101-670: The English Football League XI was a representative side of the Football League . The team regularly played against the Scottish Football League XI and other national league select teams between 1891 and 1976. For a long period the annual fixture between the English and Scottish leagues was only second in importance to the matches between the two national teams . The fixture declined in importance, however, particularly after regular European club competition
202-476: A "ladder" that uses a promotion and relegation system, where individual players and pre-made teams can be promoted and relegated during the first few weeks of a league season, which generally lasts around 11 weeks, with promotion and relegation taking place based on a skill rating, which is in turn based on wins and losses. However, this form of matchmaking is not typically used for StarCraft II e-sports tournaments, which have various kinds of structures depending on
303-489: A Creditor's Voluntary Agreement and pays in full any other footballing creditors. Failure to do either of these will result in a second, potentially unlimited (though in practice usually between fifteen and twenty) points deduction. The other main situation in which is a club may lose points is by fielding an improperly registered or otherwise ineligible player. If a club is found to have done this, then any points earned from any match that player participated in will be deducted;
404-408: A club plays each of the others in the same division twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. This makes for a total of 46 games played each season. Clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of the season, clubs at the top of their division may win promotion to the next higher division, while those at the bottom may be relegated to
505-730: A decade (concluded 1891). In 1903 it accepted parity with the American League and the formation of the organization that would become Major League Baseball . The peace agreement between the NL and the AL did not change the "closed shop" of top-level baseball but entrenched it by including the AL in the shop. This was further confirmed by the Supreme Court's 1922 ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League , giving MLB
606-439: A large increase in goals, and numbers on shirts were introduced in 1939. Between 1923 and 1926, Huddersfield Town were the first team to win three consecutive league titles (and never won another one, though they finished as runners-up for the following two years). This was equalled by Arsenal between 1932 and 1935, during a period from 1930 to 1938 in which they won five titles out of eight. Manchester City (1936–37) became
707-572: A legal monopoly over professional baseball in the US. The other major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada have followed the MLB model of a franchise based system. In contrast to baseball's NABBP , the first governing body in English football survived the onset of professionalism, which it formally accepted in 1885. Perhaps the great geographical concentration of population and
808-499: A live television program. The addition of a semi-final in 2004 allowed for more than 26 songs, but in 2008 automatic qualification of the previous year's top 10 to the final was removed. In Brazilian carnival's samba school contest, a similar system is adopted, with the schools from lower divisions, or "groups", able to be promoted into the highest tier, being currently called the "Special Group" ( Grupo Especial ). Schools parade in order of groups and ranking from last year contest, with
909-694: A lower level, like independent professional leagues in American baseball today). For decades, teams finishing near the bottom of The Football League's lowest division(s) faced re-election rather than automatic relegation. But the principle of promotion and relegation had been firmly established, and it eventually expanded to the football pyramid in place today. Meanwhile, The FA has remained English football's overall governing body, retaining amateur and professional clubs rather than breaking up. Promotion and relegation has been used in several eSports leagues. Blizzard Entertainment 's video game StarCraft II has
1010-427: A number of guaranteed fixtures for its member clubs each season. His idea might have been based upon a description of a proposal for an early American college football league, publicised in the English media in 1887 which stated: "measures would be taken to form a new football league ... [consisting of] a schedule containing two championship games between every two colleges composing the league". The first meeting
1111-501: A number of seasons. Originally the previous two seasons, and later three or four seasons, clubs avoid relegation by having a high coefficient, which is obtained by dividing the points achieved in the last three seasons by the number of matches played in the same period. Teams with the lowest points coefficient at the end of the season are relegated to the Primera B Nacional . This system has both positive and negative aspects, since all of
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#17327725092541212-574: A place in the league year after year would permit the owners to monopolize fan bases in their exclusive territories and give them the confidence to invest in infrastructure, such as improved ballparks. In turn, those would guarantee the revenues to support traveling halfway across a continent for games. Indeed, after its first season, the new league banked on its still doubtful stability by expelling its members in New York and Philadelphia (the two largest cities), because they had breached agreements to visit
1313-578: A result of the Heysel disaster , where crowd trouble involving Liverpool fans at the European Cup final in Belgium resulted in 39 spectator deaths during a crush in a Juventus fan section. The loss of life occurred when a surge in the crowd (moving away from clashes between rival supporters) caused a wall to collapse. Inadequate segregation, stewarding and policing as well the generally poor condition of
1414-536: A significant decline in league attendances as a result of the recession and the ongoing problem of hooliganism . This did no favours for the financial position and league standing of numerous clubs, and several – including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Swansea City and Middlesbrough – were almost forced out of business as a result. The fortunes of the First Division clubs suffered a fresh blow in 1985 when all English clubs were banned from European competitions as
1515-529: A similar system where in the top eight finishers of one of the bi-annual Majors are designated with the "Legends" seed and automatically qualified for the next Major tournament. The best six eliminated teams in the second stage (known as New Legends Stage ) of the Major would play a "qualifying" stage (known as New Challengers Stage ) with another ten teams from the Minors qualifying tournaments in order to compete at
1616-614: A step to maximise their revenue the leading members of the Football League broke away to form their own competition, the FA Premier League , which was renamed the Premier League in 2007. The Football League therefore no longer includes the top twenty clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total, 145 teams have played in
1717-418: A system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are promoted to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are relegated to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the promotion zone , and those at
1818-545: Is a fact that the relegated schools have more to lose nowadays, such as access to the Cidade do Samba ("Samba City") facilities. There have been reported several interferences on the contest's final result, especially when traditional schools are involved. From 1957 to 1966 and from 1983 to the present, the Argentine First Division has used a system called Promedios based on the average performance over
1919-535: Is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League , it is the oldest football league in the world , and was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split from it to form the Premier League . The Football League was rebranded as the "English Football League" (EFL) from the 2016–17 season. The EFL
2020-629: Is divided into the Championship , League One and League Two , with 24 clubs in each division, 72 in total, with promotion and relegation between them; the top Championship division clubs change places with the lowest-placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two with the top clubs of the National League . Currently four of the EFL clubs are from Wales – Cardiff City , Swansea City , Wrexham and Newport County –
2121-431: The 2011 Copa Sudamericana . This system forces the newly promoted teams to fight relegation from the very beginning of the season. It also allows teams with a low budget with previous good campaigns to compete in international competitions without having to prioritize the championship to avoid relegation; examples of this are Club Atlético Lanús , winner of the 2013 Copa Sudamericana , or Club Atlético Talleres , winner of
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#17327725092542222-491: The 2015–16 season, the first such during the Premier League era. Another important change was made at the start of the 1981-82 season when it was decided to award three points for a win instead of two, a further effort to increase attacking football. (This scoring rule was not added by FIFA to the World Cups until the 1994 cup after the perceived dominance of defensive play at Italia 90 ). The early 1980s also saw
2323-577: The English Football League ) was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a rival of The Football Association but rather the top competition within it. The new league was not universally accepted as England's top-calibre competition right away. To help win fans of clubs outside The Football League, its circuit was not closed; rather, a system was established in which the worst teams at the end of each season would need to win re-election against any clubs wishing to join. A rival league,
2424-842: The Football Alliance , was formed in 1889. When the two merged in 1892, it was not on equal terms; rather, most of the Alliance clubs were put in the new Football League Second Division , whose best teams would move up to the First Division in place of its worst teams. Another merger, with the top division of the Southern League in 1920, helped form the Third Division in similar fashion. Since then no new league has been formed of non-league clubs to try to achieve parity with The Football League (only to play at
2525-858: The Glasgow Football Association in 1977 (a 2–1 loss, celebrating the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II ) and against a ' World XI ' at Wembley (a 3–0 victory, which was part of the League's centenary celebrations ), the Football League XI's most recent games have been against the Italian League, which was a regular fixture through the 1990s and was most recently played as an Under-21 fixture in 2006. P – Played; W – Won; D – Drawn; L – Lost English Football League The English Football League ( EFL )
2626-532: The Italian Football Federation has relegated clubs found to have been involved in match fixing . This occurred most recently in 2006, when the season's initial champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B, and two other teams were initially relegated but then restored to Serie A after appeal (see 2006 Serie A scandal ). As of the 2020s, empirical evidence increasingly pointed to the conclusion that promotion and relegation, standing alone,
2727-612: The New Legends Stage . Starting in 2020, however, this was changed to a Regional Major Ranking system, at first a points-based system which was used for ESL One Rio 2020 and PGL Stockholm 2021 (The top rankings from the ESL One Rio 2020 RMRs were turned into PGL Stockholm 2021 points once IEM Rio was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic ) and then a series of offline qualifiers starting with PGL Antwerp 2022 , in which
2828-636: The Northern League ), plus Darwen. The bottom clubs of the lower division were subsequently required to apply for re-election to the League at the end of each season. In 1893 two clubs were relegated from the First Division and two promoted from the Second, but one of those relegated, Accrington, chose to resign from the Football League rather than play in the Second Division. Meanwhile Bootle
2929-501: The Southern League joined the League to form a new Third Division, which in 1921 was renamed the Third Division South upon the further addition of more clubs in a new Third Division North . One club from each of these divisions would gain promotion to the Second Division, with the two relegated clubs being assigned to the more appropriate Third Division. To accommodate potential difficulties in this arrangement, clubs in
3030-610: The UEFA Europa Conference League . The EFL Trophy, established in 1983, is for clubs belonging to EFL League One and EFL League Two. The organisation celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1988 with a Centenary Tournament at Wembley between sixteen of its member clubs. After four years of debate, the Football Association finally permitted professionalism on 20 July 1885. Before that date many clubs made payments to "professional" players to boost
3131-464: The major league and minor leagues . The number of teams exchanged between the divisions is almost always identical. Exceptions occur when the higher division wishes to change the size of its membership, or has lost one or more of clubs (to financial insolvency or expulsion, for example) and wishes to restore its previous membership size, in which case fewer teams are relegated from that division, or (less often) more teams are accepted for promotion from
The Football League XI - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-533: The 1970s: founder members of the League Derby County (1971–72 and 1974–75) and Nottingham Forest (1977–78), both clubs managed by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor . Nottingham Forest's title in 1977–78 turned out to be the last occasion that a first-time champion won the First Division title during The Football League era, before the First Division clubs formed the Premier League in 1992. The next first-time League champion club would be Leicester City in
3333-409: The 1991–92 season and planned to raise the number again to 94 clubs for 1992–93, but after Aldershot and Maidstone United both went out of business within a few months of each other in mid-1992, this plan was abandoned. The issues creating the uncertainty in the game all centered on money. The increasing influence of money in English football was evident with such events as the first £1m transfer in
3434-477: The Billie Jean King Cup) at the top and series of regional groups at a lower level. The World Groups in both use a knockout tournament format, with the first-round losers entering play-offs with winners from regional groups to avoid relegation. In international tournaments, this format allows teams from countries in which a sport is less well established to have competitive matches, while opening up
3535-656: The Football League up to 2024 (including those in the Premier League, since clubs must pass through the Football League before reaching the former). The EFL's 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions: the EFL Championship , EFL League One , and EFL League Two (previously the Football League First Division , Football League Second Division and Football League Third Division respectively; they were renamed for sponsorship reasons). Each division has 24 clubs, and in any given season
3636-705: The LCK moved away from the system in 2020. As of 2023, the Pacific Championship Series and Liga Latinoamérica are the only top-tier professional League of Legends leagues to have promotion and relegation; North America's second-tier league, the North American Challengers League, also has promotion and relegation, as do the various regional leagues in Europe, but not with the top divisions. The Counter-Strike Majors used
3737-532: The League. There would be a further wait until 1931 before a southern club, Arsenal would win the League for the first time. Unlike in most other Leagues in Europe, no single English club managed to remain ever-present in the division during the 104 years of its existence as the top division in the country. Everton comes closest, missing just four seasons through relegation, and remains one of only three clubs in England to have played over 100 top-flight seasons, along with Aston Villa and Arsenal . Arsenal are also
3838-650: The Midland League, and New Brighton Tower from the Lancashire League to the Second Division. After a few years, other northern clubs began to catch up, with the likes of Newcastle United and Manchester United having success. From 1900, Aston Villa ( 1899–1900 , 1909–10 ), Liverpool (1900–01, 1905–06), Sunderland (1901–02, 1912–13), The Wednesday (1902–03, 1903–04), Newcastle United (1904–05, 1908–09), Manchester United (1907–08, 1910–11) and Blackburn Rovers (1911–12, 1913–14) all won two titles prior to
3939-493: The Midlands such as Mansfield Town or Walsall would sometimes be moved from one-Third Division to the other. Following this burst of post-war growth, the League entered a prolonged period of relative stability with few changes in the membership, although there were changes on the pitch. In 1925, a new offside law reduced the number of defending opponents between the attacking player and the goal from three to two, leading to
4040-758: The Royal Hotel is long gone, the site is marked with a commemorative red plaque on the Royal Buildings in Market Street . The first season of the Football League began a few months later on 8 September with twelve member clubs from the Midlands and north of England : Accrington , Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley , Derby County , Everton , Notts County , Preston North End, Stoke (renamed Stoke City in 1926), West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers . Each club played
4141-408: The Second Division expanded to sixteen (net increase one) with the addition of Bury from the Lancashire League, Leicester Fosse (later Leicester City) and Burton Wanderers (who later joined with existing Second Division club Burton Swifts to form Burton United ) from the Midland League, while Northwich resigned and Middlesbrough Ironopolis disbanded. Both Liverpool and Bury won the division at
The Football League XI - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-532: The Torneo Apertura in 2009 and last place in the next championship, the Torneo Clausura 2010, without being relegated until the end of the Torneo Apertura 2010 with a second-to-last place finish. Similarly, River Plate finished last in the Torneo Apertura 2008 and after two bad campaigns and a mediocre one was relegated in the Torneo Clausura 2011 despite being in fifth place and qualifying for
4343-425: The ageing stadium were attributed as contributory factors. In a similar vein, playoffs to determine promotion places were introduced for the 1986–87 season so that more clubs remained eligible for promotion closer to the end of the season, and at the same time to aid in the reduction over two years of the number of clubs in the First Division from 22 to 20. For the first two seasons, the playoffs were contested between
4444-441: The better ranked inside a group and the higher-tier groups having the privilege of going latter (this means the team has the opportunity of fixing issues with costumes and allegorical floats as well as more rehearsal time). The number of promoted and relegated schools, four until 1997, has been diminishing as time passes, becoming two from 1998 to 2007 and being only one nowadays. There has never been an official reason for that, but it
4545-491: The bottom are in the relegation zone ( colloquially the drop zone or facing the drop ). An alternate system of league organization, used primarily in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States, is a closed model based on licensing or franchises . This maintains the same teams from year to year, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams , and with no team movement between
4646-458: The bottom two clubs of the First Division and the top two clubs of the Second Division was brought into disrepute when Stoke and Burnley colluded in the final match to ensure they were both in the First Division the next season. At this point both divisions of the League expanded to eighteen, with the addition of Barnsley from the Midland and Yorkshire Leagues, Burslem Port Vale, Glossop from
4747-429: The boundary between the feeder leagues may have to transfer from one feeder league to another to maintain numerical balance. The system is said to be the defining characteristic of the "European" form of professional sports league organization . Promotion and relegation have the effect of allowing the maintenance of a hierarchy of leagues and divisions, according to the relative strength of their teams. They also maintain
4848-444: The club can not move underperforming players on, or second, the club is gambling on being promoted back straight away and is prepared to take a financial loss for one or two seasons to do so. Some leagues (most notably English football's Premier League ) offer " parachute payments " to its relegated teams for the following year(s). The payouts are higher than the prize money received by some non-relegated teams and are designed to soften
4949-443: The competition became firmly established in the footballing calendar. It was not until the dawn of the 1970s, though, that all 92 Football League clubs regularly participated in the competition season after season. Substitutes (one per team per match) were first allowed for injured players in 1965 and for any reason the following year. The first ever League game to be held on a Sunday took place on 20 January 1974 (11:30 kick-off) and
5050-460: The competitiveness of their teams, breaking FA rules and arousing the contempt of those clubs abiding by the laws of the amateur Football Association code. As more and more clubs became professional the ad-hoc fixture list of FA Cup, inter-county, and ordinary matches was seen by many as an unreliable stream of revenue, and ways were considered of ensuring a consistent income. A Scottish director of Birmingham-based Aston Villa , William McGregor,
5151-417: The corresponding short distances between urban centres was crucial. Certainly it provided the opportunity for more clubs' developing large fan bases without incurring great travel costs. Professional football did not gain acceptance until after the turn of the 20th century in most of Southern England . The earliest league members travelled only through the Midlands and North . When The Football League (now
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#17327725092545252-490: The division below. Such variations usually cause a "knock-on" effect through the lower divisions. For example, in 1995 the Premier League voted to reduce its numbers by two and achieved the desired change by relegating four teams instead of the usual three, whilst allowing only two promotions from Football League Division One . Even in the absence of such extraordinary circumstances, the pyramid-like nature of most European sports league systems can still create knock-on effects at
5353-477: The earliest American sport to develop professional leagues, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was established in 1857 as a national governing body for the game. In many respects, it would resemble England's Football Association when founded in 1863. Both espoused strict amateurism in their early years and welcomed hundreds of clubs as members. Baseball's National Association
5454-419: The financial hit that clubs take whilst dropping out of the Premier League. However, in many cases, these parachute payments just serve to inflate the costs of competing for promotion among the lower division clubs as newly relegated teams retain a financial advantage. In some countries and at certain levels, teams in line for promotion may have to satisfy certain non-playing conditions in order to be accepted by
5555-478: The financial value of such games in terms of ticket sales and media rights . This explained why in the 2020s, association football leagues were collectively bringing in annually only about two times the revenue of the National Football League ( the wealthiest sports league in the world ), even though association football had eight times the number of fans worldwide as American football . It
5656-499: The first attempt. In 1895 Loughborough replaced Walsall Town Swifts . In 1896 Blackpool from the Lancashire League and Gainsborough Trinity from the Midland League replaced Burslem Port Vale and Crewe Alexandra . In 1897 Luton Town from the United League replaced Burton Wanderers. Automatic promotion and relegation for two clubs in each division were introduced in 1898. The previous system of test matches between
5757-470: The first club in the 20th century to win the League and FA Cup "double" in 1960–61, a season after Wolverhampton Wanderers had come within a whisker of achieving the feat themselves (Wolves won the 1959–60 FA Cup and were runners-up to Burnley in the League by a single point). Post-Second World War changes in league football included the use of white balls in 1951 and the first floodlight game (played between Portsmouth and Newcastle United) in 1956, opening up
5858-549: The four western clubs at the end of the season. The NL's dominance of baseball was challenged several times after its first few years, but only by entire leagues. Eight clubs, the established norm for a national league, was a prohibitively high threshold for a new venture. Two challengers succeeded beyond the short-term, with the National League fighting off a challenge from the American Association after
5959-485: The game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the game's top-flight clubs, established the basic principles for setting up the FA Premier League. The newly formed top division would have commercial independence from the Football Association and the Football League, giving the FA Premier League license to negotiate its own broadcast and sponsorship agreements. The argument given at
6060-522: The game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. The first £2million player transferred between English clubs was Tony Cottee , who moved from West Ham United to Everton in July 1988 – although several players had already been sold by English clubs to foreign clubs for even higher fees. Before the formation of the FA Premier League, the highest transfer fee paid
6161-399: The game. In the first ten seasons, the only other clubs to win (single) league titles were Everton and Sheffield United. A new Second Division was formed in 1892 with the absorption of the rival 12-club Football Alliance . Alliance clubs Nottingham Forest , The Wednesday (later renamed Sheffield Wednesday) and Newton Heath (later renamed Manchester United) joined thirteen League clubs in
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#17327725092546262-406: The higher league, such as financial solvency, stadium capacity, and facilities. If these are not satisfied, a lower-ranked team may be promoted in their place, or a team in the league above may be saved from relegation. While the primary purpose of the promotion and relegation system is to maintain competitive balance, it may also be used as a disciplinary tool in special cases. On several occasions,
6363-678: The importance of games played by many low-ranked teams near the end of the season, which may be at risk of relegation. In contrast, the final games of a low-ranked US or Canadian team serve little purpose, and in fact losing may be beneficial to such teams because they offer a better position in the next year's draft . Although not intrinsic to the system, problems can occur due to the differing monetary payouts and revenue-generating potential that different divisions provide to their clubs. For example, financial hardship has sometimes occurred in leagues where clubs do not reduce their wage bill once relegated. This usually occurs for one of two reasons: first,
6464-413: The league for the following year in a process called " re-election ". In 1890, Stoke were not re-elected to the league and was replaced for the 1890–91 season by Sunderland , who won it in their second, third, and fifth year. Stoke was re-elected for the 1891–92 season, along with Darwen , to take the league to fourteen clubs. Preston North End, Aston Villa, and Sunderland dominated the early years of
6565-469: The league would return to 22 for the 1991–92 season, which increased competitiveness in the 1990–91 season as four teams would be promoted from the Second and Third Divisions instead of the normal three (with the seventh-place being the minimum position for the playoffs), while in the Fourth Division an unprecedented five promotion places were up for grabs, with the eighth-place being high enough for
6666-573: The length of the season, one promotion place from each division is decided according to a playoff among four clubs, which takes place at the end of the season. It is possible for a team finishing sixth in the Championship or League One, or seventh in League Two, to be promoted rather than the clubs finishing immediately above them in the standings. Since the 2004–05 season, penalties have existed for clubs entering financial administration during
6767-591: The longest serving member of the top division, present since 1919. The League was suspended for four seasons during the First World War and resumed in 1919 with the First and Second Divisions expanded to 22 clubs. On resumption West Bromwich Albion (1919–20) and Burnley (1920–21), both original twelve clubs, won their first-ever titles (in Albion's case their only title to date). In 1920, leading clubs from
6868-471: The lowest placed team to avoid automatic relegation and three highest-placed teams to miss out on automatic promotion in the division below before it was altered from the 1988–89 season to include just the four clubs who had missed out on automatic promotion in the Second, Third and Fourth Divisions. 1986–87 was the first season of the decade where Football League attendances increased, helped by improved economic conditions and falling unemployment nationally. At
6969-421: The matches played for the championship in the last seasons are included in the coefficient for the clubs. Teams have an incentive to score points in every match of the season, meaning teams that are not challenging for the title or fighting relegation in the current season want to win even in the final matches to reduce the risk of relegation in the next season; examples are Club Atlético Banfield being champion of
7070-414: The most dramatic nights in League history, when Arsenal beat Liverpool 2–0 at Anfield in the last game of the season to win the League on this tiebreaker – by a single Michael Thomas goal in the final minute of the final game of the season. Both teams would finish with the same amount of goal difference, but Arsenal had scored more goals during the season. Two clubs won their first League titles during
7171-486: The new First Division, giving it sixteen members. Darwen from the League was allocated to the new Second, and Alliance club Birmingham St George's disbanded at that point. The Second Division started with twelve clubs, eight remaining Alliance clubs with the addition of Northwich Victoria (from The Combination ), Burslem Port Vale (later renamed Port Vale, from the Midland League ), and Sheffield United (from
7272-575: The new Third Division, and those in the bottom half made up the Fourth Division. An earlier suggestion that the Third Division South should become the Third Division and the Third Division North become the Fourth Division on the basis of better attendances and that they tended to fare better when promoted was rejected. Four clubs were promoted and relegated between these two lower divisions, while two clubs exchanged places in
7373-605: The next lower one. At the top end of the competition, three Championship clubs win promotion from the Football League to the Premier League, with the bottom three Premier League clubs taking their places. At the lower end, two League Two clubs lose their Football League status with relegation to the National division of the National League , while two teams from that division join League Two of The Football League in their stead. Promotion and relegation are determined by final league positions, but to sustain interest for more clubs over
7474-482: The oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organises two knockout cup competitions, the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy . The Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor , originally with twelve member clubs. Steady growth and the addition of more divisions meant that by 1950 the League had 92 clubs. Financial considerations led to a major shake-up in 1992, when in
7575-523: The only other club to be added to the list of Football League winners prior to the outbreak of the Second World War , the fourteenth club to achieve the feat since 1888–89. In the 1938–39 season Everton won the title for the fifth time but suffered the same fate as in 1915 , being champions when football was suspended due to the World War. The League was suspended once more in 1939 with
7676-626: The opposing club(s) do not earn any points from this, however. The EFL organises two knock-out cup competitions: the EFL Cup (officially known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons) and the EFL Trophy (officially known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy also for sponsorship reasons). The EFL Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all EFL and Premier League clubs, with the winner eligible to participate in
7777-592: The organizer, the most important being the ESL Pro Tour as of 2021 . Most professional League of Legends leagues like the League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends Champions Korea used a promotion and relegation system, although the LCS moved away from this in 2018 for North America LCS and 2019 for the European LCS (which was renamed to the League of Legends European Championship ), while
7878-505: The others twice, once at home and once away, and two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. This points system was not agreed upon until after the season had started; the alternative proposal was one point for a win only. Preston won the first league title without losing a game and completed the first league–cup double by also taking the FA Cup . Teams finishing at the bottom of the table were required to reapply for their position in
7979-417: The outbreak of the First World War , while Everton added a second title to their much earlier success in the last season, 1914–15. It was not until the early years of the 20th century, and the expansion of both Leagues to 20 clubs (in 1905), that further southern clubs such as Chelsea and Clapton Orient (later Leyton Orient ) (1905), Fulham (1907) and Tottenham Hotspur (1908) established themselves in
8080-661: The outbreak of the Second World War, this time for seven seasons. The Third Divisions were expanded to 24 clubs each in 1950, bringing the total number of League clubs to 92, and in 1958 the decision was made to end the regionalisation of the Third Divisions and reorganise the clubs into a new nationwide Third Division and Fourth Division . To accomplish this, the clubs in the top half of both the Third Division North and South joined together to form
8181-648: The playoffs. The end of the ban on English clubs in Europe also helped boost interest in English football. However, the economy was now in another recession and added to that the clubs in the top two English divisions were faced with the requirement of having all-seater stadiums by 1994–95 to comply with the Taylor Report that followed the death of 97 Liverpool fans as a result of the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989. The League also expanded to 93 clubs for
8282-786: The possibility of competing against higher ranked nations as a sport grows. Other international tournaments which employ promotion and relegation include the Ice Hockey World Championships , Bandy World Championships , Floorball World Championships , the UEFA Nations League , the CONCACAF Nations League , the World Cricket League and the European Team Championships in athletics. In baseball,
8383-486: The possibility of midweek evening matches. By far the biggest change for league clubs during this era was a new cup competition open to all the members of the League, the Football League Cup . The League Cup was held for the first time in 1960–61 to provide clubs with a new source of income with Aston Villa winning that inaugural year. Despite an initial lack of enthusiasm on the part of some other big clubs,
8484-404: The regional level. For example, in a higher league with a large geographical footprint and multiple feeder leagues each representing smaller geographical regions, should most or all of the relegated teams in the higher division come from one particular region then the number of teams to be promoted or relegated from each of the feeder leagues may have to be adjusted, or one or more teams playing near
8585-631: The rest of the 72 are located in England. The Football League had a sponsor from the 1983–84 season, and thus was known by various names. The English Football League also organises two knock-out cup competitions, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy . The operations centre of the Football League is in Preston , while its commercial office is in London. The Football League consists of 68 professional association football clubs in England and 4 in Wales. It runs
8686-474: The same time, automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the Football Conference were introduced for one club, replacing the annual application for re-election to the League of the bottom four clubs and linking the League to the developing National League System pyramid. Emblematic of the confusion that was beginning to envelop the game, the number of clubs at the top of
8787-435: The season. If a club enters administration before 31 March of any given season, they will immediately be deducted twelve points; entering administration from 1 April onward will see the points deduction either held over until the end of the season (if the club finishes outside the relegation places) or applied the following season (if the club was relegated anyway). Also, it is required that a club exiting administration agrees to
8888-627: The teams from the Legends Stage (Now known as the Elimination Stage ) from the previous Major automatically qualify for their RMRs and are joined by online qualifiers. From 1993 until 2003, the Eurovision Song Contest used various systems of relegation to reconcile the number of countries wishing to participate (approximately 30 at the time) with the number of performances allowed considering time constraints of
8989-409: The time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe. Promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a League system , based on their performance over a season . Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called open leagues. In
9090-519: The upper divisions until 1974 when the number increased to three. Clubs to win their first League titles in the quarter-century following the Second World War were Portsmouth (1948–49 and 1949–50), Tottenham Hotspur (1950–51 and 1960–61), founder members of the League Wolverhampton Wanderers (1953–54, 1957–58 and 1958–59), Chelsea (1954–55), Ipswich Town (1961–62) and Leeds United (1968–69). Tottenham Hotspur became
9191-401: Was an effort to prevent unduly defensive play encouraged by the greater advantage in limiting goals allowed. In the event that clubs had equal points and equal goal differences, priority was given to the club that had scored the most goals. There has been only one season, 1988–89, when this level of differentiation was necessary to determine the League champion, and this was the occasion of one of
9292-641: Was dissolved because of financial problems. Yet the Second Division expanded to fifteen clubs for season 1893–94 (net increase three) by adding five new clubs: Liverpool from the Lancashire League , Middlesbrough Ironopolis and Newcastle United from the Northern League, Rotherham Town from the Midland League, and Woolwich Arsenal (later Arsenal), who became the first team from the South of England to compete. For its third season 1894–95,
9393-575: Was held at Anderton's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final. The Football League was formally created and named in Manchester at a further meeting on 17 April at the Royal Hotel. The name "Association Football Union" was proposed by McGregor but this was felt too close to " Rugby Football Union ". Instead, "The Football League" was proposed by Major William Sudell , representing Preston, and quickly agreed upon. Although
9494-781: Was instituted in the 1950s. Later matches were played irregularly and poorly attended, with the last match against the Scottish league being played in March 1976. Other than the Inter-league fixtures, a match was played against the England national team in 1963 as part of the Football Association 's centenary celebrations, ending in a 3–3 draw at the Arsenal Stadium . Aside from one-off exhibition matches against
9595-408: Was insufficient to ensure adequate parity in any given game or the overall financial performance of a sport (as distinguished from individual players or teams). Most importantly, the failure of most association football leagues to adequately regulate individual player compensation (that is, by imposing salary caps ) had resulted in too many games ending in predictable blowouts , and thereby reduced
9696-419: Was not able to survive the onset of professionalism . It responded to the trend – clubs secretly paying or indirectly compensating players – by establishing a "professional" class for 1869. As quickly as 1871, most of those clubs broke away and formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP). That new, professional Association was open at a modest fee, but it proved to be unstable. It
9797-429: Was played between Second Division rivals Millwall and Fulham at The Den . Millwall won 1–0. The first ever Sunday top-flight game was between Chelsea and Stoke a week later. Beginning with the 1976–77 season, the clubs finishing level on points began to be separated according to goal difference (the difference between goals scored and goals conceded) rather than goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded). This
9898-432: Was replaced by the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs in 1876, which has endured to the present day. The founders of the new League judged that in order to prosper, they must make baseball's highest level of competition a franchise based system with exclusive membership, a strict limit on the number of teams, and each member having exclusive rights to their local market. The modest National League guarantee of
9999-646: Was reportedly because of such evidence that the EuroLeague adopted mandatory salary bands in September 2024. Promotion and relegation is used in international sports leagues such as in Europe , and many other parts of the world. It may be used in international sports tournaments. In tennis, the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup have promotion and relegation, with a 'World Group' (split into two divisions in
10100-403: Was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures, along with various cup competitions. On 22 March 1888, he wrote to the committee of his own club, Aston Villa, as well as to those of Blackburn Rovers , Bolton Wanderers , Preston North End , Stoke and West Bromwich Albion ; suggesting the creation of a league competition that would provide
10201-399: Was £2.9million for the transfer of Dean Saunders from Derby County to Liverpool during the 1991 close season. The first £3million player was Alan Shearer , who moved from Southampton to Blackburn Rovers in July 1992, the summer before the first Premier League season. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled that would bring more money into
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