Promotion and Relegation in English Football: How Does it Work? 

Not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere else but the ‘football league’ (championship, leagues 1/2) used to contain the top 4 flights of football (including the present day premier league) named division 1, division 2 etc. all to division 4. When the division 1 clubs broke away in the early 90s to form the premier league. The football league merely retired the division 4 name and dropped each number down 2 becoming 1 etc. Meaning before the names championship and league 1/2 were introduced premier league clubs were relegated into the first division a name which has always meant the biggest and best clubs for 100+ years but now meant second best. Very confusing times 😂😂

Send this to the founders of the European Super League.

2 things you missed about the champions league spots: if you win the champions league or the Europa league, then you also get into the champions league automatically So basically a team can be* demoted to the championship but can still "steal" a champions league spot by winning either European competition

Thank u very much for this boss I didn't know how relegation worked in English league now i get it thanks to u!!

Thank you. This should be compulsory viewing in the 🇺🇸

Nothing in sport compares to the highs of promotion and lows of relegation.

I wish we had some kind of relegation in the USA. This is why fundamentally all our sports suck.

I think Mr Glazer may want to watch this...

No idea why i’m watching this, i’ve known it my whole life but it was a great video 👍🏼

I live in England and follow a Premiership Team and have watched non league football too, so fully understand the promotion relegation model. But my complements to you for explaining it in such a clear understandable way. My only minor comment would be to clarify that teams qualifying for Europe still take part in the Premier League the following season, it's just that they have an additional competition to take part in until they are knocked out, or win! I appreciate you will know this but your subscribers may not.

Thanks for the video. I was really confused before on how the relegation system works. This explains all the questions I had.

One of the best things in football - the promotion 🔼 and relegation 🔻 system! Keeps things interesting and gives clubs below the Premier League the dream that one day they too can reach the promised land. Come on MLS get this system in the US 🇺🇸 one day!

If England has the best football leagues in the world, why it doesn't have a relegation playoff unlike German Bundesliga?

People don’t really bother about the Europa league until it gets to around the quarter final stage. The winners of the Europa league go into the champions league the following season.

Relegation trivia - in the space of 10 seasons, Northampton Town went from the 4th Division (1960-61) all the way up to the First Division (1965-66), and then all the way back down to the 4th Division (1969-70).

Love the 2 guides that you posted. It’s very instructional and refined. Keep it up 👍🏽

Distinction between league and non-league causes confusion since non-league football is also organised into leagues. Every club plays in A league, but only the top 4 tiers, historically, were referred to as THE league. As another poster mentioned the only way for a non-league team to get into THE league was for the 92 to vote to replace one of their number with a team from outside the 92. Google "re-election to the football league" for more info. The regional leagues at the current tier 7 of the pyramid used to be the top level of non-league football, until the non-league system was reorganised to have a national division at the top with automatic promotion to THE league. (Happened in the 1980's)

Found it strange how you showed the Premier League and championship table from last season. League 1 this season. Top of of League 2 last season and the bottom half of league 2 two seasons ago. Insignificant detail I know 😂

#Promotionandrelegationusa

Would u like usa to have promotion and relegation or not

Promotion Relegation didn't happen until 73 ish, prior to that it was all decided on a vote for those in the bottom place of the Football League. Bradford PA (Park Avenue) were the last team to be voted out before the automatic promotion Relations and though out the seasons the leagues have changed names Division 1 - PREMIER LEAGUE Division 2 - Division 1 - Championship Division 3 - Division 2 - League 1 Division 4 - Division 3 - League 2

Do you have a video on the history of soccer in the USA? Like all the different times they try to have a professional first division league in America for example.

Not really a deep soccer fan, came here from Ted Lasso but it's a beautiful sports

Good video!

Promotion and relegation are important things in football. In England, Scotland and Wales. There is promotion and relegation for clubs to improve. I think there should be a Great Britain And Ireland Premier Football / Soccer Club Cup trophy. I support keeping the Scottish, Welsh, and English leagues. But that on top of domestic and European football there should be an extra cup trophy played between club sides from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, and England. My idea is that we need more cross border club cups between club sides from Great Britain and Ireland. My view is to make way for such a trophy there could be league re-construction, and in this case abandoning the Scottish League Cup and English League Cup. But that this would be to make way for a new Great Britain and Ireland trophy. The old League Cups would still count as important historical trophies like the European Cup Winners Cup does now. My idea for a Great Britain And Ireland Premier Soccer Club Cup, would be that it would include all Scottish Premiership sides, every English Premier League side and every English Football League side. Plus 6 selected sides each from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Wales. There could also be invited sides from other regions and countries in North-Western Europe, such as Brittany, Paris, and the Netherlands. My idea would be that there would be a group stage trophy, leading to a knockout round leading to a final. UEFA have allowed the Scottish to have English, Welsh, and Irish sides in the Scottish Challenge Cup. So UEFA should be OK with this. I do not want the Scottish, Welsh and English leagues to merge as that would destroy football history and identity. People would think Scotland was part of England. People would think all the trophies the Scottish sides had won would be regarded as the status of non-league trophies. While a Great Britain league would be seen as a continuation of the English leagues. So all the English trophies would be seen as the forerunner of the Great Britain trophies. So I do not want the Scottish, Welsh and English leagues to merge. I want the best of both worlds where we have our own leagues, European qualification, but also have cross border trophies on top of that. People would say travel would be a difficult tough issue. But look at the trips teams do in the Brazil, India, Russia, Australia, Japan, USA, Canada, Argentina, China and Mexico sports leagues. Look at the trips teams do in the UEFA competitions. Look at the fact that in rugby union there are sports trophies between club sides from Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Wales, and South Africa. So I think compared, travel should not be too tough for a Great Britain and Ireland trophy. But I would also add that merging the Scottish, Welsh and English leagues would mean Scottish sides travelling out of Scotland up to 20 times a season in the league. Which would get tough. The advantage of a cross border cup is that the trips to Ireland, Wales and England would still be a novelty and fun. Without getting repetitive. There could be great games like Aberdeen v Norwich City, Glasgow Celtic v Manchester United, Manchester City v Glasgow Rangers, Liverpool v Linfield, Everton v Bala Town, The New Saints v Hibernian, Newcastle United v Shamrock Rovers, Connah's Quay Nomads v Dundalk, and Dundee United v Coventry City.

Thank for the useful information

This is a bit out of date now because the UEFA Conference league (brand new competition) starts next season. It's the third tier European club competition behind the Champions league and Europa league. It's mainly for lower tier countries but England will have 1 team in it. It's from the Carabou Cup (winner no longer goes into Europa league). And if that team has already qualified for a higher tier European competition then it goes to the next highest Premier League place. So Manchester City won the Carabou Cup this season and will obviously qualify for the Champions League. So the Conference League team will come from the Premier League highest place after the Champions League and Europa League places.

The pro sports leagues in North America can really learn a lot from English/European football. Playing for various Cups during the season and battling for Promotion or preventing a Relegation makes it interesting for fans of the weaker teams since they seem to be always playing for something. No so good for North American fans, when say, the Mets are 30 games out of 1st place, you need to be a die-hard fan to watch them finish out the season when there is nothing at stake.

When do teams get relegated

Thanks for the vid. Could you explain how the promotion system works in the 2nd tier for soccer. I know theirs a playoff but i'm not sure how that works. Could you please explain? Thanks!

How does it work? Seriously?

This is exactly why Americans don’t like soccer . It’s too confusing even to people who understand it .

The top 4 leagues are almost exclusively professional clubs. "Non-League" is probably more accurately described as "semi-pro". The National League will have a mix of professional and semi-pro clubs, below which the leagues become regional and are considered "amateur" level (not that that makes the games any less entertaining, often quite the opposite).

from a UK viewer - if anyone is wondering why teams have weird number of games played, some of the lower leagues finishec early in 19-20 season due to covid.

That’s not strictly true about the top 3 going up, as there is the play offs