The 22 clubs that started the Premier League

When the Premier League kicked off on 15 August 1992, 22 clubs broke away from the Football League to form a new competition. Today’s markets on the English top flight are dominated by a familiar group of big names, but the original line-up looked very different. Some founder members became champions, a couple fell out of the Football League altogether, and one ceased to exist in its original form.

The class of 1992-93

The founding clubs were Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon.

Sheffield United’s Brian Deane scored the competition’s first goal, against Manchester United at Bramall Lane. United lost that day but finished the season as champions, ending a 26-year wait for a league title. The division was cut to 20 clubs from 1995-96, and only a handful of the originals have avoided relegation ever since.

Surprise packages in the first table

The first season produced a table that would be unthinkable now. Aston Villa finished second and Norwich City third, a result that took the Canaries into the UEFA Cup, where they famously knocked out Bayern Munich. Queens Park Rangers finished fifth as the highest-placed London club, ahead of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Sheffield Wednesday were also a serious force. In 1993 they reached both the FA Cup and League Cup finals, losing each to Arsenal.

The first to go down

Nottingham Forest, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace were relegated at the end of the first season. Forest’s drop marked the end of Brian Clough’s 18 years in charge, one of the most successful managerial spells in English football. Palace went down with 49 points, still the highest total ever recorded by a relegated Premier League side, in a 42-game season.

Forest’s road back proved a long one. They spent three seasons in the third tier during the 2000s before returning to the top flight in 2022.

From champions to League One

Blackburn Rovers went from founder member to champions in three years. Jack Walker’s investment and the goals of Alan Shearer brought the title to Ewood Park in 1994-95, the first time a club other than Manchester United had won the Premier League.

The decline was steep. Blackburn were relegated in 2012 and spent the 2017-18 season in League One before bouncing straight back to the Championship.

Oldham’s fall and recovery

Oldham Athletic survived the first season on the final day with a 4-3 win over Southampton, but went down 12 months later. Their slide continued through the divisions, and in 2022 they became the first former Premier League club to be relegated out of the Football League. They won their way back through the National League play-offs in 2025.

The club that moved

Wimbledon’s story is the most unusual of all. The Crazy Gang stayed in the top flight until 2000, but the club relocated to Milton Keynes in 2003 and was renamed MK Dons the following year.

Supporters responded by forming AFC Wimbledon in 2002. The new club started in the ninth tier of English football and climbed into the Football League in 2011, one of the great fan-led revivals in the English game.

A 25-year wait for Coventry

Coventry City had been in the top flight since 1967 until they were relegated in 2001, ending a 34-year stay. They later dropped as far as League Two, but returned to the Premier League for the 2026-27 season as Championship winners, 25 years after they went down.

What the founders show

The original 22 are a reminder of how quickly fortunes change in English football. Clubs that finished in the top three in 1992-93 have since played in the third tier, and the sides that dominate the modern era were not always guaranteed to. Every season, a few more chapters get added to these stories.

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