Premier League

Premier League
Country	England Wales
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	20 February 1992
Number of teams	20
Relegation to	Championship
Level on pyramid	1
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup League Cup
UEFA cup(s)	Champions League Europa League
Current champions	Liverpool (1st title) (2019-20)
TV	Sky Sports BT Sport (live matches) Sky Sports BBC (highlights)
Website	Official website
2020-21

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 English Football League (EFL; known as "The Football League" before 2016–17). 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 colloquially known as the Premiership and 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.

The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. In the 2014–15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000, second highest of any professional football league behind the Bundesliga's 43,500. Most stadium occupancies are near capacity. The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons.

While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title: Manchester United (13), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (3), Manchester City (4), Blackburn Rovers (1), Leicester City (1) and Liverpool (1). The current champions are Liverpool, who won the title in 2019-20 Premier League

2019–20 season

The following 20 clubs will compete in the Premier League during the 2019–20 season.

Club	Position in 2019-20 Premier League	First season in top division	First season in Premier League	Seasons in top division	Seasons in Premier League	First season of current spell in top division	Top division titles	Last top division title
Arsenala, b	8th&0000000000000005.000000	1904–05	1992–93	103	28	1919–20	13	2003–04
Aston Villaa, c	17th	1888–89	1992–93	106	25	2019–20	7	1980–81
Fulham F.C.	4th in the Championship and winner of Premier League Playoff&0000000000000014.000000	2015–16	2015–16	5	5	2015–16	0	n/a
Brighton & Hove Albionb	&0000000000000017.00000015th	1979–80	2017–18	7	3	2017–18	0	n/a
Burnleyc	&0000000000000015.00000010th	1888–89	2009–10	57	6	2016–17	2	1959–60
Chelseaa, b	4th	1907–08	1992–93	85	28	1989–90	6	2016–17
Crystal Palacea	&0000000000000012.00000014th	1969–70	1992–93	20	11	2013–14	0	n/a
Evertona, b, c	12th&0000000000000008.000000	1888–89	1992–93	117	28	1954–55	9	1986–87
Leicester City	5th	1908–09	1994–95	51	14	2014–15	1	2015–16
Liverpoola, b	1st	1894–95	1992–93	105	28	1962–63	18	1989–90
Manchester Citya	2nd&0000000000000001.000000	1899–1900	1992–93	91	23	2002–03	6	2018–19
Manchester Uniteda, b	3r&0000000000000006.000000d	1892–93	1992–93	95	28	1975–76	20	2012–13
Newcastle United	&0000000000000013.00000013th	1898–99	1993–94	88	25	2017–18	4	1926–27
Leeds United	1st in the Championship	1972–73	1992–93	27	9	2019–20	0	n/a
Sheffield Uniteda	9th	1893–94	1992–93	61	4	2019–20	3	1897–98
Southamptona	&0000000000000016.00000011th	1966–67	1992–93	43	21	2012–13	0	n/a
Tottenham Hotspura, b	6th&0000000000000004.000000	1909–10	1992–93	85	28	1978–79	2	1960–61
West Bromwich Albion F.C.	2nd in the Championship	1982–83	1999–2000	13	7	2015–16	0	n/a
West Ham United	&0000000000000010.00000016th	1923–24	1993–94	62	24	2012–13	0	n/a
Wolverhampton Wanderersc	&0000000000000007.0000007th	1888–89	2003–04	65	6	2018–19	3	1958–59

• Newcastle United, Norwich City and Aston Villa were relegated to the Championship for the 2016–17 season, while Burnley, Middlesbrough and Hull City, as winners, runners-up and play-off final winners respectively, were promoted from the 2015–16 Championship season.
• AFC Bournemouth, Stoke and Swansea are the only clubs to have remained in the Premier League since their first promotion, having played 2, 8 and 5 seasons (out of 25) respectively.

^a: Founding member of the Premier League
^b: Never been relegated from Premier League
^c: One of the original 12 Football League teams
^d: Club based in Wales

Sponsorship

From 1993 to 2016, the Premier League had title sponsorship rights sold to two companies; Barclays was the most recent title sponsor, having sponsored the Premier League from 2001 through 2016 (until 2004, the title sponsorship was held through its Barclaycard brand before shifting to its main banking brand in 2004).

Period	Sponsor	Name
1992–1993	No sponsor	FA Premier League
1993–2001	Carling	FA Carling Premiership
2001–2004	Barclaycard	FA Barclaycard Premiership
2004–2007	Barclays	FA Barclays Premiership
2008–2016		Barclays Premier League
2016–	No sponsor	Premier League

Barclays' deal with the Premier League expired at the end of the 2015–16 season. The FA announced on 4 June 2015 that it would not pursue any further title sponsorship deals for the Premier League, arguing that they wanted to build a "clean" brand for the competition more in line with those of major U.S. sports leagues.

As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Premier League has a number of official partners and suppliers. The official ball supplier for the league is Nike who have had the contract since the 2000–01 season when they took over from Mitre.

Managers

See also List of Premier League managers

Managers in the Premier League are involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection and player acquisition. Their influence varies from club-to-club and is related to the ownership of the club and the relationship of the manager with fans. Managers are required to have a UEFA Pro Licence which is the final coaching qualification available, and follows the completion of the UEFA 'B' and 'A' Licences. The UEFA Pro Licence is required by every person who wishes to manage a club in the Premier League on a permanent basis (i.e., more than 12 weeks, the amount of time an unqualified caretaker manager is allowed to take control). Caretaker appointments are managers that fill the gap between a managerial departure and a new appointment. Several caretaker managers have gone on to secure a permanent managerial post after performing well as a caretaker, including Paul Hart at Portsmouth and David Pleat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsène Wenger is the longest-serving manager, having been in charge of Arsenal in the Premier League from 1996 to his retirement at the conclusion of the 2017–18 season, and holds the record for most matches managed in the Premier League with 828, all with Arsenal. He broke the record set by Alex Ferguson, who had managed 810 matches with Manchester United from the Premier League's inception to his retirement at the end of the 2012–13 season. Ferguson was in charge of Manchester United from November 1986 until his retirement at the end of the 2012–13 season, meaning he was manager for the last five years of the old Football League First Division and all of the first 21 seasons of the Premier League.

During the 2019–20 season, 6 managers have been sacked as of 28 December: Javi Gracia and Quique Sánchez Flores of Watford, Mauricio Pochettino of Tottenham Hotspur, Unai Emery of Arsenal, Marco Silva of Everton and Manuel Pellegrini of West Ham United.

There have been several studies into the reasoning behind, and effects of, managerial sackings. Most famously, Professor Sue Bridgewater of the University of Liverpool and Dr. Bas ter Weel of the University of Amsterdam, performed two separate studies which helped to explain the statistics behind managerial sackings. Bridgewater's study found clubs generally sack their managers upon dropping below an average of one point per match.

The current managers in the Premier League are:

Current managers

Nat.	Name	Club	Appointed	Time as manager
England !	Howe, EddieEddie Howe	Bournemouth	02012-10-12-12 October 2012	&0000000252460800.0000008 years, 0 days
England !	Dyche, SeanSean Dyche	Burnley	02012-10-30-30 October 2012	&0000000252460800.0000008 years, 0 days
Germany !	Klopp, JurgenJürgen Klopp	Liverpool	02015-10-08-8 October 2015	&0000000157788000.0000005 years, 0 days
England !	Wilder, ChrisChris Wilder	Sheffield United	02016-05-12-12 May 2016	&0000000126230400.0000004 years, 0 days
Spain !	Guardiola, PepPep Guardiola	Manchester City	02016-07-01-1 July 2016	&0000000126230400.0000004 years, 0 days
Germany !	Farke, DanielDaniel Farke	Norwich City	02017-05-25-25 May 2017	&0000000094672800.0000003 years, 0 days
Portugal !	Espirito Santo, NunoNuno Espírito Santo	Wolverhampton Wanderers	02017-05-31-31 May 2017	&0000000094672800.0000003 years, 0 days
England !	Hodgson, RoyRoy Hodgson	Crystal Palace	02017-09-12-12 September 2017	&0000000094672800.0000003 years, 0 days
England !	Smith, DeanDean Smith	Aston Villa	02018-10-10-10 October 2018	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
Austria !	Hasenhuttl, RalphRalph Hasenhüttl	Southampton	02018-12-05-5 December 2018	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Norway !	Solskjaer, Ole GunnarOle Gunnar Solskjær	Manchester United	02018-12-19-19 December 2018	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Northern Ireland !	Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers	Leicester City	02019-02-26-26 February 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
England !	Potter, GrahamGraham Potter	Brighton & Hove Albion	02019-05-20-20 May 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
England !	Lampard, FrankFrank Lampard	Chelsea	02019-07-04-4 July 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
England !	Bruce, SteveSteve Bruce	Newcastle United	02019-07-17-17 July 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Portugal !	Mourinho, JoséJosé Mourinho	Tottenham Hotspur	02019-11-20-20 November 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
England !	Pearson, NigelNigel Pearson	Watford	02019-12-06-6 December 2019	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
Spain !	Arteta, MikelMikel Arteta	Arsenal	02019-12-20-20 December 2019	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
Italy !	Ancelotti, CarloCarlo Ancelotti	Everton	02019-12-21-21 December 2019	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
	Vacant	West Ham United	02019-12-28-28 December 2019	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days

2019–20 Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Liverpool  (C)	38	32	3	3	85	33	+52	99	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Manchester City	38	26	3	9	102	35	+67	81
3	Manchester United	38	18	12	8	66	36	+30	66
4	Chelsea	38	20	6	12	69	54	+15	66
5	Leicester City	38	18	8	12	67	41	+26	62	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
6	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	11	11	61	47	+14	59	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
7	Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	15	14	9	51	40	+11	59
8	Arsenal	38	14	14	10	56	48	+8	56	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
8	Sheffield United	38	14	12	12	39	39	0	54
10	Burnley	38	15	9	14	43	50	−7	54
11	Southampton	38	15	7	16	51	60	−9	52
12	Everton	38	13	10	15	44	56	−12	49
13	Newcastle United	38	11	11	16	38	58	−20	44
14	Crystal Palace	38	11	10	17	31	50	−19	43
15	Brighton & Hove Albion	38	9	14	15	39	54	−15	41
16	West Ham United	38	10	9	19	49	62	−13	39
17	Aston Villa	38	9	8	21	41	67	−26	35
18	Bournemouth  (R)	38	9	7	22	40	65	−25	34	Relegation to EFL Championship
19	Watford  (R)	38	8	10	20	36	64	−28	34
20	Norwich City  (R)	38	5	6	27	26	75	−49	21

Updated to games played on 26 July 2020
Source: Barclays Premier League
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

a. Manchester City were initially banned from all UEFA club competitions for the 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 14 February 2020 due to alleged breaches of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. The decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 26 February 2020. That appeal was heard on 8 June 2020. The appeal was upheld on 13 July 2020, and the ban was overturned.
b. Since the winners of the 2019–20 EFL Cup, Manchester City, have qualified for the Champions League group stage by league position, the spot given to the EFL Cup winners (Europa League second qualifying round) is passed down to the sixth-placed team.

Champions

Season Champions / (Pos next season) Total Points / Wins 92-93 Manchester United (1st) 84 (24) 93-94 Manchester United (2nd) 92 (27) 94-95 Blackburn Rovers (1st) 89 (27) 95-96 Manchester United (1st) 82 (25) 96-97 Manchester United (2nd) 75 (21) 97-98 Arsenal (2nd) 78 (23) 98-99 Manchester United (1st) 79 (22) 99-00 Manchester United (1st) 91 (28) 00-01 Manchester United (3rd) 80 (24) 01-02 Arsenal (2nd) 87 (26) 02-03 Manchester United (3rd) 83 (25) 03-04 Arsenal (2nd) 90 (26) 04-05 Chelsea (1st) 95 (29) 05-06 Chelsea (2nd) 91 (29)

Season Champions / (Pos next season) Total Points / Wins 06-07 Manchester United (1st) 89 (28) 07-08 Manchester United (1st) 87 (27) 08-09 Manchester United (2nd) 90 (28) 09-10 Chelsea (2nd) 86 (27) 10-11 Manchester United (2nd) 80 (23) 11-12 Manchester City (2nd) 89 (28) 12-13 Manchester United (7th) 89 (28) 13-14 Manchester City (2nd) 86 (27) 14-15 Chelsea (10th) 87 (26) 15-16 Leicester City (1st) 81 (23) 16-17 Chelsea (11th) 93 (30) 17-18 Manchester City (3rd) 100 (32) 18-19 Manchester City (2nd) 98 (32) 19-20 Liverpool 86 (28)

Top scorers

Rank	Name	Years	Goals	Apps	Ratio
1	Shearer, AlanAlan Shearer	1992–2006	260	441	0.59
2	Rooney, WayneWayne Rooney	2002–2018	208	491	0.42
3	Cole, AndyAndy Cole	1992–2008	187	414	0.45
4	Lampard, FrankFrank Lampard	1995–2015	177	609	0.29
5	Henry, ThierryThierry Henry	1999–2007, 2012	175	258	0.68
6	Aguero, SergioSergio Agüero	2011–	173	253	0.68
7	Fowler, RobbieRobbie Fowler	1993–2009	163	379	0.43
8	Defoe, JermainJermain Defoe	2001–2003, 2004–2014, 2015–2019	162	496	0.33
9	Owen, MichaelMichael Owen	1996–2004, 2005–13	150	326	0.46
10	Ferdinand, LesLes Ferdinand	1992–2005	149	351	0.42

Italics denotes players still playing professional football,
Bold denotes players still playing in the Premier League.

The Golden Boot is awarded to the top Premier League scorer at the end of each season. Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premier League goals with 260. Twenty-eight players have reached the 100-goal mark. Since the first Premier League season in 1992–93, 14 players from 10 clubs have won or shared the top scorers title. Thierry Henry won his fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005–06 season. Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer hold the record for most goals in a season (34) – for Newcastle and Blackburn respectively. Ryan Giggs of Manchester United holds the record for scoring goals in consecutive seasons, having scored in the first 21 seasons of the league.

External links

• Premier League Portal
• Official website

Premier League stadiums 2020–21

Anfield (Liverpool) · Bramall Lane (Sheffield United) City of Manchester Stadium (Manchester City) · Craven Cottage (Fulham) · Elland Road (Leeds Utd) · Emirates Stadium (Arsenal) · Falmer Stadium (Brighton) · Goodison Park (Everton) · King Power Stadium (Leicester City) · London Stadium (West Ham United) · Molineux Stadium (Wolverhampton Wanderers) · Old Trafford (Manchester United) · St. James' Park (Newcastle United) · St. Mary's Stadium (Southampton) · Selhurst Park (Crystal Palace) · Stamford Bridge (Chelsea) · The Hawthorns (West Bromwich Albion) · Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (Tottenham Hotspur) · Turf Moor (Burnley) · Villa Park (Aston Villa) ·