Premier League is England’s highest professional soccer league. It consists of England’s top 20 association football clubs. Soccer is called football or association football in much of the world. The Premier League is considered one of the best professional soccer leagues in the world, and it attracts many of the world’s best players. Outside England, the league is often called the English Premier League (EPL).
Beginning in 1888, the highest tier in English soccer was the single division Football League. Over the years, the league expanded to include 92 teams, organized into four divisions. In 1992, the Football League’s First Division teams broke away to form the Football Association (FA) Premier League. The 70 teams of the three lower divisions—including teams from Wales—remained in the Football League. The FA Premier League began with 22 clubs. That number was reduced to 20 in 1995, with 2 teams shifting to the Football League (now called the English Football League). The Premier League dropped FA from its title in 2007.
Seasonal play in the Premier League runs from August to May, with each club playing the others twice for a total of 38 matches. Most matches are played on weekend afternoons, but some contests take place on weeknights. Each season, at least four of the league’s teams qualify for the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s elite annual club tournament. UEFA stands for the Union of European Football Associations. The Premier League’s bottom three clubs are demoted to the top tier of the English Football League, replaced in turn by that league’s top three teams.
Manchester United FC has won more Premier League titles (13) than any other club. FC stands for football club. Other top league teams include Liverpool FC; London’s Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, and Tottenham Hotspur FC; and Manchester City FC.
In March 2020, the 2019-2020 EPL season was suspended because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, a contagious respiratory disease, first broke out in China in late 2019. It soon spread throughout the world. Most other sports leagues and sporting events around the world were similarly suspended or canceled. The Premier League resumed play in June 2020 and ended its 2019-2020 season in July.
