English football is defined by its pyramid the system of promotion relegation and interconnected leagues it's intended to represent Mobility the hope that through promotion and relegation every Club from any part of the country could reach the top or fall to the bottom but despite the pyramid being familiar few know how it really works or how deep it actually [Music] goes so first what does the pyramid actually look like well at the top it's simple the Premier League is the highest level of professional football beneath that the three divisions which collectively comprise the English football league the championship league one and League 2 those four divisions contain 92 clubs at any one time then beneath that outside of the league system the level of football is identified by Steps step one is the highest and that is the national league from which rexam won promotion in 2023 that in turn is fed by step two which is the national league North and South two divisions of equal standing with teams divided by geographical location glester city are the National League North's longest tenants they play at Meadow Park which holds 4,000 fans the record attendance for the National League South was 5,351 fans who watched T United versus Hungerford town in 2019 and below that Things become more regionalized and more complicated at step three there are four separate divisions each of which promote teams into the level above and all of which have Associated divisions below confusingly A team's passage is not always linear so just as a club from that level would have its destination informed by its geography ending up in the National League North or South so a sid suffering relegation would drop into a division specified on the same basis there is the Northern premier league Premier Division the southern League Premier Division Central the southern League Premier Division South and the isian league Premier League Division together they contain the 88 teams at step three step four works on the same basis but with more divisions and so does step five but there are quirks and to explain them here's an example consider a team playing in the Midland League Premier Division at step five the ninth level of the pyramid a team winning promotion from that league would go into either the northern Premier League Division 1 West or the northern Premier League Division 1 Midlands depending on which part of the country they're from and which other teams have also won promotion similarly teams relegated from the same league might fall into any one of five divisions below with the destination determined by their locality but also the need to keep the right number of teams in the right places there are 319 teams currently playing at that level step six has 17 divisions and 339 clubs and is regionalized even further but it works on the same basic principle with the same premise of Mobility for example the helenic league divisions one promotes into the helenic league premier division above which is part of the Southern League system the level below that is technically the base of the pyramid it's the 11th highest level of English football and home to 787 different clubs all competing for spots in the divisions above for instance Route One Rovers from Bradford won the Yorkshire amateur League Supreme division in 2023 and were promoted to the Northwest counties League Division North should they win another promotion they'll find themselves in the Northwest counties League Premier Division and should they keep winning they'll keep on moving upwards towards Glory however staying with our example whilst the Yorkshire amateur League Supreme division is at level 11 the lowest point of the recognized pyramid the Yorkshire amateur League itself has eight different divisions which stretch all the way down to the 18th level of English football the Yorkshire amateur League Division 5 mainly comprises of Reserve teams for the sides above who are also prohibited from playing in the same division but Standalone sides such as West End Park who play their games on King George ith playing fields in liversedge will their route up to the Supreme league and Beyond is laid out for them you see Mobility is an important part of the football pyramid most famously Loot and town have recently become the first team in the Premier League era to make it all the way from the national league in 2014 to the Premier League itself and quite a few clubs have also traveled the entire length of the football league in 1995 96 Fulham were playing in what is now League 2 in 1998 Manchester City were in League 1 Brighton and Swansea have also made the journey from League 2 to the Premier League playing in all four divisions and wi going have done it too so of Bradford City but there are plenty of other stories when AFC Wimbledon were formed in response to the original Wimbledon club's relocation to Milton ke the new club started life in the combined counties League Premier Division that was in 2002 after six promotions in 14 years by 2016 they climbed into the football league system and as high as League one coincidentally it was the same path the first Club had followed between 1964 and 1986 Wimbledon FC managed to climb all the way from level seven and the iian Premier League to the top of English football they even won the FA Cup in 1988 and stayed in division 1 laterally the Premier League until 200 # United don't have the same backstory but they are another quick mover they began life in the Eastern counties League Division 1 South and three promotions later are now playing in the isian league Premier Division now of course can happen in the other direction too Alm athletic were a founding member of the Premier League and played two seasons in the division from 1992 to 1994 in 2022 though following three largely miserable decades they became the first former Premier League team to fall out of the football league when they were relegated to the National League step one the fifth level of English football a mile away from the Premier League yes but still nowhere near the deepest regions of the system itself imagine that you could learn everything that you need to know about football news in 10 minutes without having to read anything well that's why we made the daily football briefing show it's a new 10-minute podcast that catches you up on all the football news Plus what's on TV that night published every weekday it's the daily football briefing show check the link below to subscribe for free now wherever you get your podcasts