UK Pro Soccer Teams Facts

The United Kingdom was the first country to standardize the rules of soccer, or football as it was called by the English Football Association (FA), the first governing body for soccer in the world. The FA introduced professionalism into soccer in 1885.

  1. History

    • The Football League website reports that following the introduction of professional soccer players in 1885 England’s soccer teams did not have the finances to pay players under the system operated by the FA of exhibition games and the FA Cup competition. In 1888, 12 English soccer teams formed the world’s first professional soccer league, known as the Football League, consisting of teams from the Midlands and Northern England.

    Wages

    • According to the Spartacus Educational website, in an attempt to control the amount of money spent on wages by professional soccer teams, a maximum wage of around $6 for the 1901/02 season. The maximum wage for the United Kingdom’s professional soccer teams was held in place by the FA and the Football League until 1960. Spartacus Educational explains that the U.K.’s Professional Footballers Association threatened a strike that eventually led to the abolition of the maximum wage, leaving U.K. soccer teams to control their own budgets with unofficial salary caps.

    England

    • According to the Football League website, the English professional soccer system is split into four divisions, the Premier League, Championship, League 1 and League 2. The English Premier League and Championship are two of the four most watched professional soccer leagues in Europe. The Football League is made up of 72 professional soccer teams in England and a number of clubs from Wales. The Premier League in England is the elite league for English teams and is made up of 20 teams.

    Premier League

    • The Premier League website reports the league’s establishment by England’s top 22 professional soccer teams in 1992. The top 22 English teams to control their own finances as the league is independent of the FA and the Football League. At the end of the 1994-95 season the Premier league was reduced to 20 teams. The initial deal for TV rights to the Premier League brought the soccer teams around $288 million over five years. The deal from 2007 to 2010 brought the top teams a total of $2.5 billion. The most successful team in Premier League history is Manchester United with a total of 11 Premier League titles since the league’s inception.

    Scotland

    • The other U.K. professional league is based in Scotland, with a similar system to the English model of a Premier League and three divisions beneath it. The Scottish Premier League website reports the top 10 Scottish teams formed the Premier League that began on Aug. 1, 1998. The Scottish Premier League through the 2009-2010 season has been won by two teams. The Glasgow Rangers has won five of the 11 titles awarded, while Glasgow Celtic has won the other six.