The Football League League Competition Cup Competitions

The Football League's 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions: the Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two. Each division has 24 clubs, and in any given season 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 loss. 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 the next lower one. At the top end of the competition, three Championship clubs win promotion from The Football League to the FA 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 Conference National division of the Football Conference, while two teams from Conference National join League Two of The Football League in their stead.

Promotion and relegation are determined by final league position, but to sustain interest for more clubs over the length of the season one promotion place from each division is decided according to a playoff between four clubs, which takes place at the end of the season. It is therefore 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.

Division	Promoted	Relegated
Directly Up	Via Playoff
The Championship	Top 2 clubs	One from 3rd-6th place finishers	Bottom 3 clubs
League One	Top 2 clubs	One from 3rd-6th place finishers	Bottom 4 clubs
League Two	Top 3 clubs	One from 4th-7th place finishers	Bottom 2 clubs

Three professional football clubs from Wales, Cardiff City, Wrexham, and Swansea City, play in The Football League. This disqualifies them from participation in the League of Wales and the Welsh Cup, and so also deprives them of the chance to qualify for UEFA competitions by this route. One English club, Berwick RangersBerwick Rangers F. are a football team based in the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, but currently playing in the Scottish Football League. Formed in 1881 they had a nomadic existence before eventually settling down at Shielfield Park in 1919. Eventual, plays in the Scottish football league systemThe Scottish football league system (or pyramid) is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Scotland. It is not as well developed as most other football league systems, consisting of only two leagues made up of just four divisions. It is a.

Reserve teams of Football League clubs usually play in the Pontin's Holidays LeagueThe Central League (more commonly known as the Pontins League after its main sponsor) is a football league in England for reserve teams of Football League clubs. The league was formed in 1911 and in its early years consisted of a mix of first teams and re (for the Midlands and North) or the Pontin's Holidays Combination (for the South), though some play in the national FA Premier Reserve League .

2 Cup competitions

The Football League organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League CupThe Football League Cup commonly known as the League Cup is an English football competition. Like the more prestigious FA Cup, it is played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. Unlike the FA Cup, only the 92 members of The Football League (who organi, currently called the Carling Cup, and the Football League TrophyThe Football League Trophy is the generic name of an English football competition for clubs in the two lower divisions of the Football League, the official name of which is frequently changed to match changes in sponsors, and which is presently called the, currently the LDV Vans Trophy. The League Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all Football League and FA Premier League clubs, with the winner eligible to participate in the UEFA CupThe UEFA Cup is a football competition for European club teams. It was founded in May 1955 as the Inter-Cities' Fairs Cup. It is the second most important competition for European club teams, the first being the UEFA Champions League. Qualification for th. The Trophy is for clubs belonging to League One and League Two and certain Football Conference clubs.

3 History

After four years of debate, The Football AssociationThe Football Association The FA is the governing body of football in England. The FA was established in 1863 and is the oldest football association in the world. It was instrumental in formulating the rules of the modern game and has a special place in th finally legalised professionalism on 20 July 1885. Before that date many clubs made illegal payments to "professional" players to boost the competitiveness of their teams, 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 'friendly' matches was seen by many as an unreliable stream of revenue, and ways were considered of ensuring a consistent income.

A Scottish draper and director of Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the first to set out to bring some order to a chaotic world where clubs arranged their own fixtures. He wrote to the leading clubs and organised the founding meeting of The Football League on 22 March 1888. The first season of The Football League began a few months later on 8 September with 12 member clubs: Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Each club played the other twice, once at home and once away, and two points were awarded for a win and one for a draw. Preston won the first league title without losing a game, and completed the first league-cup double by also taking the FA Cup.

The early years of the League saw the addition of more clubs, and a new Second Division was formed in 1892 with the absorption of the rival Football Alliance. The bottom clubs of the lower division were required to apply for re-election to the League at the end of each season. Automatic promotion and relegation for two clubs was introduced after the League expanded to two divisions of eighteen in 1898. During this period the League was dominated by northern clubs, with the likes of Sunderland, Newcastle United, and Manchester United joining the League and having success. Liverpool won the first of their record 18 League titles in 1901. It was not until the early years of the new century that southern clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur established themselves in the League, and there would be a further wait until 1931 before a southern club, Arsenal, would win the League for the first time.

The League was suspended for four seasons during World War I and resumed in 1919 with the First and Second Divisions expanded to 22 clubs. The following year, 1920, leading clubs from 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 most appropriate Third Division. To accommodate potential difficulties in this arrangement, clubs in the Midlands such as Mansfield Town or Walsall would sometimes be moved from one Third Division to the other.

Following this burst of postwar growth, the League entered into a prolonged period of relative stability with few changes in the membership, although there were changes on the pitch. A new offside law in 1925 reducing the number of opponents between the player and the goal from three to two led to a large increase in goals. Numbers on shirts were introduced in 1939 and white balls in 1951. The first floodlit game was played between Portsmouth and Newcastle United in 1956, opening up the possibility of midweek evening matches.

The League was suspended once more in 1939 with the outbreak of World War II, 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 the new Third Division, and those in the bottom half made up the Fourth Division. Four clubs were promoted and relegated between these two lower divisions, while two clubs exchanged places in the upper divisions until 1974, when the number increased to three.

A new cup competition open to all the members of the League, the Football League Cup, was held for the first time in 1960- 61 to provide clubs a new source of income. Aston Villa won the inaugural League Cup and, despite an initial lack of enthusiasm on the part of some of the bigger clubs, the competition became firmly established in the footballing calendar.

Substitutes were first allowed for injured players in 1965, and for any reason the next year.

Beginning with the 1976- 77 season, clubs finishing level on points began to be separated according to goal difference (the difference between goals scored and goals allowed) rather than goal average (goals scored divided by goals allowed). This was an effort to prevent overly 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 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.

Another important change was made in 1981 when it was decided to award three points for a win instead of two, a further effort to increase attacking football. In a similar vein, playoffs to determine promotion and relegation places were introduced in 1987 to prolong hope for more clubs 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. At the same time, automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the Football Conference was 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 the league would return to 22 for the 1991- 92 season, before once more dropping to 20 for 1995- 96. 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 the game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. Beginning in 1983 the League has accepted lucrative sponsorships for its main competition. Below is a list of who the sponsors have been and what the League was called under their sponsorship:

1983-1986: Canon (Canon Football League)
1986-1987: Today (newspaper) (Today Football League)
1987-1993: Barclays Bank (Barclays Football League)
1993-1996: Endsleigh Insurance (Endsleigh Football League)
1996-2004: Nationwide Building Society (Nationwide Football League)
2004-2007: Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola Football League)

The League's cup competitions have different sponsors.

The other major source of money, and by far the most important one, is television. The 1980s saw competition between terrestrial broadcasters for the rights to show League matches, but the arrival on the scene of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (Sky TV), eagerly searching for attractive programming to build its customer base and willing to pay huge sums, changed the picture entirely. The League's top tier clubs had been agitating for several years to be able to keep more of the League's revenue for themselves, threatening to break away and form their own league if necessary. In 1992 the threat was realised as the First Division clubs left to establish the FA Premier League and signed a contract for exclusive live coverage of their games with Sky TV. The FA Premier League agreed to maintain the promotion and relegation of three clubs with The Football League, but The Football League was now in a far weaker position - without its best clubs and without the clout to negotiate high revenue TV deals. This problem was exacerbated with the collapse in 2002 of ITV Digital, holder of TV rights for The Football League, which cost League clubs millions of pounds in revenue.

The new, slimmed down League, 70 clubs until 1995 and 72 clubs since, renamed its divisions to reflect the changes. The old Second Division became the new First Division, the Third Division became the Second Division, and the Fourth Division became the Third Division. The financial health of its clubs has become perhaps the highest League priority due to the limited resources available. However there are some promising signs for the future, as the League plans to announce new initiatives beginning with the 2004- 05 season, coinciding with the start of a new sponsorship agreement with Coca-Cola. The first of these changes was a rebranding of the League with the renaming of the First Division to The Championship, the Second Division to League One and the Third Division to League Two.

4 Past League winners

4.1 1888-1892

When The Football League was first established, all clubs played in just one division:

Season	Football League
1888-89	Preston North End
1889-90	Preston North End
1890-91	Everton
1891-92	Sunderland

4.2 1892-1920

In 1892 The Football League absorbed the rival Football Alliance, meaning it now had enough clubs to form another division. The existing division was renamed the First Division and the new division was called the Second Division:

Season	First Division	Second Division
1892-93	Sunderland	Small Heath
1893-94	Aston Villa	Liverpool
1894-95	Sunderland	Bury
1895-96	Aston Villa	Liverpool
1896-97	Aston Villa	Notts County
1897-98	Sheffield United	Burnley
1898-99	Aston Villa	Manchester City
1899-1900	Aston Villa	The Wednesday
1900-01	Liverpool	Grimsby Town
1901-02	Sunderland	West Bromwich Albion
1902-03	The Wednesday	Manchester City
1903-04	The Wednesday	Preston North End
1904-05	Newcastle United	Liverpool
1905-06	Liverpool	Bristol City
1906-07	Newcastle United	Nottingham Forest
1907-08	Manchester United	Bradford City
1908-09	Newcastle United	Bolton Wanderers
1909-10	Aston Villa	Manchester City
1910-11	Manchester United	West Bromwich Albion
1911-12	Blackburn Rovers	Derby County
1912-13	Sunderland	Preston North End
1913-14	Blackburn Rovers	Notts County
1914-15	Everton	Derby County
1915-19	League suspended due to World War One
1919-20	West Bromwich Albion	Tottenham Hotspur

4.3 1920-1921

In 1920 the Football League admitted the clubs from the first division of the Southern League (the Southern League continued with its remaining clubs). The new clubs were placed in the new Third Division:

Season	First Division	Second Division	Third Division
1920-21	Burnley	Birmingham City	Crystal Palace

4.4 1921-1958

After just one season under the old format, the League expanded again. This time it admitted a number of clubs from the north of England (to balance things out as the last expansion brought only clubs from the south). The existing Third Division was renamed the Third Division (South) and the new division was named the Third Division (North). Both divisions ran in parallel, with clubs from both Third Divisions being promoted to the national Second Division at the end of each season:

Season	First Division	Second Division	Third Division (North)	Third Division (South)
1921-22	Liverpool	Nottingham Forest	Stockport County	Southampton
1922-23	Liverpool	Notts County	Nelson	Bristol City
1923-24	Huddersfield Town	Leeds United	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Portsmouth
1924-25	Huddersfield Town	Leicester City	Darlington	Swansea City
1925-26	Huddersfield Town	Sheffield Wednesday	Grimsby Town	Reading
1926-27	Newcastle United	Middlesbrough	Stoke City	Bristol City
1927-28	Everton	Manchester City	Bradford Park Avenue	Millwall
1928-29	Sheffield Wednesday	Middlesbrough	Bradford City	Charlton Athletic
1929-30	Sheffield Wednesday	Blackpool	Port Vale	Plymouth Argyle
1930-31	Arsenal	Everton	Chesterfield	Notts County
1931-32	Everton	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Lincoln City	Fulham
1932-33	Arsenal	Stoke City	Hull City	Brentford
1933-34	Arsenal	Grimsby Town	Barnsley	Norwich City
1934-35	Arsenal	Brentford	Doncaster Rovers	Charlton Athletic
1935-36	Sunderland	Manchester United	Chesterfield	Coventry City
1936-37	Manchester City	Leicester City	Stockport County	Luton Town
1937-38	Arsenal	Aston Villa	Tranmere Rovers	Millwall
1938-39	Everton	Blackburn Rovers	Barnsley	Newport County
1939-46	League suspended due to World War Two
1946-47	Liverpool	Manchester City	Doncaster Rovers	Cardiff City
1947-48	Arsenal	Birmingham City	Lincoln City	Queens Park Rangers
1948-49	Portsmouth	Fulham	Hull City	Swansea City
1949-50	Portsmouth	Tottenham Hotspur	Doncaster Rovers	Notts County
1950-51	Tottenham Hotspur	Preston North End	Rotherham United	Nottingham Forest
1951-52	Manchester United	Sheffield Wednesday	Lincoln City	Plymouth Argyle
1952-53	Arsenal	Sheffield United	Oldham Athletic	Bristol Rovers
1953-54	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Leicester City	Port Vale	Ipswich Town
1954-55	Chelsea	Birmingham City	Barnsley	Bristol City
1955-56	Manchester United	Sheffield Wednesday	Grimsby Town	Leyton Orient
1956-57	Manchester United	Leicester City	Derby County	Ipswich Town
1957-58	Wolverhampton Wanderers	West Ham United	Scunthorpe United	Brighton & Hove Albion

4.5 1958-1992

For the beginning of the 1958- 59 season, national Third and Fourth Divisions were introduced to replace the regional Third Division North and Third Division South:

Season	First Division	Second Division	Third Division	Fourth Division
1958-59	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Sheffield Wednesday	Plymouth Argyle	Port Vale
1959-60	Burnley	Aston Villa	Southampton	Walsall
1960-61	Tottenham Hotspur	Ipswich Town	Bury	Peterborough United
1961-62	Ipswich Town	Liverpool	Portsmouth	Millwall
1962-63	Everton	Stoke City	Northampton Town	Brentford
1963-64	Liverpool	Leeds United	Coventry City	Gillingham
1964-65	Manchester United	Newcastle United	Carlisle United	Brighton & Hove Albion
1965-66	Liverpool	Manchester City	Hull City	Doncaster Rovers
1966-67	Manchester United	Coventry City	Queens Park Rangers	Stockport County
1967-68	Manchester City	Ipswich Town	Oxford United	Luton Town
1968-69	Leeds United	Derby County	Watford	Doncaster Rovers
1969-70	Everton	Huddersfield Town	Leyton Orient	Chesterfield
1970-71	Arsenal	Leicester City	Preston North End	Notts County
1971-72	Derby County	Norwich City	Aston Villa	Grimsby Town
1972-73	Liverpool	Burnley	Bolton Wanderers	Southport
1973-74	Leeds United	Middlesbrough	Oldham Athletic	Peterborough United
1974-75	Derby County	Manchester United	Blackburn Rovers	Mansfield Town
1975-76	Liverpool	Sunderland	Hereford United	Lincoln City
1976-77	Liverpool	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Mansfield Town	Cambridge United
1977-78	Nottingham Forest	Bolton Wanderers	Wrexham	Watford
1978-79	Liverpool	Crystal Palace	Shrewsbury Town	Reading
1979-80	Liverpool	Leicester City	Grimsby Town	Huddersfield Town
1980-81	Aston Villa	West Ham United	Rotherham United	Southend United
1981-82	Liverpool	Luton Town	Burnley	Sheffield United
1982-83	Liverpool	Queens Park Rangers	Portsmouth	Wimbledon
1983-84	Liverpool	Chelsea	Oxford United	York City
1984-85	Everton	Oxford United	Bradford City	Chesterfield
1985-86	Liverpool	Norwich City	Reading	Swindon Town
1986-87	Everton	Derby County	Bournemouth	Northampton Town
1987-88	Liverpool	Millwall	Sunderland	Wolverhampton Wanderers
1988-89	Arsenal	Chelsea	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Rotherham United
1989-90	Liverpool	Leeds United	Bristol Rovers	Exeter City
1990-91	Arsenal	Oldham Athletic	Cambridge United	Darlington
1991-92	Leeds United	Ipswich Town	Brentford	Burnley

4.6 1992-2004

Following the breakaway of the clubs in the First Division to form the FA Premier League, The Football League no longer included the top clubs in England. The Second Division was renamed the First Division, the Third Division became the Second Division, and the Fourth Division became the Third Division.

Season	First Division	Second Division	Third Division
1992-93	Newcastle United	Stoke City	Cardiff City
1993-94	Crystal Palace	Reading	Shrewsbury Town
1994-95	Middlesbrough	Birmingham City	Carlisle United
1995-96	Sunderland	Swindon Town	Preston North End
1996-97	Bolton Wanderers	Bury	Wigan Athletic
1997-98	Nottingham Forest	Watford	Notts County
1998-99	Sunderland	Fulham	Brentford
1999-2000	Charlton Athletic	Preston North End	Swansea City
2000-01	Fulham	Millwall	Brighton & Hove Albion
2001-02	Manchester City	Brighton & Hove Albion	Plymouth Argyle
2002-03	Portsmouth	Wigan Athletic	Rushden & Diamonds
2003-04	Norwich City	Plymouth Argyle	Doncaster Rovers

4.7 2004-Present

In 2004, the Football League renamed its divisions: the First Division became the Football League Championship, the Second Division became Football League One and the Third Division became Football League Two. As the inaugural season under the new names is still taking place, there are as yet no winners.

5 Football League clubs

Below are listed the member clubs of The Football League for the 2004- 2005 season. There are 24 clubs in each division.

The Championship
Brighton and Hove Albion
Burnley
Cardiff City
Coventry City
Crewe Alexandra
Derby County
Gillingham
Ipswich Town
Leicester City
Leeds United
Millwall
Nottingham Forest
Plymouth Argyle
Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers
Reading
Rotherham United
Sheffield United
Stoke City
Sunderland
Watford
West Ham United
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers

League One
Barnsley
Blackpool
Bournemouth
Bradford City
Brentford
Bristol City
Chesterfield
Colchester United
Doncaster Rovers
Hartlepool United
Huddersfield Town
Hull City
Luton Town
Milton Keynes Dons
Oldham Athletic
Peterborough United
Port Vale
Sheffield Wednesday
Stockport County
Swindon Town
Torquay United
Tranmere Rovers
Walsall
Wrexham

League Two
Boston United
Bristol Rovers
Bury
Cambridge United
Cheltenham Town
Chester City
Darlington
Grimsby Town
Kidderminster Harriers
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Macclesfield Town
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Notts County
Oxford United
Rochdale
Rushden and Diamonds
Scunthorpe United
Shrewsbury Town
Southend United
Swansea City
Wycombe Wanderers
Yeovil Town

6 Former Football League clubs

This list does not include clubs currently playing in the FA Premier League, all of which were formerly members of The Football League.

Note: ^R indicates that the club was relegated from The Football League.

Club	Years in League	Notes
Aberdare Athletic	1921-1927
Accrington	1888-1893
Accrington Stanley	1921-1962
Aldershot	1932-1992
Ashington	1921-1929
Barnet	1991-2001^R
Barrow	1921-1972
Bootle	1892-1893
Bradford Park Avenue	1908-1970
Burton United	1892-1907	Burton United was known as Burton Swifts until 1901, at which time the club merged with Burton Wanderers to form Burton United.
Burton Wanderers	1894-1897	See Burton United.
Carlisle United	1928-2004^R
Darwen	1891-1899
Durham City	1921-1928
Exeter City	1920-2003^R	First club to be relegated after finishing second from bottom of The Football League.
Gainsborough Trinity	1896-1912
Gateshead	1919-1960	Known as South Shields until 1930.
Glossop	1898-1915	Known as Glossop North End until 1899.
Halifax Town	1921-1993^R 1998-2002^R	Only club to have been relegated from The Football League twice.
Hereford United	1972-1997^R
Leeds City	1905-1919
Loughborough	1895-1900	Also known as Loughborough Town.
Maidstone United	1989-1992
Merthyr Town	1920-1930
Middlesbrough Ironopolis	1893-1894
Nelson	1921-1931
New Brighton	1923-1951
New Brighton Tower	1898-1901
Newport County	1920-1931 1932-1988^R
Northwich Victoria	1892-1894
Rotherham Town	1893-1896	Would merge with Rotherham County in 1926 to form Rotherham United.
Scarborough	1987-1999^R
Southport	1921-1978
Stalybridge Celtic	1921-1923
Thames	1930-1932
Wigan Borough	1921-1931
Workington	1951-1977
York City	1929-2004^R

7 See also

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Football in England

The FA

8 External links

English football competitions

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