Power Ranking the Past 50 English League Champions 1961-2010

The Teams of Old Square off against the Teams of Yesterday

by Thomas Atzenhoffer on The Bleacher Report
April 17, 2011

Alex Livesey/Getty Image

The Past 50 years of England's top flight, whether it was the English Premier League since 1993 or the years prior as the English League, have captivated audiences worldwide. Arguably the most powerful league in the world, it has seen some of the greatest highlights, triumphs, defeats and tragedies in the world of Football.

In order to rank the top 50 teams to win the league over the years of 1961 to 2010, I had to devise a way to rank them without any form of bias. So in doing that, I developed a formula to do so. The formula also had to be able to take into account the changes in the league throughout those 50 years.

The first part of the formula is made up of three numbers. I add the number of points the team had when they won and then add the team's goal differential and the number of points they one the league by.

The second part is made up of bonus points. These are awarded for additional silver ware. 20 points for a Champions League, 15 Points for a UEFA Cup or Europa League, 12 Points for FA Cup, 10 Points for a League Cup, eight points for a Community Shield and some teams from the 21 and 20 team leagues have three to six bonus points added because of not having as many games as teams in the past.

The main changes that had to be addressed were the change over from 22 teams and 42 games down to 20 teams and 38 games during 1986-87 (21 teams) and 1987-88 (20 teams). To do so, I added two wins or six points to the end total

The other main challenge was to align the teams with the same level of points totals. Until 1981, teams earned two points for a win and one point for a draw. After that time, teams were awarded three points for a win. So to keep stats as close to possible to uniform, all teams had their records held to today’s standard. This means the point totals that will be shown are based on today’s scale and will be different than necessarily what they were at the time of winning.

The other main challenge was to align the teams with the same level of point totals. Until the 1981-1982 season, teams earned two points for a win and one point for a draw. After that time, teams were awarded three points for a win. So to keep stats as close to possible to uniform, all teams had their records held to today's standard. This means that the point totals shown will be based on today's scales and will be different than necessarily what they were at the time of winning.

So without further delay, let's get started with a head butt in the right direction courtesy from a current Championship side.....CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND START THE SLIDESHOW