Most fans knew it as the Barclays Premier League but the 2016/2017 season which starts August 13 comes with a different name and logo.

It is now called ‘The Premier League’. This is simply because the British bank which has sponsored the top English football division for the past 15 years since 2001 is looking to scale back its European operations and focus primarily on the UK and the US.

The Premier League sponsorship deal was £40 million ($57 million) a year in 2015, but Barclays has seen about £20 billion worth of profit wiped out from misconduct charges over the past five years.

Despite no longer being the headline sponsor, Barclays will stay on as the “official bank” of the Premiership. The league has decided to diversify its sponsorship deals, forgoing a headline sponsor entirely and instead have sponsors for individual categories as the Olympics does.

For example, the sportswear company Nike has become the official sponsor of the footballs.

Premier League managing director Richard Masters said: “(It was) a decision which provided the opportunity to consider how we wanted to present ourselves as an organisation and competition.

The Premier League was formed in 1992 and is the most watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to a TV audience of over 4.7 billion people.

The Premier League launched a new logo which would be used next season. The fresh new design includes a modern take on the lion icon – a symbol that is part of the competition’s heritage dating back to its launch in 1992.

The crowned lion has been a prominent feature of the Premier League logo since its inception, representing the relationship between the league and the English Football Association – whose logo features three lions.

For this season, the Premier League will have seven main sponsors instead of one title sponsor. Two – Nike and EA Sports – have already been announced with five more to be named in the coming months.

By 3news.com|Ghana
Twitter: @3newsgh