Premier League: All you need to know including, history, schedule, transfer windows and more

Add as preferred source on Google

Everything you need to know about the English Premier League, including the history of the competition, rules, league structure, schedule and more.

The English Premier League is set to return for the 2025/26 season with Arne Slot’s Liverpool looking to defend their crown.

Since its foundation in 1992, the Premier League has been the top tier in the English football pyramid, and the winners of the title are known as the champions of England.

Manchester United won the inaugural title in the 1992/93 season, to become the first Premier League champions, with Leeds United claiming the last old First Division crown the season before.

TBR Football brings you everything you need to know about the history of the Premier League and answers the key questions about the competition.

Premier League History

When was the Premier League founded?

The Premier League was founded in 1992, after the FA published the Blueprint for the Future of Football in 1991, which lent support to a plan for a breakaway top flight.

Although the Premier League is commercially independent from the FA, which allows it to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements, the FA retains ultimate oversight over the competition.

How many teams are in the Premier League?

Although there were 22 teams in the first Premier League season, the competition was reduced to a 20-team format, which remains in place today.

At the end of the 1994/95 season, four teams were relegated and only two promoted to allow the competition to reduce in size for the 1995/96 season.

Which team has won the most Premier League titles?

Only seven teams have lifted the Premier League title and, having dominated the competition in the 1990s under Sir Alex Ferguson, Man Utd lead the way with 13 titles.

They could have stretched their lead even further, having also finished as runner-up seven times. The full list of past Premier League winners is included below:

• Manchester United – 13
• Manchester City – 8
• Chelsea – 5
• Arsenal – 3
• Liverpool – 2
• Blackburn Rovers – 1
• Leicester City – 1

Premier League – League Structure

When does the Premier League season start and finish?

Typically, the Premier League season runs for nine months of the year, starting in the middle of August and running until the end of May.

The 2025/26 season kicks off on the weekend of the 15th August when Liverpool face Bournemouth and runs until the 24th May 2026.

How are points awarded in the Premier League?

The Premier League has a very simple scoring system, with three points awarded for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a defeat. There are no bonus points, unlike in other sports such as rugby union.

How many games are in a Premier League season?

As the Premier League contains 20 teams, each side plays a total of 38 games across the course of the season, playing each opponent once at home and once away.

Is there a winter break in the Premier League?

The Premier League trialled a winter break for several seasons. However, the presence of the Club World Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup means there will be no winter break this year.

Instead, the Premier League has built in a more relaxed festive schedule with a minimum break of 60 hours between match rounds.

How much is the Premier League prize money?

According to a report from Premierleague.com, Liverpool received a total of £174.9 million for winning the Premier League title last season.

Each club receives equal share payments for UK and International broadcast rights of £29.8 million and £59.2 million respectively, along with a commercial payment of £7.9 million.

The rest of the payment is then made up of a merit-based reward, ranging from £53.1 million paid to the champions to £2.6 million paid to Southampton, who finished bottom.

What is the Premier League transfer window?

The Premier League transfer window restricts the movement of players to two fixed periods within the season.

The longest period of player movement occurs between the end of one season and the beginning of the next. In 2025, the summer transfer window opened on the 15th June 2025 and will close on the 1st of September at 19:00 BST.

Clubs will have a second chance to strengthen their squads in the winter transfer window, which will run from Thursday, 1st January 2026 to Monday, 2nd February.

How does promotion and relegation work in the Premier League?

Every year, three teams are relegated from the Premier League and replaced by three teams from the Championship, which is the second tier of the English system.

The process of relegating teams is a simple one, with the bottom three teams (18th, 19th and 20th place) in the competition after 38 games relegated to the second tier.

Promotion is slightly more complicated. The teams that finish first and second in the Championship are automatically promoted.

However, the third promotion spot is awarded to the winner of the Championship play-offs, which are made up of the teams that finish between third and sixth in the second tier.