Football Association Premier League

The Football Association Premier League Ltd (FAPL) is responsible for entire operating business of the Premier League and Championship, it's a corporation and is owned by the 24 member clubs. Each club is a shareholder, with 1 vote each on issues such as rule changes and contracts.

The Premier League is a private company wholly owned by its 20 Member Clubs who make up the League at any one time.

Each individual club is independent, working within the rules of football, as defined by the Premier League, The FA, UEFA and FIFA, as well as being subject to English and European law.

Each of the 20 clubs are a Shareholder in the Premier League. Consultation is at the heart of the Premier League and Shareholder meetings are the ultimate decision-making forum for Premier League policy and are held at regular intervals during the course of the season.

The Premier League AGM takes place at the close of each season, at which time the relegated clubs transfer their shares to the clubs promoted into the Premier League from the Football League Championship.

Clubs have the opportunity to propose new rules or amendments at the Shareholder meeting. Each Member Club is entitled to one vote and all rule changes and major commercial contracts require the support of at least a two-thirds vote, or 14 clubs, to be agreed.

The Premier League Rule Book, contained within the Handbook (Download: Premier League Handbook; PDF 8MB), serves as a contract between the League, the Member Clubs and one another, defining the structure and running of the competition.

Any serious breach of the Rule Book results in an independent three-person tribunal sitting to hear the case, ascertain guilt and set the punishment, which can range from fines to points deductions and, in extreme cases, expulsion from the competition (this has never happened in the history of the Premier League).

The Premier League head office is based in Brunel Building, 57 North Wharf Road, central London. The organisation has a staff of 191 people who deliver across a range of roles including football, coach development, community, youth development, safeguarding, broadcast, commercial, communications, digital, finance, legal, marketing and policy.

https://www.premierleague.com/about/statement-of-principles

## **Duties**

The FAPL itself divides its operating business into the areas of operation and licensing. The "operations" business area includes, in particular, the management of the licensed players' activities and the organisation of the competitions of the Premier League and Championship, along with the Championship promotion play-offs.

The 2nd business area, "licensing", the FAPL applies the procedure for the clubs of the Premier League under a business contract. In doing so, the FAPL will examine the extent to which the individual clubs fulfill the requirements for participation in the professional football competitions. The list of requirements includes sporting, financial, legal, infrastructural, personnel, administrative, media, and safety-related criteria. Highly important, and to date the only criterion which led to major problems for certain clubs, is the financial criterion. With this criterion the FAPL tries to ascertain that all clubs remain solvent during the season in order to be able to maintain the club operations for as long as possible. The FAPL can refuse to issue a license if a club does not meet these requirements.

With 23 other national professional league associations, the FAPL is founding member of the World Leagues Forum, founded in Zürich in February 2016. The organisation aims, among other things, to centrally combine and represent the interests of the professional leagues and their common views before FIFA and other institutions engaged in sports and politics.

## **Board**

The 24 clubs elect a chairman, vice-chairman, CEO and 3 board of directors to oversee the daily operations of the league elected for 3-year terms. The Premier League sends representatives to UEFA's European Club Association, the number of clubs and the clubs themselves chosen according to UEFA coefficients. For the 2012–13 season the Premier League has 10 representatives in the Association: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. The European Club Association is responsible for electing 3 members to UEFA's Club Competitions Committee, which is involved in the operations of UEFA competitions such as the Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

 Dave Richards
 Richard Masters
 Kevin Beeston
 Mai Fyfield

## **Subsidiaries**

Premier League Charitable Fund - The Premier League Charitable Fund aims to use the popularity of British professional football and the Premier League to promote and support social projects, the foundation of the Premier League is, according to its statues, to promote the sport, education and international understanding. From this emerged 4 areas of focus: the Charitable Fund encourages children, supports people with disabilities, supports integration and promotes solidarity with other sports. The Charitable Fund provides grants through application, but can also carry out their own projects and build partnerships.

Premier League Travel - Organizes travel for players, staff and fans in Premier League or Championship games

Premier League Production - IMG-produced company with studio shows and commentators.