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At the top is the FA Premier League, a single-division league of 20 clubs. Below is The Football League, which is divided into three divisions of 24 clubs. Below that is the Football Conference, which contains a national division of 22 clubs followed by divisions covering the north and south of England (and parts of Wales) again with 22 clubs each.
Under that are three regional leagues, each associated different geographical area (though they often overlap): the Northern Premier League covers the north of England; the Southern League covers the south of England (except the South East), the Midlands and parts of Wales and the Isthmian League covers the South East. Each of these leagues has a Premier Division, with a First Division below (except the Southern League, which has two parallel ones).
Only the Isthmian league has a Second Division, which is one the same level as the top divisions of the North West Counties Football League, the Northern Counties East Football League, the Northern League, the Western Football League, the Wessex LeagueThe Sydenhams Wessex League is an English association football league at the fifth step of the National League System, or the ninth tier of the overall English football league system. In 2004, it absorbed most of the clubs from its feeder league, the Hamp, the Sussex County Football LeagueThe Sussex County Football League is a football league broadly covering the county of Sussex, England. It has three divisions, with the First Division at step 5 of the National League System, below the Isthmian League Division One. Most wins: 7 Horsham, P, the Hellenic Football LeagueFor the 5th century BC league of Greek city states, see Delian League. The Hellenic Football League is an English football league covering the Thames Valley area to the west of London. From 2004-05 it is at step 5 of the National League System, as a feede, the Midland Football AllianceThe Midland Football Alliance (also known as the Travel Factory Alliance after its main sponsor) is an English football league covering the West Midlands region. The league was formed as recently as 1994, to provide a single league for the region with a h, the United Counties Football LeagueThe United Counties Football League (also known after its sponsor as the Eagle Bitter United Counties League is an English football league covering Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and the surrounding area. Its upper Premier Division is at step 5 of the Nat, the Eastern Counties Football LeagueThe Eastern Counties League (also known under a sponsorship contract as the Ridgeons League) is an English football league at level 5 of the National League System. It is a feeder to the Southern League Division One East. Champions for the last 4 seasons, the Kent LeagueThe Kent League is an English football league in Kent and south east London. The league was started in 1966 as the Kent Premier League and in its early years many of its members were reserve sides of Southern League teams. Gradually, the reserve sides wer, the Spartan South Midlands Football LeagueThe Spartan South Midlands Football League is an English football league covering north London and parts of the Home Counties. It is a feeder to the Isthmian League. The league was formed in 1997 by the merger of the London Spartan League and the South Mi, the Combined Counties Football League and the Essex Senior Football League. In the future, it is planned to reduce these fifteen divisions to twelve (three below each of the divisions above them).
Each of these leagues has a different divisional set up, but they all have one thing in common: there are yet more leagues below them, each covering smaller and smaller geographical levels. In some areas, there are more than twenty levels to the league system. The leagues from the fifth to eleventh levels inclusive are collectively known as the National League System and are tightly controlled by the FA.
Each league sets its own rules, but all follow the general standard of each club playing everyone else twice with three points being awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. The league table is always ordered with whoever has the most points at the top and the least at the bottom (ways of distinguishing between clubs level on points differ from league to league). Various degrees of promotion and relegation exist between all the leagues and divisions, meaning that any team can theoretically climb (or fall) to any level. However, minimum standards for grounds (floodlighting, seating capacity, etc) sometimes lead to clubs being denied promotion even though their league position would allow it. The clubs in the top four levels are entirely professional, and the fifth nearly so. The sixth has a few fulltime professional clubs with the rest semi-professional, and below that level clubs are either semi-professional or amateur.