3 Things You Should Know About The History Of The English Premier League

For many like me, football is not just a sport. It is no less than a religion that is preached and followed all over the world. In such a sport, the Premier League is easily the most popular sect as the amount of quality and competitions between the teams from the league is a treat to watch. The top flight of English football stands as one of the best competitions in Europe at the moment but it has gone through a number of changes in its format over the years. The English League was named the English Premier League back in 1992 and ever since, there have been a number of changes to its original format, making it all the more interesting. It has been more than two decades since the Premier League has been entertaining us and here are 3 things about its history that every fan must know:

The top flight of English football stands as one of the best competitions in Europe at the moment but it has gone through a number of changes in its format over the years. The English League was named the ‘English Premier League’ back in 1992 and ever since, there have been a number of changes to its original format, making it all the more interesting. It has been more than two decades since the Premier League has been entertaining us and here are 3 things about its history that every fan must know:

It has been more than two decades since the Premier League has been entertaining us and here are 3 things about its history that every fan must know:

Number of teams:

At the moment, the Premier League sees 20 teams play each other twice in a season with one of the games played at home and the other away for a single team. This gives every team 38 matches to showcase their skills and it is a format that we are all well aware of. But not long before, the Premier League had 22 teams with each team playing every other team twice. This meant that every team would play 42 games in a season to decide the winner.

It is a system that was adopted from the old English division but in 1996, FIFA wanted that the number of domestic games to be reduced and decided to reduce the number of teams to 20. There were talks of making it 18 a decade ago but the FA were adamant on their stance, letting the current system run for more than 10 years now.

The Sky Sports Effect:

Even now, the Premier League is largely dependent on its broadcast sponsors who go as far as deciding the date and time of a particular game in the domestic season. But at the start of the league back in 1992, London Weekend Television had the rights to every game and did not have this much of a say on the schedule.

However, after the PL was established, LWT decided to let go, and ITV were ready to pounce on the broadcasting rights of the competition. However, Sky Sports, which was a slowly growing company at that time, decided to offer £304m to the Premier League, blowing out all other offers and lifting the league to great heights. There is no denying that the international exposure of Sky Sports has helped the League build its reputation outside Europe as well.

The FA Effect:

The English league was not one of the favourite competitions for the FA back in the day and this had its effect on the exposure of the English league. However, when the Premier League was established, back in 1992, Vice-Chairman of Arsenal, David Dein, decided to approach the FA for their support to the Premier League.

The financial incentives were already luring clubs from the English league to the Premier League and FA’s support only made the league stronger. Their enmity of the Football League along with the incentives of the Premier League helped the clubs make the transformation that is now standing as one of the best sporting competitions in the world.