sometimes as “The Lady” because the lid bears the figure of a woman, the trophy has been presented to some of English football’s legendary teams. They include the great Huddersfield Town triple title winners of the 1920s and the Arsenal teams that won five titles in eight seasons in the 1930s. Manchester United’s Busby Babes carried off the trophy in 1956 and 1957 before the Munich air disaster, and Liverpool collected the trophy 11 times in 18 seasons between 1972/73 and 1989/90. The last team to collect the trophy as English champions were Leeds United in 1991/92. Since then, as the prize of the second tier, no team can repeat a year with it due to being promoted to the Premier League.

The current holders are Newcastle United, who celebrated winning the Championship in April 2010.