English football is defined by its
pyramid the system of promotion
relegation and interconnected leagues
it's intended to represent Mobility the
hope that through promotion and
relegation every Club from any part of
the country could reach the top or fall
to the bottom but despite the pyramid
being familiar few know how it really
works or how deep it actually
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goes so first what does the pyramid
actually look like well at the top it's
simple the Premier League is the highest
level of professional football beneath
that the three divisions which
collectively comprise the English
football league the championship league
one and League 2 those four divisions
contain 92 clubs at any one time then
beneath that outside of the league
system the level of football is
identified by Steps step one is the
highest and that is the national league
from which rexam won promotion in 2023
that in turn is fed by step two which is
the national league North and South two
divisions of equal standing with teams
divided by geographical location glester
city are the National League North's
longest tenants they play at Meadow Park
which holds 4,000 fans the record
attendance for the National League South
was
5,351 fans who watched T United versus
Hungerford town in 2019 and below that
Things become more regionalized and more
complicated at step three there are four
separate divisions each of which promote
teams into the level above and all of
which have Associated divisions below
confusingly A team's passage is not
always linear so just as a club from
that level would have its destination
informed by its geography ending up in
the National League North or South so a
sid suffering relegation would drop into
a division specified on the same basis
there is the Northern premier league
Premier Division the southern League
Premier Division Central the southern
League Premier Division South and the
isian league Premier League Division
together they contain the 88 teams at
step three step four works on the same
basis but with more divisions and so
does step five but there are quirks and
to explain them here's an example
consider a team playing in the Midland
League Premier Division at step five the
ninth level of the pyramid a team
winning promotion from that league would
go into either the northern Premier
League Division 1 West or the northern
Premier League Division 1 Midlands
depending on which part of the country
they're from and which other teams have
also won promotion
similarly teams relegated from the same
league might fall into any one of five
divisions below with the destination
determined by their locality but also
the need to keep the right number of
teams in the right places there are 319
teams currently playing at that level
step six has 17 divisions and 339 clubs
and is regionalized even further but it
works on the same basic principle with
the same premise of Mobility for example
the helenic league divisions one
promotes into the helenic league premier
division above which is part of the
Southern League system the level below
that is technically the base of the
pyramid it's the 11th highest level of
English football and home to 787
different clubs all competing for spots
in the divisions above for instance
Route One Rovers from Bradford won the
Yorkshire amateur League Supreme
division in 2023 and were promoted to
the Northwest counties League Division
North should they win another promotion
they'll find themselves in the Northwest
counties League Premier Division and
should they keep winning they'll keep on
moving upwards towards Glory however
staying with our example whilst the
Yorkshire amateur League Supreme
division is at level 11 the lowest point
of the recognized pyramid the Yorkshire
amateur League itself has eight
different divisions which stretch all
the way down to the 18th level of
English football the Yorkshire amateur
League Division 5 mainly comprises of
Reserve teams for the sides above who
are also prohibited from playing in the
same division but Standalone sides such
as West End Park who play their games on
King George ith playing fields in
liversedge will their route up to the
Supreme league and Beyond is laid out
for them you see Mobility is an
important part of the football pyramid
most famously Loot and town have
recently become the first team in the
Premier League era to make it all the
way from the national league in 2014 to
the Premier League itself and quite a
few clubs have also traveled the entire
length of the football league in 1995 96
Fulham were playing in what is now
League 2 in 1998 Manchester City were in
League 1 Brighton and Swansea have also
made the journey from League 2 to the
Premier League playing in all four
divisions and wi going have done it too
so of Bradford City but there are plenty
of other stories when AFC Wimbledon were
formed in response to the original
Wimbledon club's relocation to Milton ke
the new club started life in the
combined counties League Premier
Division that was in 2002 after six
promotions in 14 years by 2016 they
climbed into the football league system
and as high as League one coincidentally
it was the same path the first Club had
followed between 1964 and 1986 Wimbledon
FC managed to climb all the way from
level seven and the iian Premier League
to the top of English football they even
won the FA Cup in 1988 and stayed in
division 1 laterally the Premier League
until
200 # United don't have the same
backstory but they are another quick
mover they began life in the Eastern
counties League Division 1 South and
three promotions later are now playing
in the isian league Premier Division now
of course can happen in the other
direction too Alm athletic were a
founding member of the Premier League
and played two seasons in the division
from 1992 to 1994 in 2022 though
following three largely miserable
decades they became the first former
Premier League team to fall out of the
football league when they were relegated
to the National League step one the
fifth level of English football a mile
away from the Premier League yes but
still nowhere near the deepest regions
of the system itself imagine that you
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