“Football didn’t start in 1992.” It didn’t, but it changed forever.
Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of the Premier League replacing the Football League First Division at the top of the English football tree.
Here’s what’s happened in those 30 years and how the Premier League and the world have changed.
30 years of Premier League in numbers
In the 30 years of the Premier League they have existed 11,656 games and 31.016 Gates. Those goals have come 2,528 Player.
There were 4,534 players in the Premier League, with 120 different nationalities. England goes ahead 1,632, with France second at 221 and Scotland third at 210.
Alan Shearer is the top scorer with 260 Goals (0.84% of all Premier League goals).
More players were shown a card – 3.217 (71% of players) – than scored a goal. There were 35,312 bookings and 1,701 Red cards. Richard Dunne, Duncan Ferguson and Patrick Vieira were each responsible for eight of those Reds. Gareth Barry’s 123 yellows is a record.
There were 50 various clubs in the Premier League, with seven win the title at least once – and 42 teams dismount. Manchester City, Blackburn and Leicester have both done so.
There were 955 goalless draws – that’s 8.2% of games. There have been 10 goals in five games and the most goals in a game is 11, Portsmouth’s 7-4 win over Reading in 2007.
And executives? There were 265 so far, including caretaker. The youngest were Steve Cooper and Erik ten Hag in the opening weekend.
Six managers have 100 per cent win-rates from brief interim spells, with Pat Rice winning all three games with Arsenal in 1996 prior to Arsene Wenger’s arrival. Of the full-time managers, Pep Guardiola has the best success rate – 74%.
Eighteen managers lost all their games. Fifteen were caretaker… and Frank de Boer was fired as Crystal Palace manager after four defeats in four games. Nottingham Forest’s Cooper and Manchester United’s Ten Hag are the others so they hope that number drops back to 16 soon…
And how many fans witnessed all this live? Premier League matches have a total attendance of 368 million. Many will be the same people, of course, but you know what we mean…
Can you name the player who has been involved each time the Premier League transfer record has been broken?
Score: 0 / 16
Start quiz
you scored 0/16
Share your score with your friends!
Give up!
How has the Premier League changed?
It’s fair to say things have changed dramatically since the 1992-93 season.
When the Premier League started, the back pass rule had just been introduced. Until 1992, goalkeepers could pick up the ball if a teammate returned it.
That caused a lot of confusion in the first few weeks as defenders and goalkeepers didn’t know what to do in a confined space.
There have been many other changes over the years.
Tackling from behind was only banned in 1998 and in recent years the rules for goal kicks, breaks and falling balls have also been changed.
Also, at the start of the Premier League, only the referee knew how much overtime there would be. The fourth official setting up the overtime board is a relatively new thing.
The Football News Show: The Premier League is only going to get bigger, says Shearer
The number of substitute players allowed has been increased. In the Premier League’s inaugural season, teams could name three substitutes on the bench and bring in two in each game. It’s five substitutions and nine-man benches this season.
But as the benches have grown, the league has shrunk. The first three seasons featured 22 teams – with 42 games per team – before adopting the current format of 20 teams, 38 games from 1995-96.
The European places have also changed. Believe it or not kids, up until 1997 only the champions qualified for the Champions League.
For example, Manchester United won the Premier League title and qualified for the Champions League in their inaugural season, Arsenal entered the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup by winning the FA Cup, and Aston Villa and Norwich entered the Uefa Cup.
Now seven teams qualify for Europe, the Cup Winners’ Cup is gone, the Uefa Cup is called the Europa League and there is a Europa Conference League. The Intertoto Cup was and is over.
Every game played at the same time on the last day now feels normal, but that wasn’t always the case. In 1992/93 there were nine games played on the final Saturday and two on Sunday – plus two more rescheduled games on Tuesday.
There were also far fewer foreign players. In 1992-93 only 15.6% of Premier League players were non-British. Last season it was 57.7%.
That’s partly because of the Bosman ruling. Until 1996, clubs were only allowed to field three foreign players in a European game, meaning teams were less inclined to have too many non-British players on their side.
Manchester United didn’t let Steve Bruce play for the Republic of Ireland at the 1994 World Cup because he would have counted as a foreigner in the Champions League.
Another aspect that might surprise young players reading is that until 2002/03 the only transfer deadline in each season was 31 March.
No Jim White/Sky Sports News/Countdown Clock extravaganzas twice a year. Teams have been able to sign players throughout the season up until the last few months.
Transfer deadline day: Memorable Premier League transfers
Oh, and the name. From 1993 to 2007 it was called the Premiership (or FA Carling Premiership, FA Barclaycard Premiership and FA Barclays Premiership to be precise). Since 2016 it’s only been the Premier League.
How has the world changed?
In 1992 the world looked very different. The Internet as we know it didn’t exist, and only a handful of people owned cell phones.
A trip to see family or friends meant arranging exactly when and where to meet in advance, and maybe bringing a physical card.
The USSR and Yugoslavia had just disintegrated into 20 separate states, while East and West Germany were re-merged and Czechoslovakia was still one state.
Rhythm is a Dancer by Snap! was one week in a six-week run at number one in Britain over the opening weekend of the Premier League.
£1.50 gets you a pint of lager and a penny in change. John Major was Prime Minister.
The popularity of audio cassettes and CDs caused many stores to stop selling music on vinyl. Funnily enough, this trend was reversed in 2021 when people spent more money on vinyl than CDs.
It was also a very different time to follow football.
This is how a generation of football fans used to get their news
With no internet or smartphones and *gulps* no ` Sport website, this meant TV, radio and print media were key.
The best way to follow the results on a Saturday was to fire up Ceefax or Teletext on your TV.
For your football news it was these two, local newspapers, radio or television. Statistically it was about getting a program for the game and the Rothmans Football Yearbook every summer.
Read more about the history of the Premier League (released to mark its 25th anniversary)…
… and try it yourself Premier League Quiz.
Comments are closed.