The English Premier League (EPL) is a top-tier league for association football teams in England. The League functions as a corporation of which the 20 member clubs are shareholders.

Each season, the matches start in August and continue until May of the next year. Each team plays every other team, once at their home venue and once away, thus playing 38 games in total, which translates to 380 games played mostly on weekends, with occasional games on weekdays.

La Liga is sponsored by Barclays Bank and is officially known as the Barclays Premier League.

The 1980s marked a low point in English football, as the football infrastructure began to crumble, the standards of English players fell, compared to those of European players, and football hooliganism became widespread.

The nadir was reached when English soccer teams were banned for 5 years starting in 1985. Things got better when England performed well in the 1990 World Cup and reached the semi-finals. In addition, after the Hayworth tragedy, the decision was made to improve the infrastructure of stadiums in Great Britain.

The EPL was formed in 1992 by teams that decided to break away from the Football League, founded in 1888. Its main incentive was a television rights deal. They would also be free to negotiate their own endorsement deals.

However, television rights are sold collectively. From 1996-97 onwards, the tournament has been dominated by the big four, namely Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Manchester United have never been outside the top three, in any Premiership season.

This is the story of one of the richest soccer leagues in the world, with combined revenues exceeding $3 billion a year. It is also the best valued league in Europe by UEFA, ahead of La Liga in Spain and Serie A in Italy.

Since 1888, 23 teams have won the football league. The EPL that has completed 18 seasons has had 4 winners. Manchester United have won it 11 times, Arsenal and Chelsea 3 times each, and Blackburn Rovers once.

Once the EPL was created, the relationship between the Premier League and the football league was exactly similar to that between the first and second division football in the earlier era.

Initially there were 22 teams. This was reduced to 20 in 1995 when four teams were relegated and only 2 teams were promoted from the Football League (now called the Championship League).

From then on, FIFA wanted all European leagues to have no more than 18 teams, a move the EPL has resisted.

Of the 20 teams that participate in an EPL season, the bottom three are relegated and are replaced the following year by the top three teams from the Champions League (finalists and third-place winners play each other).

The top four teams in the EPL qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top three going directly into the group stage.