Four FL leagues! How would you organise promotion/relegation?

I'm sure most of you have seen the news of the Football League looking to increase to 100 pro clubs for 2019/20 thus creating 4 leagues in the Football League.

They've said that there would be no relegation from League 2 for the season before and that the rest of the league clubs would decide on promotion and relegation for the season before the proposed changes.

Going on the thinking the extra eight clubs would come from the Conference I 've been trying to figure out a fair promotion/relegation plan to keep the integrity of current automatic promotion places but can't nail down an exact "fair" number. I know it needs to be done but relegating 6 clubs from the Championship just seems odd.

How would you do it?

Are you for or against the idea?

I quite like the idea because of the number of full-time non-league clubs but also agree with the Accrington owners thoughts on losing home games.


EDIT


Going over it again, creating a League 3 and keeping the same automatic promotion places would be something like this

CHAMPIONSHIP - Six down, two up from League 1. (18 + 2 from League 1)
LEAGUE 1 - Two up to Champ, eleven down to League 2. (11 + 6 from Champ + 3 from League 2)
LEAGUE 2 - Three up to League 1, twelve down to League 3. (9 + 11 from League 1)
LEAGUE 3 - Eight up from Conference. (12 from League 2 + 8 from Conference)

Frankly there are too many games, and midweek games are largely a waste of time the further down the league pyramid you go.

They'd have to relegate 7 teams from the Championship. Which seems excessive.

GSC wrote:Frankly there are too many games, and midweek games are largely a waste of time the further down the league pyramid you go.

They'd have to relegate 7 teams from the Championship. Which seems excessive.

To make four leagues of 20 teams with current automatic promotion places having 6 down from the Championship is nothing.

Clearly there has to be a bite the bullet moment where you could end up finishing like 18th in a 24 team league and end up being relegated. There'd have to be some form of compensation to these teams.

Cautiously I'm in favour of it.

It's all a bit excessive but I remember 12 years ago when they had a million teams in the playoffs for the Conference North and South being created.

The champions in Bedford's league went up to the Conference as was the norm then the next 12 teams got promoted to the Conference South, or North in Kettering's case. Then the teams lower down but above relegation zone went into playoffs for the North or South. This happened in all three leagues beneath the Conference.

Lewes who won the Isthmian Division One South ended up winning their bracket and leapfrogged the Premier Division and went straight into the Conference South whilst I had to watch Bedford lose at home in the final of their bracket on penalties to St Albans City.

Obviously the idea to counter mass relegation in the Football League would be mass promotion in non-league. I'm sure non-league clubs wouldn't mind a shake up when they have many changes year in year out as it is.

Relegate the same amount and only promote the champions.

Think that's what they did when pl went from 22 to 20 teams.

Do it over 2 seasons of need to drop league size by 4 teams.

Cast your mind back to whenever it was that Dyke was articulating the possibility of having 'B' teams, and this is exactly what the creation of a new Football League division is about - making space for Manchester United 'B' and the like.

And what about Celtic and Rangers? Oh there will now be space for them at last!

And then consider that Football League clubs - who are nearly all in debt - will be playing fewer home matches, thus causing a decline in revenue.

A horrible idea. The very worst of ideas.

It needs the backing of 90% or more of Football League clubs, so I'm hopeful it won't come to pass and, just like Game 39, it will be forgotten about.

You'd just have to do it over years, relegate a couple more each season, whilst allowing less to be promoted and eventually it'd balance out.

Another terrible idea.

KEEP IT HOW IT IS FFS!!

Agree with Nick on this one.

Great idea. I have been suggesting this for a few years. I would have a League 2 North and South though rather than a League 3.

I have also suggested reducing the Premier League to 16 teams and having a two legged League Cup but I can't see that happening.

I have also said before that every league in the non-league should have 20 teams and be more localised going from the conference and then having 2, 4, 8, 16 leagues etc

I have three local non-league teams within 20 miles and all three are in different divisions yet my local team has had to make long trips past London and up north in recent years depending on which league it has been.

sportform wrote:I have also said before that every league in the non-league should have 20 teams and be more localised going from the conference and then having 2, 4, 8, 16 leagues etc

I have three local non-league teams within 20 miles and all three are in different divisions yet my local team has had to make long trips past London and up north in recent years depending on which league it has been.

When I first started watching Bedford they were in the Isthmian league and I believe the longest trip back then was Bognor and the rest of the league was mostly London, Essex and the Home Counties.

Then after the Conference North and South were added they got transferred to the Southern League which had King's Lynn, Chippenham, Merthyr Tydfil, Grantham and Hednesford all in the same division.

Having these games midweek only worsens that too. How many fans realistically make a long journey on a Tues/Wed night to watch a league 2 game for example. Cant imagine those are good gates

Less midweek games is a good thing.

To my way of thinking it's glaringly obvious and incredibly simple.

If the Football League is extended to 100 clubs for 2017/18 season, simply create the following four divisions of 25 clubs:

Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, Division 4.

Take the current 100 top clubs in the league pyramid at the end of 2016/17 season and put them into the four divisions according to the positions they finish in. After that, a straight top three up / bottom three down promotion system. Scrap the play offs.

Sorted.


But that would be too simple wouldn't it? Why do a job quickly, easily and with a minimum of fuss when you can make it convoluted, difficult and incomprehensible to common mortal man.

The one thing we can be sure of is that whatever system the FL come up with, every team that doesn't get one of the league places will complain that the system was unfair and that it cost them a lot of money and is likely to drive hundreds of small clubs to the wall.

Why they couldn't have left the league structure alone in the first place is a question nobody will ask. For sure, there is some sort of big money TV deal behind all this and somebody somewhere stands to make a fat wad of dosh out of it. Therein, I suspect, lies the motivation for change. It sure as heck won't have anything to do with improving the standard of the English game. I dread to think what they'll do with the post FL100 promotion and relegation structure.