Premier League
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Premier League |
|---|
 Premier League 2006-07 |
 |
| Founded |
| 1992 |
| Nation |
 England |
| Relegation To |
| Football League Championship |
| Number of Teams |
| 20 |
| Level on Pyramid |
| Level 1 |
| European Qualification |
| Champions League UEFA Cup Intertoto Cup |
| Cups |
| FA Cup Football League Cup |
| Current Champions (2005-06) |
| Chelsea |
| Website |
| Official |
The Premier League (often referred to as the Barclays Premiership for sponsorship reasons, or as the Barclays English Premier League internationally, or even simply known as The Premiership, The Prem or The EPL) is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top echelon of the English football league system (above The Football League). It is the world's most watched sporting league, and the most lucrative football league. [1]
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 currently contested by twenty clubs. In a total of fourteen seasons, the title has been won by only four teams: Manchester United (eight times), Arsenal (three times), Chelsea (twice) and Blackburn Rovers (once). The current Premier League champions are 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's female counterpart, as most of its clubs are affiliated with Premiership and Football League sides; however, the league is semi-professional and has a much lower profile than the men's game even within its national boundaries.
History
| Season | Winner | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006–07 | ||||
| 2005–06 | Chelsea | |||
| 2004–05 | Chelsea | |||
| 2003–04 | Arsenal | |||
| 2002–03 | Manchester United | |||
| 2001–02 | Arsenal | |||
| 2000–01 | Manchester United | |||
| 1999–00 | Manchester United | |||
| 1998-99 | Manchester United | |||
| 1997–98 | Arsenal | |||
| 1996–97 | Manchester United | |||
| 1995–96 | Manchester United | |||
| 1994–95 | Blackburn Rovers | |||
| 1993–94 | Manchester United | |||
| 1992–93 | Manchester United | |||
| ||||
[edit] Origins
- For more details on this topic, see History of English football
The 1980s had marked a low point for English football. Stadiums were crumbling, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs were banned from European competition following the events at Heysel in 1985.[2] The Football League First Division, which had been the top level of English football since 1888, was well behind foreign leagues such as Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga in attendances and revenues, and several top English players had moved abroad.[3] However, by the turn of the 1990s the downward trend was starting to reverse; England had been hugely 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 European competitions in 1990 and the Taylor Report on stadium safety standards, which proposed expensive upgrades to all-seater stadiums, was published in January of that year.[4]
Television money had also become much more important; the Football League had received only £6.3 million for a two-year agreement in 1986, but when that deal was renewed in 1988, the price had risen to £44m over four years.[5] The 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league; ten clubs threatened to leave and form a "super league" but were eventually persuaded to stay.[6] As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the country's top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the growing influx of money being pumped into the sport.
[edit] Establishment
The league held its first season in 1992–93 and was originally composed of 22 clubs. The first ever Premiership goal was scored by Brian Deane of Sheffield United in a 2–1 win against Manchester United. Due to insistence by FIFA, the international governing body of football, that domestic leagues reduce the number of games clubs played, the number of clubs was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams 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 Liga be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007–08 season. The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.[7]
The league changed its name from the 'FA Premier League' to simply the 'Premier League' on February 12 2007.[citation needed]
[edit] Structure
The Premier League is operated as a corporation that is owned by the 20 member clubs. Each club is considered a shareholder with 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 daily operations of the league.[8] The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, but has veto power as a special shareholder during the election of the Chairman and Chief Executive and when new rules are adopted by the league.[9]
The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Forum, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. The European Club Forum is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Cup.[10]
[edit] Competition format and sponsorship
[edit] Competition
There are 20 clubs in the Premier League. During the course of a season (which lasts from August to May) each club plays the others twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for a total of 38 games for each club, with a total of 380 games 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 difference and then goals scored. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned as champion. If points are equal the goal difference and goals scored then determines the 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 (this has yet to occur). The three lowest placed teams are relegated into the Football League Championship and the top two teams from the Championship, together with the winner of play-offs involving the third to sixth placed Championship clubs, are promoted in their place.
[edit] Qualification for European competitions
The top four teams in the Premiership qualify for 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 round and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. The fifth placed team automatically qualifies for the UEFA Cup, and the sixth and seventh placed teams can also qualify, depending on what happens in the two domestic cup competitions. If the FA Cup winners 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 Cup is won by a team that has already qualified for Europe, the League Cup's UEFA Cup spot also goes to the next highest placed team in the League (unlike the FA Cup spot, it is never transferred to the losing finalist). The highest placed team that has not qualified for the UEFA Cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, provided they have applied to enter the Intertoto Cup in the next season. The winner of the Intertoto Cup is automatically entered into the UEFA Cup.
Technically, the FA can nominate any team in the league system to represent them in Europe; however, understandably and just as in all the other major leagues, only the teams that finished top of their highest league are sent. This issue presented itself in 2005 when Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League, but failed to finish high enough in the Premier League to be entered into the following year's tournament. Initially, this would have meant that for the first time in the competition's history the defending champions would not have been allowed to defend their trophy. In fact, a similar situation had occurred at the start of the 2000/01 Champions League, when defending champions Real Madrid from Spain did not finish high enough to qualify. In that situation, they were allowed to qualify by sacrificing the fourth placed qualifier that year. However, the FA insisted on its policy of only entering the four highest qualifiers. In addition, Everton (who finished fourth in the Premier League that year) bemoaned the fact that they would lose their place, which they insisted that they had earned. UEFA, although initially reluctant to alter the rules, were forced to admit five English teams to the Champions League that year after receiving support from their own president Lennart Johansson,[11] FIFA president Sepp Blatter,[12] and prominent members of the game such as Franz Beckenbauer.[13] Subsequently, UEFA demanded that the defending champions of the trophy must qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing. This means that, in future, if an English team wins the Champions League but finishes outside the top four in the Premier League, the team will be entered into the next season's Champions League at the expense of the fourth-placed team.
The Premiership was recently promoted to second in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five year period, behind Spain's La Liga and now above Italy's Serie A.[14] The top three leagues in Europe are currently allowed to enter four teams into the Champions League, although the new UEFA president Michel Platini has proposed changing the rules so as to limit any league's Champions League contingent to three at some point in the future.
[edit] Sponsorship
Since 1993, the Premier League has been sponsored. The sponsor has been able to determine the league's sponsorship name. So far, all sponsors have referred to the competition as the 'Premiership'. The list below details who the sponsors have been and what they called the competition:
- 1993–2001: Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
- 2001–2004: Barclaycard (Barclaycard Premiership)
- 2004–2010: Barclays (Barclays Premiership)
[edit] Finances
The Premiership boasts some of the best players in the world, including many from outside England. The Premier League is the most lucrative football league in the world, with total club revenues of over £1.3 billion in 2004–05 according to Deloitte, more than 40% above its nearest competitor, Italy's Serie A.[15] Revenues will increase substantially by the 2007–08 season, when new media rights deals start (see below). Based on January 2007 exchange rates, £1.3 billion converts to annual league revenue of about US$2.51 billion. This figure is the fourth highest for any sports league worldwide, behind the annual revenues of the three most popular North American major sports leagues (the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association), but slightly ahead of the National Hockey League. Considering that the Premier League has only 20 clubs (compared to 32 in the NFL and 30 in the other major North American leagues), 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 ahead of, the NBA's.
The 2005–06 average attendance of 33,875 for league matches is the fourth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world, ahead of Serie A and La Liga, but behind the German Bundesliga. This represents an increase of over 60% from the average attendance of 21,126 recorded in the league's first season (1992-93).[16] However, during the 1992-93 season the capacities of most stadiums were reduced as clubs replaced terraces with seats in order to meet the Taylor Report's 1994-95 deadline for all-seater stadiums.[17][18] The 2005-06 figure is lower than the Premier League's record average attendance of 35,464, set during the 2002-03 season.[19]
With the new three year deal Sky will pay £1.314 billion for 92 games and Setanta £392 million for 50 games. Foreign TV rights will produce £625 million in revenue whilst Internet and Mobile Phone revenue will be £400 million. The top club in Premiership will receive £50m (including prize money as well as TV revenue) compared to £30.4 million with the current deal. £50m is comparable to what each NFL club receives from its league's TV contracts (the NFL shares its TV revenues equally). The bottom club will receive £26.8 million under the new deal. The new deals will, by a significant margin, provide the Premier League with the second richest set of television contracts negotiated by any sports league in the world (whether measured on a gross or per-club basis), behind only the NFL. Unlike the Premier League, these high TV contracts stem from the NFL's team specific sponsorships - with mandatory player promotion in TV, print and radio, as well as several live appearances each year.
[edit] Media coverage
[edit] England
- See also: English football on television
Television has played a major role in the history of the Premier League. The money from television rights has been vital in helping to create excellence both on and off the field. The League's decision to assign broadcasting rights 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 charging fans 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 seen the value of the Premier League's TV rights soar. It also saw the creation of regularly scheduled games on Sundays and Mondays, taking a page from the National Football League's Sunday Night and Monday Night games. In both cases, the featured TV games are normally the only ones played at that time.
The Premier League sells its television rights on a collective basis. This is in contrast to some European Leagues, including Serie A and La Liga, in which each club sells its rights individually, leading to a much higher share of the total income going to the top few clubs. The money is divided into three parts:[20] half is divided equally between the clubs; one quarter is awarded on a merit basis based on final league position, the top club getting twenty times as much as the bottom club, and equal steps all the way down the table; the final quarter is paid out as facilities fees for games that are shown on television, with the top clubs generally receiving the largest shares of this. The income from overseas rights is divided equally between the twenty clubs.
The first Sky television rights agreement was worth £191 million over five seasons.[21] The next contract, negotiated to start from the 1997–98 season, rose to £670 million over four seasons.[21] The Premier League's current £1.024 billion deal with BSkyB runs over the course of three seasons from August 2004. The league brought in £320 million from the sale of its international rights for the three-year period from 2004-05 to 2006-07. It sold the rights itself on a territory-by-territory basis.[22] Sky's monopoly was broken from August 2006 when Setanta Sports was awarded rights to show two out of the six packages of matches available. This occurred following an insistence by the European Commission that exclusive rights should not be sold to one television company. Sky and Setanta paid a total of £1.7 billion, a two-thirds increase which took many commentators by surprise as it had been widely assumed that the value of the rights had levelled off following many years of rapid growth. The BBC has retained the rights to show highlights for the same three seasons (on Match of the Day) for £171.6 million, a 63% increase on the £105 million it paid for the previous three year period. [23] Sky and BT have agreed to jointly pay £84.3 million for delayed television rights to 242 games (that is the right to broadcast them in full on television and over the internet) in most cases for a period of 50 hours after 10pm on matchday.[24] Overseas television rights fetched £625 million, nearly double the previous contract, [2] and there was also a smaller deal for mobile phone rights. The total raised from these deals is more than £2.7 billion, giving Premiership clubs an average media income from league games of £45 million a year from 2007 to 2010. They also receive smaller amounts from media rights for the domestic cups and in some cases substantial amounts from media rights for European matches.
The TV rights agreement between the Premier League and Sky has faced accusations of being a cartel, and a number of court cases have arisen as a result. An investigation by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002 found BSkyB to be dominant within the pay TV sports market, but concluded that there were insufficient grounds for the claim that BSkyB had abused its dominant position.[25] In July 1999 the Premier League's method of selling rights collectively for all member clubs was investigated by the UK Restrictive Practices Court, who concluded that the agreement was not contrary to the public interest.[26]
[edit] Worldwide
Promoted as "The Greatest Show On Earth", the Premier League is the world's most popular and most watched sporting league, followed worldwide by over a billion people.[27] It is widely watched overseas, with matches being shown in 195 countries,[28] generally on networks owned and/or controlled by NewsCorp, which owns BSkyB and thus the primary UK and Ireland TV rights. NewsCorp has purchased ad space at some Premier League stadiums to promote Fox Soccer Channel, which is the company's US broadcaster (as in Britain, the rights are shared with Setanta Sport). Rogers Sportsnet in Canada carries several matches each Saturday. The Premier League is particularly popular in Asia, where it is the most widely distributed sports programme.[29] In the People's Republic of China, matches attract television audiences between 100 million and 360 million, more than any other foreign sport.[30] 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. In July 2003 the FA Premier League Asia Cup was held in Malaysia, featuring three Premiership clubs, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Birmingham City, and the Malaysia national team.[31] In 2005 the Asia Trophy featured a similar format, held in Thailand and featuring the Thailand national team competing against three English clubs — Everton, Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers, the latter of whom won the trophy.[32] In 2007, the FA Premier League Asia Cup will move to Hong Kong and feature Liverpool, Portsmouth, Fulham and the Hong Kong FA Cup winning team. Radio coverage of the Premier League 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 stop the broadcasting of streams of live games on the net they have hired NetResult, a company that specializes on protecting trademark rights on online. Although NetResult has cut down the number of site offering free streams some see their actions as heavy handed. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that NetResult on behalf of the Premier League - emailed a warning to the website www.footyclips.com, an independent site that links to youtube videos, that forced its temporary closure. [33]
[edit] Players
At the inception of the Premier League in 1992–93, just eleven players named in the starting line-ups for the first round of matches were 'foreign' (players hailing from outside of the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland).[34] By 2000-01, the number of foreign players participating in the Premiership was 36%. In the 2004-5 season the figure had increased to 45%. On 26 December 1999, Chelsea became the first Premier League side to field an entirely foreign starting line-up,[35] and on 14 February 2005 Arsenal were the first to name a completely foreign 16-man squad for a match.[36]
Despite being an English competition, no English manager has ever actually won the Premier League. Only four different managers have won the title as of 2006: two Scots (Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United and Kenny Dalglish, Blackburn Rovers), a Frenchman (Arsène Wenger, Arsenal) and a Portuguese (José Mourinho, Chelsea). Two English managers have achieved second place in the Premiership. They are Ron 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 leagues competed in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the Premier League was the most represented league with more than eighty players in the competition, including 21 of the 23 players in England's squad.
As a result of the increasingly lucrative television deals, player wages rose sharply following the formation of the Premier League. In the first Premier League season the average player wage was £75,000 per year,[37] but subsequently rose by an average 20% per year for a decade,[38] peaking in the 2003-04 season, when the annual salary of the average Premier League player was £676,000.[39]
[edit] Transfer records
The first few seasons of the Premier League saw the record transfer fee paid by English clubs broken almost every season, a practice that resumed in the first few years of the twenty-first century.
- £3.75 million in June 1993 (Roy Keane, Nottingham Forest to Manchester United)
- £5 million in July 1994 (Chris Sutton, Norwich City to Blackburn Rovers)
- £7 million in January 1995 (Andy Cole, Newcastle United to Manchester United)
- £7.5 million in June 1995 (Dennis Bergkamp, Inter Milan to Arsenal)
- £8.5 million in July 1995 (Stan Collymore, Nottingham Forest to Liverpool)
- £15 million (then world record) in July 1996 (Alan Shearer, Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United)
- £18 million in November 2000 (Rio Ferdinand, West Ham to Leeds Utd)
- £19 million in May 2001 (Ruud van Nistelrooy, PSV Eindhoven to Manchester United)
- £28.1 million in July 2001 (Juan Sebastián Verón, Lazio to Manchester United)
- £29 million in July 2002 (Rio Ferdinand, Leeds Utd to Manchester United)
- £30 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 lasted a mere month. Alan Shearer's £15-million record lasted nearly five years in England, although his worldwide record was broken within a year. Rio Ferdinand's record lasted nearly four years, before it was marginally broken in 2006 by the summer transfer of Andriy Shevchenko from A.C. Milan to Chelsea for an unknown figure between £30 million and £56 million. The creation of the Premier League, therefore, has seen the record fee paid by English clubs broken 11 times in under 15 years.
[edit] Premiership-Football League gulf
Since its split with the Football League, many established clubs in the Premier League have managed to distance themselves from their counterparts in lower leagues. Owing in large part to the disparity in revenue from television rights between the leagues,[40] many newly promoted teams 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 relegated back to the Football League. In 1997–98 all three promoted clubs were relegated at the end of the season.
The Premier League distributes a small portion of its television revenue to clubs that are relegated from the league in the form of "parachute payments". Starting with the 2006–07 season, these payments are in the amount of £6.5 million over the club's first two seasons in lower leagues.[40] Though designed to help teams adjust to the loss of television revenues (the average Premier League team receives £28 million while the average Football League Championship club receives £1 million[40]), critics maintain that the payments actually widen the gap between teams that have reached the Premiership and those that have not,[41] leading to the common occurrence of teams "bouncing back" soon after their relegation. If a team has "bounced back", they are generally said to have bouncebackability, a term commonly used by football fans and coined by the then Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie. The word achieved high coverage due to shows like SoccerAM and subsequently made it into the OEDictionary in 2006. The term is also used in the circumstance where a team may lose one or two games and then demonstrate 'bouncebackability' by winning subsequently. Some teams get promoted and relegated so often they're referred to as "yo-yo" teams.
[edit] Premier League clubs
[edit] Premier League champions
For a list of winners and runners-up of the Premier League since its inception, and top scorers for each season, see English football champions.
[edit] Current Premier League members
The following twenty clubs will compete in the FA Premier League during the 2006-07 season.
Club | Finishing position in 2005–06 | First season in top division | First season of current spell in top division |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal [42][43] | 4th | 1904–05 | 1919–20 |
| Aston Villa [42][43] | 16th | 1888–89 | 1988–89 |
| Blackburn Rovers [43] | 6th | 1888–89 | 2001–02 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 8th | 1888–89 | 2001–02 |
| Charlton Athletic | 13th | 1936–37 | 2000–01 |
| Chelsea [42][43] | 1st | 1907–08 | 1989–90 |
| Everton [42][43] | 11th | 1888–89 | 1954–55 |
| Fulham | 12th | 1949–50 | 2001–02 |
| Liverpool [42][43] | 3rd | 1894–95 | 1962–63 |
| Manchester City [43] | 15th | 1899–1900 | 2002–03 |
| Manchester United [42][43] | 2nd | 1892–93 | 1975–76 |
| Middlesbrough [43] | 14th | 1902–03 | 1998–99 |
| Newcastle United | 7th | 1898–99 | 1993–94 |
| Portsmouth | 17th | 1927–28 | 2003–04 |
| Reading | 1st in the Championship | 2006–07 | 2006–07 |
| Sheffield United [43] | 2nd in the Championship | 1893–94 | 2006–07 |
| Tottenham Hotspur [42][43] | 5th | 1909–10 | 1978–79 |
| Watford | 3rd in the Championship (promoted after winning play-off) | 1982–83 | 2006-07 |
| West Ham United | 9th | 1923–24 | 2005–06 |
| Wigan Athletic | 10th | 2005–06 | 2005–06 |
[edit] Former Premier League members
A total of forty clubs have played in the Premier League between 1992 and 2006. Two other clubs (Luton Town and Notts County) were signatories to the original agreement that created the Premier League, but were relegated prior to the inaugural Premiership season and have never returned to the top flight. For a list of all clubs past and present see List of FA Premier League clubs.
Seven clubs have been members of the Premiership for every season (15) since its inception. This 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.
List of Premiership clubs, and the seasons they have played in.
- Arsenal - 1992/93-present
- Aston Villa - 1992/93-present
- Barnsley - 1997/98
- Birmingham City - 2002/03-2005/06, 2007/08-
- Blackburn Rovers - 1992/93-1998/99, 2001/02-present
- Bolton Wanderers - 1995/96, 1997/98, 2001/02-present
- Bradford City - 1999/2000-2000/01
- Charlton Athletic - 1998/99, 2000/01-present
- Chelsea - 1992/93-present
- Coventry City - 1992/93-2000/01
- Crystal Palace - 1992/93, 1994/95, 1997/98, 2004/05
- Derby County - 1998/97-2001/02
- Everton - 1992/93-present
- Fulham - 2001/02-present
- Ipswich Town - 1992/93-1994/95, 2000/01-2001/02
- Leeds United - 1992/93-2003/04
- Leicester City - 1994/95, 1996/97-2001/02, 2003/04
- Liverpool - 1992/93-present
- Manchester City - 1992/93-1995/96, 2000/01, 2002/03-present
- Manchester United - 1992/93-present
- Middlesbrough - 1992/93, 1995/96-1996/97, 1998/99-present
- Newcastle United - 1993/94-present
- Norwich City - 1992/93-1994/95, 2004/05
- Nottingham Forest - 1992/93, 1994/95-1996/97, 1998/99
- Oldham Athletic - 1992/93-1993/94
- Portsmouth - 2003/04-present
- Queen's Park Rangers - 1992/93-1995/96
- Reading - 2006/07
- Sheffield United - 1992/93-1993/94, 2006/07
- Sheffield Wednesday - 1992/93-1999/2000
- Southampton - 1992/93-2004/05
- Sunderland - 1996/97, 1999/2000-2002/03, 2005/06, 2007-08
- Swindon Town - 1993/94
- Tottenham Hotspur - 1992/93-present
- Watford - 1999/2000, 2006/07
- West Bromwich Albion - 2002/03, 2004/05-2005/06
- West Ham United - 1993/94-2002/03, 2005/06-present
- Wigan Athletic - 2005/06-present
- Wimbledon - 1992/93-1999/2000
- Wolverhampton Wanderers - 2003/04
[edit] Venues
| Premiership Rank | Stadium | Capacity | Club | Overall Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old Trafford | 76,312 | Manchester United | 2 | Largest football stadium in the Premiership |
| 2 | Emirates Stadium | 60,432[44] | Arsenal | 3 | Known in UEFA competitions as "Arsenal Stadium" |
| 3 | St James' Park | 52,387[45] | Newcastle United | 4 | Plans to upgrade to a minimum of 60,000 seats |
| 4 | City of Manchester Stadium | 47,726[46] | Manchester City | 6 | Also known as Eastlands |
| 5 | Anfield | 45,362[47] | Liverpool | 7 | Proposed move to Stanley Park Stadium |
| 6 | Villa Park | 42,593[47] | Aston Villa | 8 | Plans to upgrade to a minimum of 51,000 seats |
| 7 | Stamford Bridge | 42,449[47] | Chelsea | 9 | |
| 8 | Goodison Park | 40,569[47] | Everton | 10 | |
| 9 | White Hart Lane | 36,238[48] | Tottenham Hotspur | 13 | |
| 10 | Upton Park | 35,146[49] | West Ham United | 14 | |
| 11 | Riverside Stadium | 35,100 | Middlesbrough | 15 | |
| 12 | Bramall Lane | 32,609[50] | Sheffield United | 17 | Redevelopment and extension of Hallam FM Kop Stand in discussion |
| 13 | Ewood Park | 31,367[47] | Blackburn Rovers | 21 | |
| 14 | Reebok Stadium | 27,879[47] | Bolton Wanderers | 27 | |
| 15 | The Valley | 27,113[47] | Charlton Athletic | 29 | |
| 16 | JJB Stadium | 25,138[51] | Wigan Athletic | 34 | Shared with Wigan Warriors Rugby League Club |
| 17 | Madejski Stadium | 24,045 | Reading | Planning permission being sought to expand to approx 37,500. Shared with Guinness Premiership team London Irish | |
| 18 | Craven Cottage | 22,000[52] | Fulham | ||
| 19 | Vicarage Road | 22,000[47] | Watford | Capacity reduced due to safety concerns. Development set to increase capacity to 23,000. Shared with Guinness Premiership side, Saracens. | |
| 20 | Fratton Park | 19,179[47] | Portsmouth | Proposed move to new 36,000 all-seater stadium for the 2011-2012 season[53] |
[edit] Top scorers
| Rank | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alan Shearer | 260 |
| 2 | Andrew Cole [54] | 188 |
| 3 |  Thierry Henry [54] | 174 |
| 4 | Robbie Fowler [54] | 162 |
| 5 | Les Ferdinand | 149 |
| 6 | Teddy Sheringham [54] | 147 |
| 7 |  Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink [54] | 127 |
| 8 | Michael Owen [54] | 125 |
| 9 |  Dwight Yorke | 122 |
| 10 | Ian Wright | 113 |
| As of 14th April 2007 (Bold notes players still in Premier League).[55] Dwight Yorke is still in English football, but plays for Championship side Sunderland. Andrew Cole is contracted to Premiership club Portsmouth but is currently on loan to Championship side Birmingham City | ||
- Further information: English football champions
Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premiership goals with 260. Shearer finished among the top ten goal scorers in 10 out of his 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 shared the top scorers title. Thierry Henry won his third consecutive and fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005–06 season. This surpassed Shearer's mark of three titles which he won consecutively from 1994–95 through 1996-97. Other multiple winners include Michael Owen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who have won two titles each. Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer hold the record for most goals in a season (34) - for Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers respectively. Cole's record came in the 1993-94 season, while Shearer's came in 1994-95, both of which were 42-game seasons. Shearer's mark of 31 goals in 1995–96 remains the highest total in a 38-game season.
Manchester United became the first team to have scored 1,000 goals in this league after Cristiano 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 following the League's inception. Arsenal is the only other team to have reached the 1,000 goal mark.
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