The favorite sport of the English people is something I want to tell you about. This is, of course, English soccer; the British call it soccer as well as football. Wherever in the world you are the local football league is known and respected. The Premier League is playing now in its eleventh season. English football is very good in many respects. About Premier League The Premier League is an English professional league for football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country’s primary football competition.
It is contested by 20 clubs, operating a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 38 games each. It is sponsored by Barclay Bank, and is therefore officially known as the Barclays Premier League. 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 Premier League has since become the world’s most watched sporting league. It is the world’s most lucrative football league, with combined club revenues of around ?1. 4 billion in 2005–06, which are expected to rise to around ?1. 8 billion for 2007–08 due to media revenues. It is also ranked first in the UEFA rankings of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five-years, ahead of Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A.
A total of 42 clubs have competed in the Premier League, but only four have won the title: Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea. The current champions are Manchester United, who won their tenth Premier League title in the 2007–08 season, the most of any Premier League team. History of English soccer The decision of eleven clubs to send representatives to the Freemasons Tavern in central London on October 26th, 1863 had a common aim – to decide upon a set of rules by which the fast-emerging game of football could be played.
It was decided that ‘a football association should be formed for the purpose of settling a code of rules for the regulation of the game,’ and an annual general meeting was called for the last week in September – thus setting the beginning of the traditional football season. Not all those present gave their backing to the movement. Charterhouse, one of the ‘great schools’, agreed with the broad aims of the association but Captain BF Hartshorne felt he had to wait to gauge the reaction of others before giving up their own brand of the game.
Harrow, too, were initially unwilling to change their rules – but when the Football Association rules were finally agreed upon in early December, they were based on that school’s understanding of how the game was played. This set you the Premier League, the English highest division. The Premiership is one of the popular competitions of the world, and where some of the highest wages are. And there are many divisions in England; division one, division two, and so on. In the Premiership competes the best teams of England, represented by the best players with the highest wages. This season is Manchester United the Champion of England.
