England Premier League

Despite major European success in the 1970s and early 1980s, the mid-to-late 1980s marked a low point for English football. Stadiums were ageing with poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and English clubs faced a 5-year ban from European competition following the events of the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster. The 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 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 transforming into business ventures, applying commercial principles to club administration to maximise revenue. Martin Edwards of Manchester United, Irving Scholar of Tottenham Hotspur, and David Dein of Arsenal were among the key figures in this shift. Clubs received only around £25,000 per year from television rights before 1986, rising to £600,000 by 1988. The Football League secured £6.3 million for a two-year deal in 1986, rising to £44 million over four years in 1988 with ITV, with top clubs taking 75% of the income. The drive for greater revenue and influence led Division One clubs to threaten a breakaway from the Football League. As a result, they secured increased voting power and a 50% share of all television and sponsorship income in 1986. They also began demanding higher fees from broadcasters.

Negotiations took place in 1988 under the threat of ten clubs forming a "super league". They were persuaded to stay, but with leading clubs securing the bulk of the deal. The talks also revealed that the bigger clubs would need the entire First Division to gain enough support for a future breakaway. By the early 1990s, such a move was again being considered, especially as clubs faced the financial burden of stadium upgrades recommended 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 breakaway 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 the 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 Dein 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 1990–91 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 licence to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe. This restructuring marked the end of the 104-year-old Football League system that had operated until then with four divisions; the Premier League would run as a single division, with the Football League continuing with three.

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 £304 million 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, Middlesbrough, and Blackburn Rovers, promoted from the old Second Division. On 27 May 1992, the 22 First Division clubs resigned en masse from the Football League, and 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 league held its first season in 1992–93. The 22 inaugural members of the new Premier League were:

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

Manchester United won the inaugural edition of the new league, ending a twenty-six year wait to be crowned champions of England. Bolstered by this breakthrough, United quickly became the dominant force in the Premier League, winning seven of the first nine titles and securing two League and FA Cup doubles. They were initially led by experienced players such as Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce, Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona, before evolving into a younger, more dynamic side featuring Roy Keane and the Class of 92, a group of homegrown talents including David Beckham and Paul Scholes.

At the end of the 1994–95 season, four rather than three clubs were relegated, while only two were promoted from the Football League First Division. This allowed the Premier League to reduce its size from 22 to 20 clubs for the start of the 1995–96 season, reducing the number of matches per team from 42 to 38.

Between 1993 and 1997, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United came closest to challenging United’s early dominance. Blackburn, led by the prolific Alan Shearer, won the 1994–95 FA Premier League. Newcastle topped the table for much of the 1995–96 season, and signed Shearer in the summer of 1996 for a then world-record fee of £15 million. He would go on to become the all-time top scorer, a record he still holds. Arsenal emerged as serious contenders by winning the League and FA Cup double in 1997–98, and from that point they and Manchester United would go on to dominate the league for the next several years.

In the 1998–99 season, Manchester United completed a historic treble by winning the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. In so doing, they became the first English club to win the European Cup since Liverpool in the 1983–84 season, securing the trophy with a dramatic comeback victory over Bayern Munich in the final.

The 2000s saw Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United dominate the Premier League, forming the so-called "Big Four". Manchester United won five league titles (1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08), Arsenal claimed two (2001–02, 2003–04), while Chelsea rose to prominence with three under José Mourinho (2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10). Arsenal’s unbeaten 2003–04 season earned them the nickname "The Invincibles," the only team to achieve this in the Premier League era. Only three other clubs secured a top-four finish during the decade: Newcastle United (2001–02, 2002–03), Everton (2004–05), and Tottenham Hotspur (2009–10). However, the Big Four consistently dominated the top spots, with three of them finishing in the top four every season from 1999–2000 to 2009–10.

Premier League clubs were also highly competitive in Europe. Between 2005 and 2012, an English side reached seven of eight Champions League finals, with Liverpool (2005), Manchester United (2008), and Chelsea (2012) winning. Arsenal (2006), Liverpool (2007), Chelsea (2008), and Manchester United (2009, 2011) finished as runners-up. Leeds United were the only non-Big Four side to reach the semi-finals, doing so in 2000–01. Three English clubs made the semi-finals in 2006–07, 2007–08, and 2008–09—a feat only matched twice by other leagues.

In the UEFA Cup/Europa League, four Premier League teams reached the final between 2000 and 2010, with only Liverpool lifting the trophy in 2001. Arsenal (2000), Middlesbrough (2006), and Fulham (2010) all fell short.

The decade saw record-breaking points tallies, including Chelsea’s 95-point haul in 2004–05 and Manchester United’s three consecutive title wins (2006–07 to 2008–09). The rise of billionaire owners, including Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City (2008), began reshaping the league’s financial landscape, setting the stage for a more competitive 2010s.

After 2009, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City regularly broke into the top four, forming a "Big Six". In 2009–10, Tottenham finished fourth, the first new club to do so since Everton five years earlier.

Despite growing competition, criticism remains over the financial gap between elite clubs and the rest of the league. Manchester City's 2011–12 title win was the first by a club outside the "Big Four" since Blackburn Rovers in 1994–95. That season also saw Chelsea and Liverpool finish outside the top four for the first time since 1994–95.

With only four UEFA Champions League spots available, competition among the "Big Six" intensified. In the five seasons after 2011–12, Manchester United and Liverpool missed the top four three times, and Chelsea finished 10th in 2015–16. Arsenal’s 2016–17 fifth-place finish ended their 20-year top-four streak.

In 2015–16, Leicester City defied 5000/1 odds to win the league, becoming the first non-"Big Six" champion since Blackburn in 1994–95.

Financially, the "Big Six" hold outsized influence, arguing for a greater revenue share due to their global status and style of play. Critics argue that the league's egalitarian revenue model ensures long-term competitiveness. The 2016–17 Deloitte Football Money League highlighted the revenue gap. The "Big Six" each earned over €350 million, with Manchester United leading at €676.3 million. Leicester City was closest, with €271.1 million, boosted by Champions League participation. West Ham, eighth in revenue (€213.3 million), earned less than half of fifth-place Liverpool (€424.2 million).

TV broadcast deals accounted for a large portion of club revenues, with the top clubs earning between £150 million and nearly £200 million in 2016–17. By 2019, all "Big Six" clubs ranked in the world’s top ten richest.

From the 2019–20 season, video assistant referees were introduced in the league. That same season, Liverpool claimed their first Premier League title, comfortably finishing ahead of Manchester City and ending a 30-year wait for a top-flight trophy.

Project Big Picture, announced in October 2020 by Manchester United and Liverpool, proposed closer alignment between top Premier League clubs and the English Football League. The proposal drew criticism from Premier League leadership and the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

On 26 April 2021, play paused during a Leicester City v Crystal Palace match to allow Muslim players Wesley Fofana and Cheikhou Kouyaté to break their Ramadan fast. It was believed to be the first time a Premier League game was halted for this reason.

The 2022–23 season paused for six weeks between November and December to accommodate the first winter World Cup, returning for the traditional Boxing Day fixtures. That season, players chose to take the knee at select "significant moments", reaffirming their commitment to ending racial prejudice. The campaign also saw Newcastle United and Brighton break into the top six, finishing fourth and sixth respectively, while Tottenham and Chelsea ended up eighth and twelfth. Former champions Leicester City were relegated, becoming only the second Premier League-winning club to go down since Blackburn Rovers in 2011–12.

Manchester City won the Premier League for the sixth time in seven years in the 2023–24 season, becoming the first top-flight side in English football history to win four consecutive league titles.

City's run was finally ended in the 2024–25 season, as Liverpool secured their second Premier League title. The same season saw a record six English clubs qualify for the UEFA Champions League — made possible by Tottenham Hotspur winning the Europa League and the Premier League’s strong UEFA coefficient earning an extra spot. The 2020s has seen clubs such as Newcastle United and Aston Villa challenging at the top end of the table.