What is the predecessor of the Premier League?

Premier League History

Britain (England) is the birthplace of modern football. According to historical records, football activities similar to today's occurred in England in the Middle Ages. By the beginning of the 19th century, football had become quite popular in Britain. Due to the need to form a unified view on the football game, on October 26, 1863, relevant people gathered at the Fremason Hotel in Queen Street, London, to discuss and agree to the establishment of the Football Association. In addition to announcing the formal establishment of the Football Association, the meeting also formulated and adopted a relatively unified football competition rules, which is the prototype of modern football competition rules. Its establishment marked the birth of modern football.

As the English Football Association's status became increasingly consolidated and its influence across the country grew, a proposal to hold a Challenge Cup came up on July 20, 1871. This suggestion was put forward by Charles Alcock, secretary-general of the Football Association. He hoped to attract all members of the association to participate and promote exchanges among themselves by organizing the Challenge Cup. On October 16, 1871, the proposal was approved.

The English are proud not only of the fact that they founded the first football association, but also of organizing the first international match, which was the England representative match on November 30, 1872. team and the Scottish representative team. The establishment of the Football Association of England led to the vigorous development of football in some European and Latin American countries. Football associations were established in various countries one after another, thus promoting the establishment of FIFA and UEFA. It can be seen that England is undisputedly called the originator of modern football.

On December 6, 1882, representatives of the four football associations of the Commonwealth passed unified football competition rules in Manchester. In subsequent years, the rules were revised several times. Around 1881, the trend of professional football began, and the English Football Association recognized the legal status of professional football on June 20, 1885. However, on the issue of professionalism, the Football Association and FIFA have had sharp conflicts. The four football associations of the Commonwealth withdrew from FIFA twice respectively from 1920 to 1924 and from 1928 to 1946, and did not participate in any FIFA activities. It was not until 1958 that the two sides reached a consensus. In the same year, the Professional Footballers' Association was established in England.

In 1862, England's first football club, Nottinghamshire, was established. Since then, various football clubs in England have been established one after another. By 1870, there were 39 football clubs in England, and by 1881, there were 128 football organizations in England. Today, there are 160 professional football clubs in the country, 40 of which have a history of more than 100 years.

The Football Association Challenge Cup, founded in 1871, was the first all-England competition. The competition adopts a continuous elimination system. The two sides will play a game at a venue determined by drawing lots in advance to determine the outcome. The first Football Association Challenge Cup final in English history was held in 1872. It was held for 119 times from 1872 to 2000. Since the FA Cup is not only participated by first-class teams, but all teams in England can participate, it has frequent upsets and many strong teams were defeated by weak teams, so it is called As a "hotbed of violent cold". Today, English football is still developing and growing.

In order to expand the influence of football, the English Football Association made a decision on March 22, 1888 to establish a national First Division league. There are 12 participating teams in the first league. In the end, Preston won the first league championship and successfully defended it the following year. In 1892, the English Football Association began to hold the second division league; in 1920, the third division league appeared; in 1958, the D division league was added. At this point, the English Football League began to take shape, divided into four levels: A, B, C and D, and implemented a promotion and relegation system. The English Football League is the earliest and most complete national unified league in the world. Later, countries around the world widely adopted and learned from this league system. In 1992, in order to adapt to the growing development of football, the English Football Association founded the Super League on the basis of the First Division. The original B, C, and D leagues were upgraded accordingly.

The first Super League championship was won by the powerful Manchester United team.

Currently, the promotion and relegation system of the league is roughly as follows: the bottom three of the Super League each year are relegated to the First Division, the top two of the First League are directly promoted to the Super League, and the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth teams are directly promoted to the Super League. The famous players will play against each other at home and away to determine the two winners. Then, a match is held at a neutral stadium (usually Wembley Stadium) on a certain date to determine the third team to be promoted to the Super League. The promotion of Class B to Class A, the promotion of Class A to Class B, the promotion of Class C to Class B, and the demotion of Class B to Class C are the same as the super promotion and relegation system. However, the bottom four teams in Division C are relegated to Division D, and the top three teams in Division D are directly promoted to Division C. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh teams also play home and away matches to determine the two winners. Then, a match is held at a neutral stadium (usually Wembley Stadium) on a certain date to determine the fourth team to be promoted to the Third Division.