The Premier League is the top professional football league in England. It was formed in 1992 when clubs from the Football League First Division broke away to take advantage of lucrative television rights deals. The Premier League is a commercial operation with 20 member clubs that act as shareholders. It generates billions in revenue annually from domestic and international television rights. In recent decades, English football clubs have attracted foreign investors and owners from countries around the world as the Premier League has grown into a global brand.

1. The World of English Premier
League

2. Contents
1. History
2. English football league system
3. The Business of Football in England

3. INTRODUCTION
• Football in UK: organised on the basis of the four
countries (separately)- each having a national football
association responsible for the overall management of
football within their respective country.
• There is no United Kingdom national football team.
• It has been the most popular sport in the United
Kingdom since the 1860s.

4. History
 Football came together under a more formalized set of rules due
largely to its presence in schools.
 In 1863, a group of London-based schools came together to draw up
agreed set of rules.
11 schools formed the Football Association (FA), and modern football
was more or less officially born.
In 1871, England saw its first FA Cup, a competition between various
football clubs.
15 clubs participated, with Bolton Wanderers winning the first
championship. Some of the initial aspects of the game remain today –
both sides used 11 men on the pitch and touching the ball with the
hands was illegal (save for the goalkeeper).

5.  First Teams Formed: Though the game began as a lower-class sport, its official presence in
the country was within the upper classes, through its play in English schools.
 Working class, industrial cities all over England began forming their own Football
Associations in the late 1800s.
 Teams began popping up:
1863 Stoke City
1874 Aston Villa- Bolton Wanderers
1877 Wolverhampton Wanderers
1878 Manchester United - Everton
1880 Manchester City
1882 Tottenham Hotsburs
1886 Arsenal- Blackburn Rovers
1892 Liverpool- Newcastle United
1905 Chelsea
1932 Wigan Athletics

6.  1888: football in England had its first league, the aptly-named Football League, made up of
12 clubs: Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Everton, Preston North
End, Aston Villa, Derby County, Notts County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and
Wolverhampton Wanderers.
 League Two Divisions and 20 teams: From the formation of the Football League up through
World War I (1914), the League was the pinnacle of football in the country.
 Teams petitioned the League to join; the League than expanded into two divisions, and by
1914, there were 20 teams in each division.
 Game Attracts Bigger Crowds: As the league grew, so did football’s popularity.
 The crowd at the FA Cup final in 1888 was 17,000; in 1913, it had swelled to over 120,000.
 The total attendance in the first year of the League was 600,000, which climbed to 5 million
by the 1905-06 season, and was 9 million in Division I matches alone in 1914.
 Admittance in 1890 was generally around $2.30.
 The players themselves were earning around £3 a week, about £179 (or $285) today.
 By the early 20th century, footballers were being used to sell products, anything from
cigarettes to lotions.
 Football had become big business, years ahead of many of its sporting counterparts.

7. English football league system
• The system consists of a pyramid of leagues, bound together by the
principle of promotion and relegation: The most successful clubs in each
league can rise to a higher league, whilst those that finish at the bottom of
their league can find themselves sinking down a level.
• In addition to sporting performance, promotion is usually contingent on
meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning
appropriate facilities and finances.
• Below this, the levels have progressively more parallel leagues, which
each cover progressively smaller geographic areas. Many leagues have
more than one division.
• The seven levels immediately below the Premier League and Football
League are known as the National League System and come under the
jurisdiction of The Football Association.
• In the most recent major re-organisation, two new leagues were entered at
level six– the National League North and National League South.

9. Level League(s)/ Division(s)
1
Premier League
(Barclays Premier League)
20 clubs – 3 relegations
2
Football League Championship
(Sky Bet Championship)
24 clubs – 3 promotions, 3 relegations
3
Football League One
(Sky Bet League 1)
24 clubs – 3 promotions, 4 relegations
4
Football League Two
(Sky Bet League 2)
24 clubs – 4 promotions, 2 relegations
5
National League
(Vanarama National League)
24 clubs – 2 promotions, 4 relegations
6
National League North
(Vanarama National League North)
22 clubs – 2 promotions, 3 relegations
National League South
(Vanarama National
League South)
22 clubs – 2 promotions, 3
relegations
7
Northern Premier League Premier Division
(Evo-Stik League Northern Premier Division)
24 clubs – 2 promotions, 4 relegations
Southern Football League
Premier Division
24 clubs – 2 promotions, 4
relegations
Isthmian League Premier Division
(Ryman Football League
Premier Division)
24 clubs – 2 promotions, 4
relegations

10. Premier League
(Barclays Premier League)
Football League Championship
(Sky Bet Championship)
Football League One
(Sky Bet League 1)
Football League Two
(Sky Bet League 2)
National League
National League North
National League South
Northern Premier League Premier Division
Southern Football League Premier Division
Isthmian League Premier Division

11. English Premier League• The Premier League is an English professional league for men's association football clubs;
it is the country's primary football competition.
• Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the
Football League.
• Besides English clubs, the Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system
can also qualify to play.
• 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 matches each (playing each team
in the league twice, home and away) totalling 342 matches in the season.
• Most games are played in the afternoons of Saturdays and Sundays, the other games
during weekday evenings.
• It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and thus 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.
• This deal is worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB and BT Group
securing the domestic rights to broadcast the game respectively.
• The league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights.

13. • The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in
212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion
people.
• In the 2010–11 season, the average Premier League match attendance was
35,363, and stadium occupancy was 92% capacity.
• The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world,
with total club revenues of €2.48 billion in 2009–10.
• The Premier League had net profits in excess of £78 million, exceeding all other
football leagues.
• From 1993 through 2016, the Premier League has had title sponsorship rights sold
to two companies; Barclays was the most recent title sponsor, having sponsored
the Premier League from 2001 through 2017.
• 1992–1993: No sponsor (FA Premier League)
• 1993–2001: Carling (FA Carling Premiership)
• 2001–2004: Barclaycard (FA Barclaycard Premiership)
• 2004–2017: Barclays (Barclays Premier League; FA Barclays Premiership until
2007)
• The Premier League has a number of official partners and suppliers.

15. Premier League Winners
Manchester United
1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97,
1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03,
2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11,
2012-13
Chelsea 2004-05, 2005-06, 2009-10, 2014-15
Arsenal 1997-98, 2001-02, 2003-04
Manchester City 2011-12, 2013-14
Blackburn Rovers 1994-95

16. The Business of Football in England

17. Ownership and motives in English soccer
• The ownership structure of football clubs in England is significantly different from the model
adopted in other countries.
• The ownership of a limited company resides with the shareholders and that the shareholders are
motivated by profit.
• Even shareholders with purely commercial interests may have been more interested in the
success of the club from the perspective of generating income for their core business interests
rather than for any direct financial return.
• Business in Football= Success+ Profit.
• Football clubs in England have long attracted interest from local buyers, but as the Barclays
Premier League has grown in popularity around the world they have also found the attention of
prospective owners from abraod.
• In the past, English clubs were often owned by local merchants, whose businesses would often
have a connection with football or who made products that football supporters might buy. Liverpool
Football Club, for example, was for many years owned by members of the Moores family, which
had made its fortune from the Littlewoods football pools company.
• Manchester United, during its 132-year history, has been owned by a brewer, a clothing
manufacturer.
• “A businessman could derive personal and potentially commercial benefits from an association
with a football club”.

18. Foreign Investements in English Foot ball
• In Recent years, a new phenomenon has entered the world of football in
England: Foreign investements that resulted in owening English football clubs.
• Over time most of these clubs came to be concentrated in the hands of a small
number of wealthy individuals- usually because the limited company had fallen
into financial difficulties.
• This does not exclude the possibility that some owners of football clubs at
some times were motivated by profit.
• As an example, Ismik has announced his unsatisfactory of his experience in
Munchen 1860.
• “In spite of owning 60% of the club, I have faced lot of problems and obstacles
in Germany, and I feel regret. I am now turning my attention towards England. I
am planning to come to England, buy and own a Football club there. Also, we
have to invest in this country where football is special and full of motivation, joy,
and excitement. Football in England is very popular and many clubs, which
have a long history, take part in a strong premier league competition.”

19. • This explains the purchase of Manchester United by the Glazer family, which already
owned an American football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
• “The Glazers come from an NFL [National Football League, the highest level of
American professional football, a quite different game to English football or “soccer”]
background, but the one thing that they see that football has that the NFL doesn’t
have is the potential for global growth.”
• The timings of the Glazers’s takeover of Manchester United in 2005, Randy Lerner’s
purchase of Aston Villa in 2006 and the acquisition of Liverpool in 2007 by Tom Hicks
and George Gillett are a further indication that these U.S. businessmen are playing a
long game.
• “So, these were not short-term investments.”
• Whereas Chelsea’s 2003 purchase by Roman Abramovich and the 2008 acquisition
of Manchester City by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi seemed to signal English
football clubs would be owned by billionaires, there are only so many sheikhs and
oligarchs and they are anyway running their clubs to be break-even businesses.
• As clubs have been sold, for a mix of reasons– English shareholders wanting to cash
in, grounds and squads needing investment– principal interest has come from the
US, where there are acquisitive financiers and a culture of buying sports teams as
investments.

21. Clubs Owners %
Arsenal Stan Kroenke (US)
Alichir Ousmanov (Russia)
Dani Fizman (UK)
Lady Nina Bristol (UK)
Peter Hil Wood (UK)
Sir Chipps Kiswik (UK)
29.9%
26%
16.1%
15.9%
0.8%
0.3%
Aston Villa Randy Learner(US) 100%
Chelsea Roman Abramovich (Russia) 100%
Everton Bill Kean Wright (UK)
Robert Earil (UK)
John Woods (UK)
27%
23%
21%
Liverpool John Henry (US) 100%
Man. City Abu Dhabi Investment Group (UAE) 100%
Manchester United Malcolm Glazer (US) 100%
Newcastle United Michael Ashely (UK) 100%
Stoke City Peter Coats (UK) 100%
Sunderland Illis Shoort (US) 100%
Totenham Hotsburs Joe Luis (UK)
Others
85%
15%
West Ham United David Gold (UK) 45%

22. • As seen above from the table, six English football clubs
are owned by foreigners (4 US, 1 Russian, and 1 Arab).
• These investors are lured and attracted by:
English Premier League is N° 1 in the world: This makes
it a fertile area for making huge profits from ads,
High lucrative broadcasting rights that are generated and
shared equally by all the clubs,
High lucrative profits generated from other business
activities.
Since money is behind, the English Premier League has
been growing in importance. Also, what attracts foreign
investors are the high lucrative rights of broadcasts since
Sky Sports and BT Sports have paid 7 $.

23. • Although China is not an important country of football, the
Chinese investors have been more interested football clubs in
Europe, and England as such.
• Why?
Gaining worldwide reputation at the international scene;
Improving football in China, at both levels: clubs & National
team;
Building a powerful popular base for football;
Generating more profits from European football;
Helping Chinese football players to practice in European clubs;
Creating more football clubs fans in China and around the
world. i.e. successful commercial trade mark for the clubs;
Transferring Famous players into the Chinese Football League.

24. So why are they investing millions into English football?
• Heart over head:
• One explanation is that it has nothing to do with money.
• Many owners are simply fans of the clubs they own.
• While in the business world, the head can rule the heart, it can be the
opposite when it comes to football.

25. Making a mark
• Seven of the 20 largest football clubs in the world by revenue are sponsored by
Middle East airlines including Barclelona (Qatar Airlines), Real Madrid, Paris St
Germain, Arsenal, AC Milan (all Fly Emirates) and Manchester City (Etihad).
• After all, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain are all small but rich Gulf states with
global ambitions.
• Football is seen as an important way of expanding their brands: football is simply
being used as a geopolitical tool.
• Qatar: small & the richest nation on earth, having substantial oil reserves. By using
football, they are putting themselves on the map.
• Chelsea Football Club has cost Roman Abramovich a lot of money, but at the same
time has made him into a highly recognizable figure around the world.
• In recent years, the life of a Russian oligarch could be described as precarious. It
goes to show that being successful in business doesn't necessarily make you well-
known.
• So, buying a football club can give celebrity, notoriety and access to important
people.

26. Making money and cutting costs
• In England, Premier League clubs are proverbial cash cows with three
strong sources of revenue - TV money, commercial activities and gate
receipts.
• The Glazer Family bought Manchester United in 2006, recognizing the
immense value of its global brand as a cash generator and the opportunities
to enhance it even further.
• Eventually, the hope is that the club will essentially pay for itself leaving its
American owners in possession of a multi-billion pound asset.
• Dividends are not the only way to make money from football clubs.
• Therefore, growing revenues could increase the value of a club just like any
other business. In the English Premier League, commercial revenues have
grown strongly in recent years, as clubs look to cash in on the worldwide
popularity of the competition.
• Sponsorship deals now extend beyond the typical areas of shirts and kit
manufacturers to areas such as stadium naming rights.

27. Playing the lottery
• The financial gulf between the English Premier League and the
Championship is huge. The new TV deal that came into force this year will
widen the gap further.
• The three season deal between BSkyB and BT Sports is worth over £7 bn, a
whopping increase of 70% on the previous three-season contract held
between BSkyB and ESPN.
• Last season, the club finishing bottom of the Premier League had to make
do with £39m in TV money. This year, under the new deal, it will be £63m.
• The overall pot of TV money is greatest in the English Premier League.
• In other European leagues, TV rights are often negotiated on an individual
club rather than a collective basis. This means that TV money is
concentrated in the hands of the best supported clubs.
• Any team getting promoted to the Premier League enjoys a huge financial
windfall. Buying a Championship club is therefore like taking a punt on
property in an up-and-coming part of town.

33. New form of Investment
• Gulf Investments have recently increased and included exclusive sponsorship of T-shirts.
• Emirate and Qatarian companies have invested more than 160 bn € on six major major
leagues in Europe.
• Fly Emirates: Exclusive sponsorship on Man. City T- Shirt.
• Qatar Airways: Exclusive sponsorship with Barcelona F. C. (30 bn € per season)
• Profits:
• Emirates: 160 bn €
• German: 112 bn €
• US: 82 bn €
• Fly Emirates: the most successful company in the field.
• 2001: Exclusive deal for 3 years with Chelsea F. C. 40 bn $.
• 2006: the biggest deal with Arsenal F. C.: 150 bn € (sponsorship of T- shirt and Stadium's
name) for 15 years.
• Reasons:
• Generating profits from these deals through clubs’ presence in the web in order to attract
more viewers;
• Building strong prestige & fruitful trademark through integration with great Football clubs.

37. Any questions?