# Premier League > England's top professional football division, comprising 20 clubs since 1995/96, generating £6.3 billion in revenue and watched by 1.45 billion people globally in 2024/25. **Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads: · 4 takes · 2 lenses · 1 regions ## What it is The Premier League is England's top professional football division, comprising 20 clubs that compete from August through May each year. It operates as a private company limited by guarantee, with each member club holding one share and one vote. Rule changes and major commercial proposals require approval from at least 14 clubs (a two-thirds majority). The League is chaired by Alison Brittain CBE; Richard Masters serves as Chief Executive. The Football Association holds a special share but has no vote on commercial or operational matters. Three clubs are relegated each season to the second-tier English Football League Championship and replaced by three promoted clubs. ## History On 20 February 1992, the 22 clubs then comprising England's First Division resigned from the Football League en masse to take control of their own television rights. The inaugural Premier League season began on 15 August 1992. The founding catalyst was a landmark deal with BSkyB (now Sky Sports), which paid £304 million for a five-year agreement to screen live matches; the BBC took a highlights package and revived Match of the Day. The arrangement shifted English football from free-to-air broadcasting to a pay-television model. From the 1995/96 season onward the league contracted to 20 clubs, a structure that has not changed since. ## Current state As of the 2023/24 season, the 20 clubs generated aggregate revenue of £6.3 billion, up 4% year-on-year, comprising broadcast revenue of £3.3 billion, commercial revenue exceeding £2 billion for the first time, and matchday revenue above £900 million. The 2024/25 season attracted 1.45 billion viewers of live matches globally and filled 98.8% of stadium capacity at an average attendance of 40,459. A new financial regime, the Squad Cost Ratio, takes effect from 2026/27, capping on-pitch spending at 85% of a club's football revenue. The 2025/26 season operates under the previous Profitability and Sustainability Rules as a transition year. The summer 2026 transfer window (see [summer 2026 window](/ar/n/premier-league-transfers-jul1)) has recorded multiple large exits to La Liga clubs and fees exceeding £100 million on inbound deals, including the £116 million signing of Elliot Anderson by Manchester City. ## Relationships The Premier League sits beneath the FA in England's football governance pyramid and operates alongside the English Football League, which governs the Championship and two further professional tiers; promotion and relegation bind the two bodies. Clubs in European competition also answer to UEFA's financial fair-play regulations. Domestic broadcast rights are held by Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video; rights are sold in more than 200 territories worldwide. The UK government passed legislation in 2024 creating an Independent Football Regulator for English professional football, the first external statutory oversight body the League has faced. The regulator's scope over solidarity payments, promotion and relegation, and financial distributions is being defined ahead of its first full operating year in 2026. ## What to watch The 2026/27 Squad Cost Ratio will be the first binding test of the Premier League's new financial regime. Clubs carrying large wage bills and substantial transfer-fee payables, particularly those backed by sovereign or private-equity capital, face the most significant adjustment. The Independent Football Regulator's opening decisions in 2026 will clarify how much authority it holds over the Premier League's revenue-sharing arrangements with lower-league clubs. Domestic broadcast rights negotiations for the 2025-2028 cycle remain unresolved. The summer 2026 transfer window (see [summer 2026 window](/ar/n/premier-league-transfers-jul1)), already notable for record fees and net outflows to Spain, will serve as an early indicator of whether the SCR's shadow year has cooled spending before the cap formally applies in 2026/27. ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### official record - **Premier League** (United Kingdom, en) — Premier League's governance page: each of 20 member clubs holds one voting share, decisions require 14-club approval, the board is chaired by Alison Brittain CBE, and the Wates principles govern corporate conduct since 2021. Source: https://www.premierleague.com/en/about/governance - **Premier League** (United Kingdom, en) — 2024/25 Annual Report: 1.45 billion live viewers, 98.8% stadium capacity, 40,459 average attendance, £450 million Charitable Fund commitment through 2028, 104,500 UK jobs supported. Source: https://annual-report-24-25.premierleague.com/ - **Premier League** (United Kingdom, en) — Official account of the League's 1992 founding, including the mass resignation of 22 First Division clubs from the Football League and the first BSkyB broadcast deal worth £304 million over five years. Source: https://www.premierleague.com/en/history ### financial analysis - **Deloitte UK** (United Kingdom, en) — Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance: £6.3 billion total club revenue in 2023/24, commercial revenue exceeding £2 billion for the first time, aggregate operating profit over £0.5 billion, the highest since 2018/19. Source: https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/services/consulting/research/annual-review-of-football-finance-premier-league-clubs.html ## Across the graph - Related: [[premier-league-transfers-jul1]] - Entities: Premier League, Sky Sports, The Fa, Efl, Richard Masters --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ar/n/premier-league-dossier