Monday, February 27, 2012

TWENTY YEARS OF EPL


 In late eighties  when England football was in a real crisis situation, they started a domestic league for overcoming that situation &  improving their standard in world football. There was a time in late eighties  when  the organizers  of UEFA Champions league authority  denied to take any British club in their tournaments regarding the death of 56 people after a fire at Bradford City’s Valley Parade ground in 1985, the disaster in Heysel Stadium in the same year& the  nasty activities of British Hooligans. Due to those incidents UEFA authorities banned British clubs for five years from taking part of their club cup tournaments. Situations started to improve once again when England reached in the semi-final of the World Cup in Italy, 1990,in the same year UEFA authority lifted that ban on British clubs, result Man U lifted the trophy in 1991. Though it was not sufficient enough to save British clubs, there were not any  good endorsements for the football in England, players started to move away in the other countries the condition in stadiums were very poor. The popularity of Football league was gone towards the bottom, even the standard & popularity have gone down  of La-Liga, Serie A & Bundesliga.
                         Then top 22 teams of First Division introduced this new format of English Premier League on 20th February 1992 for taking advantage of a lucrative television rights deal which provided an additional financial boost, was  very much necessary for British football. EPL Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion & relegation with the football league, it changed the landscape of English football forever.
                        The inaugural version of the EPL was held on 1992-93 and was originally composed of 22 clubs. The first ever Premier League goal was scored by Brian Deane of Sheffield United in a 2–1 win against Manchester United. 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 a total of 38 games. At the end of each season, the club with the most points is crowned the champion & three lowest placed teams are relegated. Barclay is the current official sponsor of EPL since 2007, so it is named Barclays Premier league now.
                     In the inaugural season of EPL, Manchester United became the champion, their tradition is still going on ahead, out of past nineteen  EPL championships Man U became twelve times winner of that crown. Apart from Man U the other teams could be the champion in seven times only, Blackburn Rovers once in 1994-95, Arsenal  thrice 1997-98, 2001-02, 2003-04 & Chelsea thrice also 2004-05, 2005-06, 2009-10. As the Premier League prepares to enter its third decade there has again been a change of emphasis at the summit, with Manchester City emerging as both a new force and a legitimate championship contender after a concerted influx of the foreign talent which continues to enlighten the division.
                     The EPL is not at all artistic, skillful & lucrative like Spanish La-Liga rather it is full of power, energy & strength, the footballers have to tolerate very hard-tackle in that version, EPL is all about power& stamina. Whatever EPL in its 20th session, day by day its gaining popularity & success. Success in Europe has not been limited to the country’s biggest sides, though, and the Premier League has been well represented in UEFA competitions during the last 20 years.

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