English football league system

The English football league system is a series of leagues that are connected for men's association football clubs in England. Five teams also come from Wales, one team comes from Guernsey and one comes from Jersey. It is also called the football pyramid. The system has a hierarchical format. It has promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels. This means that in theory, even the smallest club can get to the top of the system. In the system, there are more than 140 leagues, and more than 480 divisions.

The total number of clubs changes every year. This is because clubs join and stop playing in leagues. Sometimes it is also because a club stops existing or merges with another club. An average of 15 clubs per division means that more than 7,000 teams of nearly 5,300 clubs are in a league in the English men's football league system.

There are no official definitions of any level below 11. This means that the structure at level 12 and below is not definitive.

The pyramid for women's football in England is not the same. It has nine levels. Also, some English men's football clubs play outside the English football league system.

History

Aston Villa director William McGregor created the (English) Football League in 1888. The biggest clubs were the ones who were in support of professionalism. The twelve first clubs were six from Lancashire (Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Bolton Wanderers, Everton and Preston North End) and six from the Midlands (Aston Villa, Derby County, Notts County, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers).

About the system

The system is a pyramid of leagues. These are part of the same system through the idea of promotion and relegation. The better clubs in each league go to a higher league. The clubs that finish the season at the bottom of their league can go down to a lower league. Promotion has two important factors. The first factor is how well the club plays. The second factor is that the club needs to meet criteria set by the higher league. These criteria are often about having the right facilities and finances.

In theory, it is possible for a low level local amateur club to win promotions. Within a few years they can get to the highest level of the English game and become champions of the Premier League. In practice, this is not likely (at least not in a short period of time). However, clubs move a lot within the pyramid.

The top five levels each have one division. They are national leagues. This means clubs in these leagues play in the whole country. In level 6 and lower, the levels have more and more leagues at the same level. The lower levels are in a smaller location. Many leagues have more than one division. At the lower levels the leagues do not always exist. In some places where a lot of people live, there are leagues more than twenty levels below the Premier League. There are also leagues in different parts of the country which are not officially part of the system. This is because they do not have formal agreements with other leagues. However some county football associations accept these leagues exist. Clubs from these leagues can join a league in the system. They usually need to have the right standard of play (they need to play football well enough) and have right facilities.

The seven levels just below the Premier League and English Football League are called the National League System. The Football Association (FA) is the authority for these leagues. The system has changed over many years. The biggest change recently was when there were two new leagues at level six. These were the Conference North and Conference South (now National League North and South). This meant that the top divisions of the Southern League, Isthmian League and Northern Premier League went down to level seven. In May 2014 The FA announced provisional plans for a new division between the English Football League and the National League. This would include "B" teams (second teams) of higher-level clubs (for example, Manchester City F.C. B Team, or Liverpool F.C. B Team) . However, they changed this idea later. This meant that Premier League "B" teams could not play in the new division. Soon after this, they gave up the idea.

The English football league system does not include the amateur version of the game often called Sunday league football. These leagues are independent. They do not have promotion or relegation. They do not belong to the football pyramid. However, some Sunday league clubs sometimes join pyramid leagues. This is often if they want to play at a higher level. There are also some Saturday leagues which are not officially part of the pyramid. However, teams often leave these for pyramid leagues. The FA accepted a non-promoting Saturday league (a league with no promotion or relegation) to the pyramid in May 2017. This was the Lincolnshire League.

Structure
At the top is the single division of the Premier League (Level 1). This is often called the "top-flight". It has 20 clubs. They were all located in England until the 2010–11 season. However, two Welsh teams (Swansea City and Cardiff City) have since played in the league. Below the Premier League is the English Football League (EFL). This used to be the Football League. It has three divisions of 24 clubs each: The Championship (Level 2), League One (Level 3) and League Two (Level 4). The 20 clubs in the Premier League and the 72 clubs in the English Football League are all full-time (all the time) professional clubs. The Premier League teams are still often called 'League' clubs. This is because before 1992 the Football League, as it was called then, included all 92 clubs in four divisions. In 1992, the Premier League started, and became separate. Clubs outside this group of 92 teams are called 'non-League' clubs (i.e. non-EFL). However, they also play their football in league competitions.

The top level of non-League football is the National League. It has a national division (National League) of 24 clubs (Level 5). It is the lowest level with a single league for the whole country. This division is like the four above. It is a full-time professional competition. However, some promoted clubs keep their part-time status. There are two divisions at Level 6. They cover the north (National League North) and the south (National League South). They have 22 clubs each. Some of these clubs are full-time professional clubs. The other clubs are semi-professional. Below the National League, some of the stronger clubs are also semi-professional. However, in the lower levels, soon all the clubs are amateur. Lower-level leagues are also often for smaller regions. This is because smaller clubs don't have as much money to travel far away.

Below the National League, there are three regional leagues. Each is in a different area. Sometimes the areas are similar. They are the Northern Premier League (which covers the north of England), Southern Football League (which covers the Midlands, south and southwest of England, with one club from South Wales) and the Isthmian League (which includes clubs from the south-east of England as well as Guernsey from the Channel Islands). All of the leagues have Premier Divisions of 22 teams (Level 7). Below these, the Northern Premier League and Southern Football League each have two divisions of 20 teams (Level 8). They are in different regions. The Isthmian League has three level 8 divisions of 20 teams each as well.

Level 9 contains the top divisions of a large group of fourteen smaller than regional leagues. Each of these leagues has a different setup. They all have one thing in common: they all have leagues below them. Each covers a smaller and smaller area.

Promotion and relegation rules for the top eight levels

Premier League (level 1, 20 teams):  The bottom three teams are relegated.
English Football League Championship (level 2, 24 teams): The top two automatically win promotion. The next four play in the playoffs. The winner gets the third promotion place. The bottom three are relegated.
English Football League One (level 3, 23 teams): The top two automatically win promotion. The next four play in the playoffs. The winner gets the third promotion place. The bottom three are relegated.
English Football League Two (level 4, 24 teams): The top three teams automatically win promotion. The next four play in the playoffs. The winner gets the fourth promotion place. The bottom two are relegated.
National League (level 5, 24 teams): The champions win promotion. The next six play in the playoffs. The winner gets the second promotion place. The bottom four are relegated to either the North or South division as appropriate.
National League North and National League South (level 6, 22 teams each. 24 teams from the 2020–21 season, running in parallel): The champions in each division automatically win promotion. The next six teams in each division play in the playoffs. The playoff winner in each division gets the second promotion spot. The bottom two teams in each division are relegated to either the Northern Premier League, the Southern League or the Isthmian League as appropriate. If, after promotion and relegation, the number of teams in the North and South divisions is not equal, one or more teams are transferred between the two divisions. This makes it more even. It it based on the location.
Northern Premier League Premier Division, Southern Football League Central Division, Southern Football League South Division and Isthmian League Premier Division (level 7, 22 teams each, running in parallel): The champions in each division automatically win promotion. The next four teams in each division play in the playoffs. Theh the playoff winners also win promotion. The bottom two teams in each division and two 20th-placed teams with the lowest points per game ratio are relegated to a level 8 division. If, after promotion and relegation, the number of teams in the divisions is not equal, one or more teams move between the four divisions to make the numbers even.
Northern Premier League Division One North, Northern Premier League Division One South, Southern Football League Division One East, Southern Football League Division One West, Isthmian League Division One North, Isthmian League Division One South Central and Isthmian League Division One South East (level 8, running in parallel, 20 teams in each division): The champions in each division automatically win promotion. The next four teams in each division play in the playoffs. The playoff winners also win promotion. The bottom team in each division plays a level 9 runner-up club in one-off matches. The losing team from level 8 is relegated to a level 9 division. If, after promotion and relegation, the number of teams in the divisions is not equal, one or more teams move between the four divisions to make the numbers even.

Cup eligibility
Being members of a league at a particular level also change whether a team can play certain competitions.
FA Cup: Levels 1 to 10
EFL Cup: Levels 1 to 4
EFL Trophy: Levels 3 to 4
FA Trophy: Levels 5 to 8
FA Vase: Levels 9 to 11
FA Inter-League Cup: Level 11 (played by a team from each league)

In the case of the FA Cup and the FA Vase, some of the clubs in the lowest level in each do not play. For example, in the 2017–18 FA Cup, there were 77 teams from Level 10 out of the 338 in total at that level.

Below Level 11 the pyramid becomes regional. The cups become regional or local. Lower down, the pyramid is based on counties. Counties have their own cups. This does not include some tournaments called "Senior Cups". These are often competitions between teams representing top professional clubs in a district. They may be little more than derbies, for example the Gloucestershire Cup. This originally included all teams in Gloucestershire, but then became a Bristol derby.

The system

The table below shows the current structure of the system. For each division, there is its official name, sponsorship name (for levels 1–8, if it is different from its historic name) and number of clubs. At levels 1–8, each division promotes to the division that is directly above it. It relegates to the division that is directly below it. Below that level, individual league articles talk about promotion and relegation details.

The Premier League runs level one in the pyramid. It is the top division of English football. It is also called the Premier League. The winners are the champions of England. The English Football League (EFL) runs levels two to four. Together, these four divisions make up what is known as "league football".

The leagues below level four are classed as "non-League football". This means they are outside the EFL. The leagues at levels five to eleven include the National League System (NLS). They come under the direct control of the Football Association. The top-level (level 5) of the NLS is known as "step 1" by the FA, the next (level 6) as "step 2", and so on.

The system is only defined as far as level 10. What follows is a representation of one possible structure, should the system be defined further.

Related pages
League system (for a list of similar systems in other countries)
List of association football competitions
National League System (the system involving the 5th–11th tiers of English football, organised by the FA)
History of the English non-League football system
English women's football league system

Notes

References

Other websites 
  Fans Focus – Non League Pyramid at Fans Focus

Football in England
Football league systems