Fall Asleep While Learning About The Premier League

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about the Premier League in soccer. Don't get too excited about this one. All you'll learn about is team names (with totally accurate pronunciations by yours truly), leagues, businesses, and stats about teams. I can feel myself floating away just writing this. Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article recommended by Everett,

Titled Premier League.

The Premier League is the highest level of the English football league system.

Contested by 20 clubs,

It operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League EFL.

Seasons usually run from August to May with each team playing 38 matches,

Two against each other,

One home and one away.

Most games are played on weekend afternoons with occasional weekday evening fixtures.

The competition was founded as the FA Premier League on the 20th of February 1992,

Following the decision of First Division,

The top-tier league from 1880 until 1992,

Clubs,

To break away from the English Football League.

However,

Teams may still be relegated to and promoted from the EFL championship.

The Premier League takes advantage of a £5 billion television rights deal with Sky and BT Group,

Securing domestic rights to broadcast 128 and 32 games,

Respectively.

This deal will rise to £6.

7 billion for the four seasons from 2025 to 2029.

The league is projected to earn $7.

2 billion in overseas TV rights from 2022 to 2025.

The Premier League is a corporation managed by a chief executive,

With member clubs acting as shareholders.

Clubs were apportioned central payment revenues of £2.

4 billion.

Clubs were apportioned central payment revenues of £2.

4 billion in 2016-17,

With a further £343 million in solidarity payments to EFL clubs.

The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world,

Broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes,

With a potential TV audience of 4.

7 billion people.

For the 2018-19 season,

The average Premier League match attendance was 38,

181,

Second to the German Bundesliga's 43,

500,

While aggregated attendance across all matches was the highest of any association football league,

At 14,

508,

981,

And most stadium occupancies are near-capacity.

As of 2023,

The Premier League is ranked first in the UEFA coefficient rankings,

Based on performances in Europe competitions over the past five seasons,

Ahead of Spain's La Liga.

The English top flight has produced the second-highest number of European Cup UEFA Champions League titles,

With a record six English clubs having won 15 European Championships in total.

Fifty-one clubs have competed in the Premier League since its inception in 1992,

49 from England and two from Wales.

Seven of them have won the title,

Manchester United,

13,

Manchester City,

8,

Chelsea,

5,

Arsenal,

3,

Blackburn Rovers,

1,

Leicester City,

1,

And Liverpool,

1.

Manchester United have won the most titles with 13,

While Manchester City hold the distinction of having won the most successive titles with four.

Only six clubs have played in every season to date,

Arsenal,

Chelsea,

Everton,

Liverpool,

Manchester United,

And Tottenham Hotspur.

Despite significant European success in the 1970s and early 1980s,

The late 1980s marked a low point for English football.

Stadiums were deteriorating,

Supporters endured poor facilities,

Hooliganism was rife,

And English clubs had been banned from European competition for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster between the fans of Liverpool Football Club and the fans of the Old Lady in 1985.

Football League First Division,

The top level of English football since 1888,

Was behind leagues such as Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga in attendance and revenues,

And several top English players had moved abroad.

By the turn of the 1990s,

The downward trend was starting to reverse.

At the 1990 FIFA World Cup,

England reached the semi-finals.

UEFA,

European football's governing body,

Lifted the five-year ban on English clubs playing in European competitions in 1990,

Resulting in Manchester United lifting the Cup Winners' Cup in 1991.

The Taylor Report on Stadium Safety Standards,

Which proposed expensive upgrades to create all-seater stadiums in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster between the fans of Liverpool again and the fans of Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium Sheffield Yorkshire on 15 April 1989,

Was published in January 1990.

During the 1980s,

Major English clubs began to transform into business ventures,

Applying commercial principles to club administration to maximize revenue.

Martin Edwards of Manchester United,

Irving Scholar of Tottenham Hotspur,

And David Dean of Arsenal were among the leaders in this transformation.

The commercial imperative led to the top clubs seeking to increase their power and revenue.

The clubs in Division One threatened to break away from the Football League,

And in doing so they managed to increase their voting power and gain a more favourable financial arrangement,

Taking a 50% share of all television and sponsorship income in 1986.

They demanded that television companies should pay more for their coverage of football patches,

And revenue from television grew in importance.

The Football League received £6.

3 million for a two-year agreement in 1986,

But by 1988,

In a deal agreed with ITV,

The price rose to £44 million over four years,

With the leading clubs taking 75% of the cash.

According to Scholar,

Who was involved in the negotiations of television deals,

Each of the first division clubs received only around £25,

000 per year from television rights before 1986.

This increased to around £50,

000 in the 1986 negotiation,

Then to £600,

000 in 1988.

The 1988 negotiations were conducted under the threat of ten clubs leaving to form a Super League,

But they were eventually persuaded to stay,

With the top clubs taking the lion's share of the deal.

The negotiations also convinced the bigger clubs that,

In order to receive enough votes,

They needed to take the whole of the first division with them instead of a smaller Super League.

By the beginning of the 1990s,

The big clubs again considered breaking away,

Especially now that they had to fund the cost of stadium upgrades as proposed by the Taylor Report.

In 1990,

The Managing Director of London Weekend Television,

LWT,

Greg Dyke,

Met with the representatives of the Big Five football clubs in England – Manchester United,

Liverpool,

Tottenham Hotspur,

Everton and Arsenal – over a dinner.

The meeting was to pave the way for a break away from the Football League.

Dyke believed that it would be more lucrative for LWT if only the larger clubs in the country were featured on national television,

And wanted to establish whether the clubs would be interested in a larger share of television rights money.

The five clubs agreed with this suggestion and decided to press ahead with it.

However,

The league would have no credibility without the backing of the Football Association,

And so David Dean of Arsenal held talks to see whether the FA were receptive to the idea.

The FA did not have an amicable relationship with the Football League at the time,

And considered it a way to weaken the Football League's position.

The FA released a report in June 1991,

Blueprint for the Future of Football,

That supported the plan for the Premier League,

With the FA as the ultimate authority that would oversee the breakaway league.

At the close of the 1990-1991 season,

A proposal was tabled for the establishment of a new league that would bring more money into the game overall.

The Founder-Members Agreement,

Signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top flight clubs,

Established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League.

The newly formed top division was to have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League,

Giving the FA Premier League license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements.

The argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe.

Although Dyke played a significant role in the creation of the Premier League,

He and ITV,

Of which LWT was part,

Lost out in the bidding for broadcast rights.

BSkyB won with a bid of £304m over five years,

With the BBC awarded the highlights package broadcast on Match of the Day.

Luton Town,

Notts County and West Ham United were the three teams relegated from the old First Division at the end of the 1991-92 season,

And did not take part in the inaugural Premier League season.

They were replaced by Ipswich Town,

Middlesburg and Blackburn Rovers,

Promoted from the old Second Division.

The 22 First Division clubs resigned en masse from the Football League in 1992,

And on 27 May that year,

The FA Premier League was formed as a limited company,

Working out of an office at the Football Association's then headquarters in Lancaster Gate.

The 22 inaugural members of the FA Premier League 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,

Queen's Park Rangers,

Sheffield United,

Sheffield Wednesday,

Southampton,

Tottenham Hotspur,

Wimbledon.

This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions.

The Premier League would operate with a single division,

And the Football League with three.

There was no change in competition format,

The same number of teams competed in the top flight,

And promotion and relegation between the Premier League and the new First Division remained the same as the old First and Second Divisions.

The Premier League was the only club in the world to have a single-division remain the same as the old First and Second Divisions,

With three teams relegated from the League and three promoted.

The League held its first season in 1992-93.

It was composed of 22 clubs for that season,

Reduced to 20 in the 1995-96 season.

The first Premier League goal was scored by Brian Dean of Sheffield United in a 2-1 win against Manchester United.

Manchester United won the inaugural edition of the new League,

Ending a 26-year wait to be crowned champions of England.

Bolstered by this breakthrough,

United immediately became the competition's dominant team,

Winning seven of the first nine trophies,

Two League and FA Cup doubles,

And a European treble,

Initially under a team of hardened veterans such as Brian Robson,

Steve Bruce,

Paul Incey,

Mark Hughes,

And Eric Cantona,

Before Cantona,

Bruce,

And Roy Keane led a young,

Dynamic new team filled with a class of 92,

A group of young players including David Beckham,

Who came through the Manchester United academy.

Between 1993 and 1997,

Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United came close to challenging Manchester United's early dominance.

Blackburn won the 1994-95 FA Premier League and Newcastle led the title charge over United for much of the 1995-96 season.

As the decade closed,

Arsenal replicated Manchester United's dominance by winning the League and FA Cup double in 1997-98,

And together they would form a duopoly over the League between 1997 and 2003.

The 2000s saw the rise of Liverpool alongside the Big Two,

Followed by Chelsea finally breaking the Arsenal-Man United duopoly by winning the League in 2004-2005.

The dominance of the so-called Big Four clubs,

Arsenal,

Chelsea,

Liverpool,

And Manchester United,

Saw them finish at the top of the table for most of the decade,

Thereby guaranteeing qualification for the UEFA Champions League.

Only three other clubs managed to qualify for the competition during this period,

Newcastle United 2001-02 and 2002-03,

Everton 2004-05,

And Tottenham Hotspur 2009-10.

Each occupying the final Champions League spot,

With the exception of Newcastle in the 2002-03 season,

Who finished third.

Following the 2003-04 season,

Arsenal acquired the nickname The Invincibles as they became the first and,

To date,

Only club to complete a Premier League campaign without losing a single game.

In May 2008,

Kevin Keegan stated that Big Four dominance threatened the division.

This league is in danger of becoming one of the most boring but great leagues in the world.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said in Defence,

There are a lot of different tussles that go on in the Premier League,

Depending on whether you're at the top,

In the middle,

Or at the bottom,

That make it interesting.

Between 2005 and 2012,

There was a Premier League representative in seven of the eight Champions League finals,

With only the Big Four clubs reaching that stage.

Liverpool 2005,

Manchester United 2008,

And Chelsea 2012 won the competition during this period,

With Arsenal 2006,

Liverpool 2007,

Chelsea 2008,

And Manchester United 2009 and 2011 all losing Champions League finals.

Leeds United were the only non-Big Four side to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League in the 2000-2001 season.

There were three Premier League teams in the Champions League semi-finals in 2006-07,

2007-08,

And 2008-09.

A feat only ever achieved five times,

Along with Serie A in 2002-03 and La Liga in 1999-2000.

Additionally,

Between the 1999-2000 and 2009-2010 seasons,

Four Premier League sides reached the UEFA Cup or Europa League finals,

With only Liverpool managing to win the competition in 2001.

Arsenal 2000,

Middlesbrough 2006,

And Fulham 2010 all lost their finals.

Although the group's dominance was reduced to a degree after this period with the emergence of Manchester City and Tottenham,

In terms of all-time Premier League points won,

They remain clear by some margin.

As of the end of the 2021-22 season,

The 30th season of the Premier League,

Liverpool in fourth place in the all-time points table were over 300 points ahead of the next team,

Tottenham Hotspur.

They are also the only teams to maintain a winning average of over 50% throughout their entire Premier League tenures.

The years following 2009 marked a shift from the big four with Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City breaking into the top four places on a regular basis,

Turning the big four into the big six.

In the 2009-2010 season,

Tottenham finished fourth and became the first new team to finish in the top four since Everton five years prior.

Criticism of the gap between an elite group of superclubs and the majority of the Premier League has continued,

Nevertheless,

Due to their increasing ability to spend more than the other Premier League clubs.

Manchester City won the title in the 2011-12 season,

Becoming the first club outside the big four to win since Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season.

That season also saw two of the big four,

Chelsea and Liverpool,

Finish outside the top four places for the first time since that season.

With only four UEFA Champions League qualifying places available in the league,

Greater competition for qualification now exists,

Albeit from a narrow base of six clubs.

In the five seasons following the 2011-2012 campaign,

Manchester United and Liverpool both found themselves outside of the top four,

And the Premier League was the only club to both found themselves outside of the top four three times,

While Chelsea finished 10th in the 2015-16 season.

Arsenal finished fifth in the 2016-17,

Ending their record run of 20 consecutive top four finishes.

In the 2015-16 season,

Underdogs Leicester City won the Premier League,

With 5,

000-1 odds of winning the league at the beginning of the season.

Leicester became the first club outside the big six to win the Premier League since Blackburn Rovers in the 1994-95 season.

Off the pitch,

The big six wield significant financial power and influence,

With these clubs arguing that they should be entitled to a greater share of revenue due to the greater stature of their clubs globally and the attractive football they aim to play.

Objectors argue that the egalitarian revenue structure of the Premier League helps to maintain a competitive league which is vital for its future success.

The 2016-17 Deloitte Football Money League report showed the financial disparity between the big six and the rest of the division.

All of the big six had revenues greater than 350 million euros,

With Manchester United having the largest revenue in the league at 676.

3 million euros.

Leicester City was the closest club to the big six in terms of revenue,

Recording a figure of 271.

1 million euros for that season,

Helped by participation in the Champions League.

The eighth-largest revenue generator,

West Ham,

Who did not play in European competition,

Had revenues of 213.

3 million euros,

Less than half of those of a club with the fifth-largest revenue,

Liverpool,

At 424.

2 million euros.

A substantial part of a club's revenue by then came from television broadcast deals,

With the biggest clubs each taking from around 150 million pounds to nearly 200 million pounds in the 2016-17 season from such deals.

In Deloitte's 2019 report,

All the big six were in the top 10 of the world's richest clubs.

From the 2019-20 season,

Video assistant referees were used in the league.

The 2019-20 season saw Liverpool win their first Premier League trophy,

Their first top-flight trophy in 30 years.

Project Big Picture was announced in October 2020 that described a plan to reunite the top Premier League clubs with the English Football League,

Proposed by leading Premier League clubs Manchester United and Liverpool.

It has been criticised by the Premier League leadership and the UK Government's Department for Culture,

Media and Sport.

On 26 April 2021,

Play was stopped during a match between Leicester City and Crystal Palace to allow players Wesley Fofana and Chico Coyote to break Ramadan fast.

It is believed to be the first time in Premier League history that a game was paused to allow Muslim players to eat and drink after the sun had set in accordance with the rules of the faith.

The Football Association Premier League Ltd,

FAPL,

Is operated as a corporation and is owned by the 20-member clubs.

Each club is a shareholder,

With one vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts.

The clubs select a chairman,

Chief executive and board of directors to oversee the daily operations of the league.

The Football Association is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the Premier League,

But has veto power as a special shareholder during the election of the chairman and chief executive and when new rules are adopted by the league.

The current chief executive is Richard Masters,

Who was appointed in December 2019.

The chair is currently Alison Britton,

Who took over the role in early 2023.

The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Association,

The number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients.

For the 2023-24 season,

The Premier League has 13 representatives in the association.

Arsenal,

Aston Villa,

Brighton & Hove,

Albion,

Chelsea,

Everton,

Liverpool,

Manchester City,

Manchester United,

Newcastle United,

Nottingham Forest,

Tottenham Hotspur,

West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The European Club Association is responsible for electing three members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee,

Which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

There are 20 clubs in the Premier League.

During the course of a season from August to May,

Each club plays the others twice,

A double round-robin system,

Once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for 38 games.

Teams receive three points for each round-robin their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for 38 games.

Teams receive three points for a win and one point for a draw.

No points are awarded for a loss.

Teams are ranked by total points,

Then goal difference,

And then goals scored.

If still equal,

Teams are deemed to occupy the same position.

If there is a tie for the championship,

For relegation,

Or for qualification to other competitions,

The head-to-head record between the tied teams is taken into consideration.

Points scored in the matches between the teams,

Followed by away goals in those matches.

If two teams are still tied,

A playoff match at a neutral venue decides rank.

A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Premier League and the EFL Championship.

The three lowest-placed teams in the Premier League are relegated to the Championship and the top two teams from the Championship promoted to the Premier League,

With an additional team promoted after a series of playoffs involving the third,

Fourth,

Fifth,

And sixth-placed clubs.

The number of clubs was reduced from 22 to 20 in 1995,

When four teams were relegated from the league,

And only two teams promoted.

The top flight had only been expanded to 22 teams at the start of the 1991-92 season,

The year prior to the formation of the Premier League.

On 8 June 2006,

FIFA requested that all major European leagues,

Including Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga,

Be reduced to 18 teams by the start of the 2007-08 season.

The Premier League responded by announcing their intention to resist such a reduction.

Ultimately,

The 2007-08 season was cancelled,

Ultimately the 2007-08 season kicked off again with 20 teams.

Reviews

I didn't learn anything but I slept like I was getting paid to sleep. Thank you!

Thank you, Benjamin! That was kind of interesting actually. Well, until it wasn’t! 😂😂
If you really want to bore people to sleep, data management and data risk are always good for that! (It’s my job, right now my area in data risk relates to retention and disposition but I worked in data management before). People will really snooze through metadata and anything related to data management. Great party conversation too if you’re trying to get rid of someone. 😂😂😂