The Barclays Premier League was formed in 1992 as a response by English football's biggest clubs to a variety of serious challenges and as a way of taking advantage of new opportunities.

English football had reached a low point in the 1980s, plagued by hooliganism and old-fashioned stadia, with the Football League First Division lagging behind rival European leagues, such as Italy's Serie A and Spain's La Liga, in terms of attendances and revenue.

English teams had been banned from European competition for five years, after the deaths of 39 Italian fans at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium in 1985. Then, four years later, 96 Liverpool fans died and more than 150 were injured at the FA Cup semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium.

Following the disaster, the British Government-sponsored report, by Lord Justice Taylor, recommended a complete overhaul in the way football grounds were run, including the introduction of all-seater stadia.

However, this only served to increase concern among the top clubs, who were faced with the massive cost of implementing the recommendations and worries about attendance levels and the difficulty of attracting high-quality players from around the world.

The chance to partially meet these costs through higher television revenues and to drive the game forward was the catalyst for the decision by a breakaway group of First Division teams to exert their independence from both the Football League and the Football Association.

The 22 clubs felt this would allow them to capitalise on the upturn in football's popularity and so they resigned from the Football League in February 1992 and formed the Premier League three months later.

As planned, revenues increased sharply with a new broadcast deal agreed with Sky TV, bringing in what was then a massive £38.5 million per year over five years, which has since risen to £1.7 billion in the current deal, from 2007 to 2010, with Sky and Irish broadcaster Setanta.

A succession of lucrative sponsorship deals have also boosted the clubs' spending power. Carling paid £12 million for a four-year deal, which they renewed for a further four years until 2001. Barclaycard took over and paid £45 million for three years as the title sponsor and were replaced by Barclays in 2004, which renewed its three-year deal in 2007 for almost £66 million.

Originally containing 22 clubs, the League was trimmed to 20 in 1995, in accordance with FIFA regulations, with four teams relegated and only two coming up from Division One.

Since the inaugural 1992-93 season, 42 teams have taken their place in the top division. The first winners were Manchester United, who have dominated the Premier League era with 10 Championship crowns – one of only four teams to have taken the title.

Arsenal have won it three times – twice claiming League and FA Cup doubles – while London rivals Chelsea won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006. Blackburn Rovers are the only other team to break this domination by winning the Premier League in 1995.