Football
Premier League history
How the competition came to look the way it does.
Twenty clubs, thirty-eight matchdays
English football organised itself into a national league long before most of Europe, and the current top division was created when the leading clubs separated their competition from the older league structure.
Promotion and relegation have been continuous throughout, which is the clearest structural difference between English football and the closed franchise leagues of North America.
Television money reshaped the competition more than any rule change did, and it is the main reason the division's economics differ so sharply from the leagues around it.
Season-by-season champions, records and historical tables need a licensed historical data source. Until we have one, this page carries written history only.