The English Football Association Pyramid

• The Premiership is just one of 140 leagues in the English Football Association's "Football Pyramid." Unlike North American teams, which have subordinate feeder leagues known as farm systems where players are developed for the top levels, English football promotes the best teams to a higher league each year and demotes the worst teams.Theoretically, a local team playing at the bottom of the pyramid could rise up all the way through the league system to play in the Premiership, although it's highly unlikely.
  
  The 20 teams of the Premiership stand at the pinnacle of the pyramid, with its best teams being selected to play in the UEFA Champions League, made up of the best professional teams in Europe, along with their domestic matches in the Premiership.
  
  Thanks to the promotion and relegation system, the league's roster changes with each year as the worst teams are sent to the First Division, England's top league before 1992.
  
  

Reading Tables and Fixtures

• In English football, what North Americans know as standings are called "tables" and schedules are known as "fixtures."
  
  Tables are read from left to right stating how many matches a team has played along with wins, losses, draws, goals scored and allowed, and total "points," determined by multiplying the number of wins by three and adding the number of draws.
  
  Points determine a team's place on the table, in descending order from most to the least points, with ties in points being broken by goal differential and goals scored. Usually there is also an indicator for teams facing relegation or promotion.
  
  Each set of fixtures lasts from August to May, with each team playing each other twice, once at each other's home stadium.
  
  

Cream Of The Crop

• Even among these top teams, only a few historically have had a shot at winning the Premier League championship, particularly Manchester United, which has won more than half of the league championships.
  
  Along with the Premier League Championship, Premiership clubs also play in the FA Cup, a tournament with teams from the top 10 leagues in the English Football Association, and the League Cup, with teams from the top two leagues in the English Football Association.