The Premier league is officially the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons. It is a British professional league for football clubs.

Twenty clubs contest in this league. Seasons run from August to May. All teams play 38 games each.

The competition started as the FA Premier league on 20 February 1992. The first game took place on 15 august that year. Some clubs in the Football League First Division decided to break away from the Football League to take advantage of a profitable television right contract.

The Football League has been holding the primary football competition of England and Wales since 1888. Since then, the Premier League became the most followed sporting league.

It is the most well paid football league. In 2005-06, the combined club revenue was around $1.4 billion. It may rise to $1.8 billion in 2007-08 due to the rising media revenues.

Only four out of the 40 clubs have won the premier league title. They are the Arsenals, Blackburn rovers, Chelsea and Manchester united. The present champion of this league is Manchester United. They won the ninth title in 2006-07. No team has ever won the title for this number of times.

The English Premier League:

It is a series of organized leagues for football clubs in England. However, a small number of Welsh clubs also compete in English Premier League due to historical reasons.

There are about 140 leagues containing about 480 divisions. The system has an ordered layout for promotion and delegation among the leagues at different levels.

The exact number of clubs varies every year. The clubs join, leave, or merge to form new teams. However, there is an estimated average of 15 clubs per division. This means that over 7000 clubs are members of a league in the English Premier league.

Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw. The total points and goal differences decide the ranks of the teams. At the end of the season, the club with the highest point is the champion. The goal difference and the goals scored, decide the winner if teams have equal points.