Claim: Crystal Palace F.C. is a sports team.

The Premier League is an English professional league for men 's association football clubs . At the top of the English football league system , it is the country 's primary football competition . Contested by 20 clubs , it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League -LRB- EFL ; known as `` The Football League '' before 2016 -- 17 -RRB- . Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify .   The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders . Seasons run from August to May . Teams play 38 matches each -LRB- playing each team in the league twice , home and away -RRB- , totalling 380 matches in the season . Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons ; others during weekday evenings . It is colloquially known as the Premiership and outside the UK it is commonly referred to as the English Premier League -LRB- EPL -RRB- .   The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from the Football League , which was founded in 1888 , and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal . The deal was worth # 1 billion a year domestically as of 2013 -- 14 , with BSkyB and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively . The league generates $ 2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights . In 2014/15 , teams were apportioned revenues of # 1.6 billion .   The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world , broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people . In the 2014 -- 15 season , the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000 , second highest of any professional football league behind the Bundesliga 's 43,500 . Most stadium occupancies are near capacity . The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons .   While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992 , only six have won the title : Manchester United -LRB- 13 -RRB- , Chelsea -LRB- 5 -RRB- , Arsenal -LRB- 3 -RRB- , Manchester City -LRB- 2 -RRB- , Blackburn Rovers -LRB- 1 -RRB- and Leicester City -LRB- 1 -RRB- . The current champions are Chelsea , who secured the 2016 -- 17 title in early May 2017 .