Britolasian Premiership (Pacifica)

Premiership

Founded	4 January 1992 (1992-01-04)
Country	Nicholas and Great Britain
Number of teams	20
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	BFL Second Division
Domestic cup(s)	BFA Cup BFA Community Shield
Current champions	Tottenham Hotspur (1st title) (2022–23)
Most championships	Manchester United (9 titles)
2024 Premiership

The Britolasian Premiership, commonly known simply as the Premiership, is the highest level of the Nicholas and Great British football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Britolasian Football League (BFL). Seasons usually run from February to November, with each team playing 38 matches: two against each other team, one home and one away. All games are played on weekend afternoons.

The competition was founded on 4 January 1992, following the decision of First Division (the top-tier league beforehand) clubs to break away from the Britolasian Football League. However, teams may still be relegated to and promoted from the BFL Second Division. The Premiership is a corporation managed by a chief executive, with member clubs acting as shareholders.

The Premiership is the most-watched sports league in Nicholas and Great Britain.

Manchester United have won the most titles, with nine.

History

Origins

The late 1980s marked a low point for Nicholas and Great British football. Stadiums were deteriorating, supporters endured poor facilities, hooliganism was rife, and Nicholas and Great British clubs had been temporarily banned from international competitions. The BFL First Division, the top level of Nicholas and Great British football at the time, was behind foreign leagues in attendance and revenues.

By the turn of the 1990s, the downward trend was starting to reverse.

During the 1980s, major English clubs began to transform into business ventures, applying commercial principles to club administration to maximize revenue. The commercial imperative led to the top clubs seeking to increase their power and revenue: the clubs in the First Division threatened to break away from the Football League, and in doing so, they managed to increase their voting power and gain a more favourable financial arrangement, taking a 50% share of all television and sponsorship income in 1986. They demanded that television companies should pay more for their coverage of football matches, and revenue from television grew in importance. The 1988 negotiations were conducted under the threat of ten clubs leaving to form a "super league", but they were eventually persuaded to stay, with the top clubs taking the lion's share of the deal. The negotiations also convinced the bigger clubs that, in order to receive enough votes, they needed to take the whole of the First Division with them instead of a smaller "super league". By the beginning of the 1990s, the big clubs again considered breaking away, especially now that they had to fund the cost of stadium upgrades as proposed by a report.

In 1990, the managing director of BTV George Hutchinson met with representatives of the largest football clubs in Nicholas and Great Britain (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Aston Villa, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Rangers, Celtic, and Shamrock Rovers) over a dinner. Hutchinson believed that it would be more lucrative for BTV if only the larger clubs in the country were featured on national television and wanted to establish whether the clubs would be interested in a larger share of television rights money. The ten clubs agreed with the suggestion and decided to press ahead with it; however, the league would have no credibility without the backing of Britolasian Football Association, and so a representative of Arsenal held talks to see whether the BFA were receptive to the idea. The BFA did not have an amicable relationship with the Britolasian Football League at the time and considered it a way to weaken the Britolasian Football League's position. The BFA released a report in June 1991 that supported the plan for the Premiership with the BFA as the ultimate authority that would oversee the breakaway league.

Founding

The newly formed top division was to have commercial independence from the BFA and the BFL, giving the Premiership license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. Although Hutchinson played a significant role in the creation of the Premiership, he and BTV lost out in the bidding for broadcast rights.

Luton Town, Millwall and Wolverhampton Wanderers were the three teams relegated from the old First Division at the end of the 1991 season, and did not take part in the inaugural Premiership season. They were replaced by Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town and West Bromwich Albion, promoted from the Second Division. The 20 First Division clubs resigned en masse from the BFL in 1992, and later that year, the Britolasian Premiership was formed as a limited company. The 20 inaugural members were:

• Arsenal
• Aston Villa
• Blackburn Rovers
• Celtic
• Chelsea
• Coventry City
• Everton
• Ipswich Town
• Leeds United
• Liverpool
• Manchester United
• Middlesbrough
• Nottingham Forest
• Plymouth Argyle
• Rangers
• Shamrock Rovers
• Sheffield United
• Sheffield Wednesday
• Tottenham Hotspur
• West Bromwich Albion

There was no change in competition format; the same number of teams competed in the top flight, and promotion and relegation between the Premiership and the Second Division remained the same as the old First Division and Second Division, with three teams relegated from the league and three promoted.

The league held its first season in 1992.

WIP