Premiership History
Prior to the Premiership the Football League was made up four divisions, and had been since the inception of the League system, this had been in place for over a hundred years. When the top teams returned to Europe after an enforced ban caused by the Heysel Disaster, it soon became apparent that the English game had fallen behind it's European counterpart both in terms of playing style and the amount of money clubs were generating, particularly TV rights money.
The BBC and ITV had a cartel, they shared the output of football to the public, the BBC on Saturday nights with Match of the Day, and ITV showed regional highlights on a Sudnay afternoon with the "Big Match" programme, they bid what a lot of clubs considered a pittance, and got the games, compared to the European clubs, who told the TV companies what they would have to pay.
The big four clubs started rumours about a break away league, with the advent of satellite television, there was a lot more money on offer to the top teams, so it was that before the next round of talks went ahead, the Premier League was formed as a company, initially with twenty two teams, the terrestrial channels were outbid for the TV rights to the games by a more than substantial amount, the top teams got richer overnight as the bidding was in the millions, rather than the hundreds of thousands as it had been previously.
The clubs who played in the first season were, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Wimbledon.
The first team to win the Premiership were Manchester United, at the end of the season Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough were relegated to the Championship, three teams were promoted from the championship to replace them the following season.
Sponsorship
1996 - 2001
Due to it's now live exposure on TV, the Premiership became attractive to sponsors and advertisers, the FA who ran the league firt attracted a major brewery in Carling to sponsor the whole league in return the company gained unprecedented advertising to millions of BSBSky subscribers, the league was known as the "FA Carling Premiership", but very soon the "FA" part dropped and it was known as "The Carling Premiership"
In 2001 Carling were outbid for the rights to the naming of the Premier League by Barclaycard, in subsequent years this was taken over by Barclays, and until now it has been know as the "Barclays Premier League".
Todays Logo features the Barclays Lion in various poses, with a red football under its front left paw. It has also become customary for the winning team to wear a gold sleeve badge in the following season.
Former Participating Clubs
Barnsley | Birmingham City | Blackburn Rovers | Blackpool | Bolton Wanderers | Bradford City | Burnley | Charlton Athletic | Coventry City | Derby County | Ipswich Town | Leeds United | Leicester City | Middlesbrough | Nottingham Forest | Oldham Athletic | Portsmouth | Queens Park Rangers | Reading | Sheffield United | Sheffield Wednesday | Swindon Town | Watford | Wigan Athletic | Wimbledon | Wolverhampton Wanderers