The Football League

The Football League is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the FA Premier League. Since 1992 it has had 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are currently known as The Championship, League One, and League Two. Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the Football Conference, thus integrating the League into the English football league system. Although primarily a competition for English clubs, two clubs from Wales also take part, three until the relegation of Wrexham in 2008.

The Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition and this body also organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

For sponsorship reasons, the Football League's league competition is currently known as the Coca-Cola Football League, the Football League Cup as the Carling Cup, and the Football League Trophy as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

Overview
The Football League consists of 72 professional football clubs in England and Wales, and runs the oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organises two knockout cup competitions. The Football League was founded in 1888 by William McGregor, originally with 12 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 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 in 2007 as the Premier League. The Football League therefore no longer includes the top 20 clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total, 130 teams have played in the Football League up to 2007 (including those in the Premier League, since clubs must pass through the Football League before reaching the former).

League
The Football League's 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions: the Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football 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 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 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 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 positions, 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.

Two professional football clubs from Wales, Cardiff City 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 Rangers, plays in the Scottish football league system.

Reserve teams of Football League clubs usually play in the Pontin's Holidays League (for the Midlands and North) or the Pontin's Holidays Combination (for the South).

Cup
The Football League organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup (currently called the Carling Cup) and the Football League Trophy (or for sponsorship reasons, the Johnstone's Paint Trophy). The League Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all Football League and Premier League clubs, with the winner eligible to participate in the UEFA Cup. The Football League Trophy is for clubs belonging to League One and League Two and the Football League celebrated its 100th birthday in 1988 with a Centenary Tournament at Wembley between 16 of its member clubs.

History


After four years of debate, The Football Association 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. On 2 March 1888, he wrote to the Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, West Bromwich Albion and to the secretary of Aston Villa about the formation of a football league.

The first meeting was held at Anderson's Hotel in London on 23 March 1888 on the eve of the FA Cup Final with the name of the Football League being settled at a further meeting on 17 April at Manchester's Royal Hotel. The first season of the Football League began a few months later on 8 September with 12 member clubs.

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. 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.

Every original Football League club has at least one relegation to their credit, unlike some European leagues such as Spain, Scotland or Republic of Ireland.

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; this came into effect when the previous system of test matches between the bottom two clubs of the First Division and the top two clubs of the Second Division was brought in to disrepute when Stoke and Burnley colluded in the final match to ensure they were both in the First Division the next season.



Aston Villa and Sunderland dominated the early years of the game, but after a few years other northern clubs began to catch up, with the likes of 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 20th 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 more 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 conceded) rather than goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded). 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. (This scoring rule was not added by FIFA to the World Cups until the 1994 cup.) In a similar vein, playoffs to determine promotion places were introduced in 1987 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. 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. The first £2million player was Tony Cottee (West Ham United to Everton, July 1988). Prior to the formation of the FA Premier League, the highest transfer fee paid 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 prior to the first Premier League season.

Since 1983 the League has accepted lucrative sponsorships for its main competition. Below is a list of sponsors and the League's name under their sponsorship:


 * 1983-1986: Canon (Canon League)
 * 1986-1987: Today newspaper (Today League)
 * 1987-1993: Barclays Bank (Barclays League)
 * 1993-1996: Endsleigh Insurance (Endsleigh 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 (see English football sponsorship for more information).

The other major source of revenue 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 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 planned 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.

The Football League's collection is held by the National Football Museum.

Media rights
In 2001 the league signed a £315 million deal with ITV Digital, but in March 2002 the channel was put into administration by its parent companies when the league refused to accept a £130 million reduction in the deal. As of 2007, UK television rights are held by Sky Sports. In November 2007 the league announced a new domestic rights deal worth £264 million with Sky and the BBC for the three seasons from 2009-2012. It covers Football League, Carling Cup and Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches and the full range of media: terrestrial and pay television, broadband internet, video-on-demand and mobile services. The deal represents a 135% increase on the previous deal and works out at an average of over £1.2 million per club per season, though some clubs will receive more than others. Sky will provide the majority of the coverage, but the BBC will have some of the higher profile matches, namely 10 exclusively live matches from the Coca-Cola Championship per season and the semi-finals and finals of the Carling Cup.

Football League clubs
Below are listed the member clubs of The Football League for the 2008–09 season. Former Football League clubs include all 20 of the current members of the Premier League along with various relegated, removed or defunct clubs. Although the competition is primarily for English clubs, two of the sides competing in 2008–09 are from Wales&mdash;Cardiff City and Swansea City.

Teams new or moved leagues in this list are: Birmingham City F.C., Derby County F.C., Reading F.C. , Swansea City F.C. ,Nottingham Forest F.C. , Doncaster Rovers F.C. , leicester City F.C , Colchester United F.C. , Scunthorpe United F.C. , Bournemouth A.F.C. , Luton Town F.C. , Gillingham Town F.C. , Port Vale F.C. , Hereford United F.C. , Peterborough United F.C. , Stockport County , Aldershot F.C. and Exeter City.

Past League winners
NB: League and FA Cup Double winners are highlighted in bold.

1888-1892
When the Football League was first established, all 12 clubs played in just one division. The founder members were;


 * Accrington
 * Aston Villa
 * Blackburn Rovers
 * Bolton Wanderers
 * Burnley
 * Derby County
 * Everton
 * Notts County
 * Preston North End
 * Stoke
 * West Bromwich Albion
 * Wolverhampton Wanderers

In 1890 Stoke were not re-elected, and were replaced by Sunderland. Stoke joined the Football Alliance. In 1891 the League expanded from 12 to 14 clubs by electing Stoke and Darwen, both from the Football Alliance.

The champions were:

1892-1920
In 1892 the Football League absorbed 11 of the 12 clubs in the rival Football Alliance after it folded, meaning the League 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.

These 11 clubs were:
 * Elected to First Division:
 * Newton Heath
 * Nottingham Forest
 * The Wednesday


 * Elected to Second Division:
 * Ardwick
 * Bootle
 * Burton Swifts
 * Crewe Alexandra
 * Grimsby Town
 * Lincoln City
 * Small Heath
 * Walsall Town Swifts

Along with Darwen who became the first club to be relegated from the First Division, the other three new clubs in the 14-team Second Division were:
 * Northwich Victoria from The Combination
 * Sheffield United from the Northern League
 * Burslem Port Vale from the Midland League.

In 1893, Accrington resigned fom the League, and were replaced by Lancashire League champions Liverpool. It had been decided to expand the League by a further 4 clubs, to 2 divisions of 16, 4 additional clubs were elected. These were:


 * Woolwich Arsenal
 * Newcastle United, an amalgamation of Newcastle West End and Newcastle East End
 * Rotherham Town from the Midland League
 * Middlesbrough Ironopolis from the Northern League.

Bootle resigned from the League shortly before the season started, leaving Div 2 with 15 clubs.

In 1894 Northwich returned to the Combination, and Middlesbrough Ironopolis folded. Membership was restored to 2 divisions of 16 by electing:


 * Bury from the Lancashire League and
 * Leicester Fosse and
 * Burton Wanderers both from the Midland League.

In 1895 Loughborough were elected at the expense of Walsall, who replaced them in the Midland League.

In 1896 the following clubs left the League:


 * Burslem Port Vale joined the Midland League
 * Crewe Alexandra joined The Combination
 * Rotherham Town.

They were replaced by:


 * Blackpool from the Lancashire League
 * Gainsborough Trinity and
 * Walsall both from the Midland League.

1897:


 * Luton Town from the Southern League replaced


 * Burton Wanderers who returned to the Midland League.

1898:

The League expanded to 2 Divisions of 18 by electing 4 new clubs:


 * Burslem Port Vale returned from the Midland League, which also supplied
 * Glossop North End and
 * Barnsley
 * New Brighton Tower from the Lancashire League, were the 4th.

1899:


 * Blackpool and
 * Darwen left to join the Lancashire League, and were replaced by


 * Chesterfield from the Midland League and
 * Middlesbrough from the Northern League.

1900:


 * Blackpool and
 * Stockport County joined from the Lancashire League replacing


 * Luton Town (back to the Southern League) and
 * Loughborough.

1901:


 * Bristol City from the Southern League and
 * Doncaster Rovers from the Midland League replaced


 * Walsall (back to the Midland League) and
 * New Brighton Tower
 * Additionally, Burton Swifts merged with Burton Wanderers to form Burton United.

1902:

No changes in membership.

1903:


 * Doncaster Rovers returned to the Midland League and were replaced by a brand new club
 * Bradford City

1904:


 * Stockport County left for the Midland League, changing places with
 * Doncaster Rovers

1905:

The League expanded to 2 Divisions of 20 by electing 4 new clubs:

Also, Doncaster Rovers and Stockport County swapped leagues again, and
 * Chelsea a brand new club
 * Clapton Orient from the Southern League
 * Hull City
 * Leeds City


 * Small Heath changed their name to Birmingham.

1906:

No changes in membership.

1907:


 * Burton United left to join the Birmingham League and
 * Port Vale also left. They were replaced by


 * Fulham from the Southern League and
 * Oldham Athletic from the Lancashire Combination.

1908:


 * Bradford PA and
 * Tottenham Hotspur replaced


 * Lincoln City (to the Midland League) and
 * Stoke (to the Birmingham League).

1909:


 * Lincoln City returned, surrendering their Midland League place to
 * Chesterfield.

1910:


 * Huddersfield Town joined from the Midland League, where they were replaced by


 * Grimsby Town.

1911:


 * Grimsby Town returned, their place in the Midland League being taken by


 * Lincoln City.

1912:


 * Lincoln City's turn to return, with


 * Gainsborough Trinity replacing them in the Midland League.

1913:

No membership changes.

1914:


 * Woolwich Arsenal changed their name to Arsenal.

1915:

No membership changes, and operations were suspended for the duration of the First World War.

1919:


 * Leeds City were forced into liquidation by the FA for financial irregularities, and


 * Port Vale returned to the League to replace them.

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) and Grimsby Town, who had failed to be re-elected to the Second Division the season before and been replaced by Cardiff City (of the Southern League). The clubs were placed in the new Third Division:

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 mainly clubs from the south. The existing Third Division was renamed the Third Division South, and the new division was named the Third Division North. Grimsby Town transferred to the new northern division. Both divisions ran in parallel, with clubs from both Third Divisions being promoted to the national Second Division at the end of each season:

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:

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. Therefore, the Second Division became the First Division, the Third Division became the Second Division and the Fourth Division became Third Division.

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.

At the end of the 2005/06 season, Reading finished with a record 106 points, beating the previous record of 105 held by Sunderland.

Titles by club
Due to the breakaway of the Premier League in 1992, winning the Football League title no longer makes a team the top tier champions of English football. The following table splits wins between those before and after that date, and also shows both the total number of top flight titles won by each club, and the total number of league titles won from 1889 to 2007. It is sorted by number of top flight titles, which is a more significant measure of a club's success over its history than the number of Football League titles won - the top few English football clubs will probably win the Football League again only if they are relegated within the next 100 years or so.

Play-offs
The Football League Play-Offs are used as a means of determining the final promotion place from each of the league's three divisions. This is a way of keeping the possibility of promotion open for more clubs towards the end of the season.

The format was first introduced in 1987, after the decision was made to reduce the top flight from 22 to 20 clubs over the next two seasons; initially, the play-offs involved the team finishing immediately above the relegation places in a given division and the three teams who finished immediately below the promotion places in the division below - essentially one team was fighting to keep their place in the higher division while the other three teams were attempting to take it from them. In 1989, this was changed&mdash;instead of teams from different divisions playing each other, the four teams below the automatic promotion places contested the play-offs. The first season of this arrangement saw the final being contested in home and away legs. The four teams play off in two semi-finals and a final, with the team winning the final being promoted. Originally the semi-finals and the final were all two-legged home-and-away affairs, but from 1990 onwards the final was a one-off match (usually at Wembley or, during its rebuilding, the Millennium Stadium). It is in this format that the play-offs continue today. A proposal to have six teams rather than four competing for the final place was defeated at the league's AGM in 2003.

Controversy
For all the excitement the play-offs generate, the concept causes significant controversy, because a team that has proved itself the third best in its division over the course of a season has to play a two legged semi-final and a one-off final against teams it has theoretically already beaten, in order to win promotion. This is especially the case for the team that finishes third in the table, who will have often been many points ahead of the chasing pack, and often pushing for automatic promotion, only to then lose out in the play-offs. It is all the worse for those in the division below the Premier League given the amounts of money involved in gaining promotion; the Football League Championship play-off final has often been called "the richest game of football in the world" due to the money on offer through gaining promotion.

Some fans have also noticed the prevalence of a curse over the playoffs, in which the team who loses in the final of the promotion playoff is relegated the next season. 

Play-Off Winners
1: Due to financial irregularities, Swindon were prevented from taking their place in the top division, which was awarded to the losing finalists, Sunderland.

Footballs
The Mitre Pro 100T is the official match football of the Football League and is used by all 72 teams from the Championship and Leagues One and Two. Mitre's current deal started in the 2007–08 season and runs until the end of the 2010–11 season. As of the 2007–08 season, every Football League Championship team has their own Mitre football for home matches. The balls sport the home team's crest and colours.

Huddersfield Town will play the 2008–09 season with a customised Mitre ball to celebrate their centenery. The Football League rules have not allowed this before, but they have been relaxed as Mitre were formerly based in Huddersfield.