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| Country | England |
|---|---|
| Sport | Association football |
| Promotion and relegation | Yes |
| National system | |
| Federation | Football Association |
| Confederation | UEFA |
| Top division | |
| Second division | |
| Cup competition | |
| Association football in England | |
TheEnglish football league system, also known as thefootball pyramid, is a series ofinterconnected leagues for men'sassociation football clubs inEngland, with five teams fromWales, one fromGuernsey, one fromJersey and one from theIsle of Man also competing. The system has a hierarchical format withpromotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system, thePremier League. Below that are levels 2–4 organised by theEnglish Football League, then theNational League System from levels 5–10 administered bythe FA, and thereafter Regional feeder leagues run by relevant county FAs on anad hoc basis. It also often happens that the Premier Division of a Regional Feeder League (Step 7 or Level 11) has its constitution given to it by the FA. They have to accept it or appeal but cannot reject it at an annual general meeting.
The exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues, merge, or fold altogether, but an estimated average of 15 clubs per division implies that more than 7,000 teams of nearly 5,300 clubs are members of a league in the English men's football league system.
The pyramid forwomen's football in England runs separately into ten tiers. There are no official definitions of any level below 11 for men or below 10 for women. Any references to the structure at lower levels should not be regarded as definitive.
Some England-based men's clubs playoutside the English football league system.
The world's first association football league, named simplyThe Football League, was created in 1888 byAston Villa's club directorWilliam McGregor. It was dominated by those clubs who had supported professionalism. The twelve founding members were six fromLancashire (Accrington,Blackburn Rovers,Burnley,Bolton Wanderers,Everton andPreston North End) and six from theMidlands (Aston Villa,Derby County,Notts County,Stoke,West Bromwich Albion andWolverhampton Wanderers).
In May 2014, the Football Association announced provisional plans for a new division between the English Football League and the National League which would include "B" teams of higher-level clubs. They later reneged on the plan to include Premier League "B" teams in the new division[1] and shortly thereafter scrapped the idea altogether.[2]
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The English football league system consists of a pyramid of leagues, bound together by the principle ofpromotion and relegation. A certain number of the most successful clubs in each league can rise to a higher league, whilst those that finish theseason at the bottom of their league can be sent down a level. In addition to sporting performance, promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances.
The top five levels contain one division each and are nationwide in scope. Below this, the levels have progressively more parallel leagues, with each covering progressively smaller geographic areas. Many leagues have more than one division. At the lower levels the existence of leagues becomes intermittent, although in some of the more densely populated areas there are leagues more than twenty layers below the Premier League.[3] There are also leagues in various parts of the country which are not officially part of the system as they do not have formal agreements with other leagues, but are recognised at various levels by county football associations. Clubs from these leagues may, if they feel they meet the appropriate standard of play and have suitable facilities, apply to join a league which does form part of the system.
The top of the pyramid is thePremier League (level 1, which is often referred to as the "top flight"), containing 20 clubs. Below the Premier League is theEnglish Football League (EFL) (formerly 'the Football League'), which is divided into three divisions of 24 clubs each:The Championship (level 2),League One (level 3), andLeague Two (level 4). The 20 clubs in the Premier League and 72 clubs in the English Football League are all full-time professional clubs. Before the establishment of the Premier League in 1992, the Football League, as it was called then, included all 92 clubs, in four divisions. Clubs outside the Football League were referred to as non-League clubs, and this naming continues for clubs below the four professional divisions. Levels 1 to 4 are known as "League Football."
The top tier ofnon-League football is theNational League. It contains a nationwide division (also called theNational League) (level 5; step 1) of 24 clubs, and is the lowest level with a single nationwide league. This division, like the four above, is a full-time professional competition, although some promoted clubs retain part-time status. There are two divisions at level 6 (step 2), covering the north (National League North) and south (National League South), with 24 clubs each. Some of these clubs are full-time professional and the others are semi-professional. Below level 6, some of the stronger clubs are semi-professional, but continuing down the tiers, soon all the clubs are amateur.
Below the National League are three regional leagues at levels 7 and 8 (steps 3 and 4), each covering different parts of England, though with some geographical overlap. These are theNorthern Premier League (covering northern England), theSouthern Football League (serving the Midlands, southern, and southwestern England, withone club from South Wales) and theIsthmian League (including clubs from southeastern England as well asGuernsey in theChannel Islands). The Southern League manages two parallel Premier Divisions at level 7 and two lower divisions at level 8. The Northern Premier League and Isthmian League each administer one Premier Division at level 7 and three level 8 divisions. All divisions typically consist of 22 teams.
Level 9 (step 5) contains the top divisions of a large group of 16 sub-regional leagues. Each of these leagues has a different divisional setup, but they all have one thing in common: there are yet more leagues below them, each covering smaller and smaller geographical levels.
The six levels immediately below League Two are known as theNational League System and come under the jurisdiction ofThe Football Association.[4]
The English football league system does not include the amateur version of the game often calledSunday league football. These leagues are independent entities with no promotion or relegation involving the football pyramid. However, some Sunday league clubs have been known to join pyramid leagues if they desire to progress higher. There are also some Saturday leagues which are not officially part of the pyramid, although teams frequently leave these for pyramid leagues.[citation needed]
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Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions.
In the case of the FA Cup, entrance from Level 10 clubs depends upon ranking within the league the club is in, and depends on the number of Level 9 clubs participating. For instance, the2017–18 FA Cup saw 77 teams compete from level 10 out of the 338 in total at that level.
Below level 11 the pyramid becomes regional and the cups become accordingly regional. Further down the pyramid is split on a county basis, counties having their own cups accordingly. This excludes some tournaments marked "Senior Cups", which often are competitions between teams representing top professional clubs in a given district, and may be little more than derbies, such as theGloucestershire Cup, which originally included all teams inGloucestershire, but then came to be contested as aBristol derby.
Level one in the pyramid, the top division of English football, is run by thePremier League (which gives its name to the competition in that division), the winners of which are regarded as the champions of England. Levels two to four are run by theEnglish Football League. Together, these four divisions make up what is known as "league football".
The leagues below level four are classed as "non-League football", meaning they are outside the EFL. The leagues at levels five to ten comprise theNational League System (NLS), and come under the direct jurisdiction of the Football Association. The top level (level 5) of the NLS is known as "step 1", the next (level 6) as "step 2", and so on. Until 2020, level 11 divisions were designated as "step 7", but that year were re-designated as "Regional Feeder Leagues".
After the 2023–24 season, four runners-up competed in the play-offs where an additional club was guaranteed promotion from each step 5 division, with the number of relegations from each of the eight level 8 divisions remained at two as each step 4 division increased its divisional size to 22 teams. The resulting 16 vacancies at step 5 were filled by relegating only one club per level 9 division, rather than two. Ahead of 2024–25, two promotions out of each step 5 division into its step 4 counterpart remained and the number of clubs automatically relegated out of each step 5 division reverted to two, reflecting a long-term FA aim to "create consistency" at each step of the NLS pyramid.[6]
Level | Total clubs (1857 +-) | League(s) / division(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 | Premier League | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | 24 | EFL Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | 24 | EFL League One | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | 24 | EFL League Two | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 (Step 1) | 24 | National League | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6 (Step 2) | 48 | National League North | National League South | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7 (Step 3) | 88 | Northern Premier League Premier Division | Southern League Premier Division Central | Southern League Premier Division South | Isthmian League Premier Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8 (Step 4) | 176 | Northern Premier League Division One East | Northern Premier League Division One West | Northern Premier League Division One Midlands | Southern League Division One Central | Southern League Division One South | Isthmian League Division One South Central | Isthmian League Division One North | Isthmian League Division One South East | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
9 (Step 5) | 322 | Northern League Division One | Northern Counties East League Premier Division | North West Counties League Premier Division | Midland League Premier Division | United Counties League Premier Division North | United Counties League Premier Division South | Hellenic League Premier Division | Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division | Wessex League Premier Division | Western League Premier Division | Combined Counties League Premier Division North | Combined Counties League Premier Division South | Eastern Counties League Premier Division | Essex Senior League | Southern Combination League Premier Division | Southern Counties East League Premier Division | ||||||||||||||||
10 (Step 6) | 334 |
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11 (Step 7 - Regional Feeder League) | 760 |
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The system is only defined as far as level 11. What follows is a notional structure, based on which leagues promote and relegate to each other.
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