User:MingeyMPL/sandbox

PREMIER LEAGUE The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, 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. 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, totalling 380 matches in the season. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played during weekday evenings. It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and therefore 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.[1] This deal will be worth £3 billion as of 2013-14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively.[2] The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to an audience of 643 million viewers.[3] In the 2010–11 season the average Premier League match attendance was 35,363, the second highest of any professional football league behind the German Bundesliga,[4] and stadium occupancy was 92.2% full.[5] The Premier League ranked first in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the last five years, ahead of the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A.[6] Since 1888, a total of 23 clubs have been crowned champions of the English football system. Of the 45 clubs to have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, five have won the title: Manchester United (12 titles), Arsenal (3), Chelsea (3), Blackburn Rovers (1) and Manchester City (1). The current champions are Manchester City, who won the title in the 2011–12 season.

FOOTBALL LEAGUE The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League (reduced to 20 clubs in 1995). The Football League has been associated with a title sponsor since 1983. As this sponsor has changed over the years the league has been known in turn as the Canon League, the Today League, the Barclays League, the Endsleigh League, the Nationwide Football League and the Coca-Cola Football League, until the present sponsor npower was adopted in 2010, contracted until 2013. Since 1995 it has had 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are known as The Championship, League One, and League Two. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the Football Conference, thus integrating the League into the English football league system. Although primarily a competition for English clubs, one club from Wales also takes part, while in the past Swansea City, Wrexham, Newport County, Merthyr Town and Aberdare Athletic have been members. The Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition, and this body also organises two knock-out cup competitions, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy. The operations centre of The Football League is located in Preston, while its commercial office is in London.[3] It was formerly based in Lytham St. Annes, after its original spell in Preston.[4]