Football is the national sport of England and plays a significant role in English culture.
The Football League, established in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor, was the first professional football league in the world. Over recent years there has been an increasing effort to link all these leagues together in a Pyramidal structure allowing promotion and relegation between different levels. The primary motivation for this drive is to maintain the possibility that any club in England may dream of one day rising to the very top, no matter what status they currently hold.
Premier League
It is the world’s most watched league and the most lucrative – attracting the top players from all over the globe. Hard to believe then that the first ball kicked in the Premier League was as relatively recently as 15th August 1992. Links with The Football League were maintained, and each season the bottom three clubs are relegated from the Premier League and replaced by three from the Championship. The Premier League is contested between 20 clubs each season. Manchester United is the current champion. Each club in the Premier League in any given season owns one twentieth of a share in the league itself, meaning that they are all supposedly equal owners with equal rights and responsibilities.
The Football League
It is the oldest league in the world, The Football League now ranks second in the hierarchy of English football after the split of England’s top clubs in 1992 to form the FA Premier League. There are 72 member clubs evenly divided among three divisions, currently named the Championship, League One and League Two.
English football league system
Below the Football League is what is commonly known as “non-League football”. In recent years, the top few levels have been consolidated into the National League System, operated by the FA. Most clubs in the Conference National division are fully professional, the remainder are semi-professional.
There is automatic promotion and relegation between League Two and Conference National, and for several levels below the Conference, although this becomes more irregular further down the league system. The non-League system is often known as the “pyramid”, because the number of leagues at each level begins to increase as you go down through the levels, with each league covering a smaller geographic area.
Cup competitions
The two most important cup competitions in England are the FA Cup and the League Cup, but several other national cups are targeted at clubs at different levels.
The FA Cup, first held in 1872, is the oldest and most respected national cup competition in the world. It is open to around 600 clubs in the higher levels of the pyramid. The FA Community Shield is played each August as a one-off match between the FA Cup winners and the Premier League champions.
The League Cup (currently known as the Carling Cup) is England’s second major cup competition, and is contested by the 92 Premier League and Football League clubs. The winners of both main cup competitions qualify for the UEFA Cup, and both are considered as important tournaments.
The Football League Trophy is a competition for clubs in Football League One and Football League Two.
The FA Trophy is open to clubs in the top four levels of the National League System, and the FA Vase is for clubs in the next couple of levels below that. These competitions replaced the FA Amateur Cup, which was the leading competition for amateur non-League teams for many years. Representative teams from leagues lower still, mostly at county level, contest the FA National League System Cup, and the FA Sunday Cup is for Sunday league football teams.
Defunct national cup competitions include:
- Full Members Cup
- Super Cup
- Anglo-Italian Cup
- Anglo-Scottish Cup
- Texaco Cup
- Watney Cup
Qualification for European competitions
Clubs who do well in either the Premier League, FA Cup or League Cup can qualify to compete in various UEFA-organised Europe-wide competitions in the following season (as well as continuing to play in domestic competitions). The number of English clubs playing in Europe in any one season can range from seven to eleven, depending on the qualification scenarios. Currently, England is awarded the following places in European competitions:
| Competition | Who Qualifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League | Club finishing 1st in the Premier League | |
| Club finishing 2nd in the Premier League | ||
| Club finishing 3rd in the Premier League | ||
| UEFA Champions League Third Qualifying Round for Non-Champions | Club finishing 4th in the Premier League | Ordinarily, the fourth-place Premier League club automatically earns a spot in the Champions League qualifying rounds. However, a fourth-place performance will not grant the fourth-place finisher a place in the Champions League competition should another, below-fourth-place-finishing Premier League club have also been the previous season’s Champions League winner. This is because winners of the Champions League competition earn automatic qualification for the following season’s Champions League event, regardless of their performance in their club league. Therefore, in such a case, the fourth-place Premier League club would qualify only for the UEFA Cup. |
| UEFA Cup | Any English club that wins the UEFA Cup and has not already qualified for the Champions League or UEFA Cup | By the UEFA Cup regulations (Regulation 1.06), this club’s entry into the UEFA Cup will not be at the expense of any other entries to which its national federation is entitled |
| UEFA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round | Club finishing 5th in the Premier League | If the fifth-placed club has already qualified for Europe through the FA Cup, then the next-highest Premier League finishers get this place |
| FA Cup winners | If the FA Cup winners have already qualified for the UEFA Champions League, by the UEFA Cup regulations (Regulation 1.04), the runners-up qualify for the spot; if they have also qualified for the Champions League, the next highest league finisher not already qualified for Europe takes the place. In either of these cases, if the new club has a lower league finish than a club starting in an earlier round, the clubs will swap their starting rounds. | |
| UEFA Cup Third Qualifying Round | League Cup winners | If the League Cup winners have already qualified for Europe by a high Premier League finish, then the next highest-finishing Premier League club gets this place |
| UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round | FA Premier League club with the best UEFA Fair Play ranking that has not already qualified for Europe, but only if England has the best fair play ranking or has a fair play score of above 8 and is one of the two countries drawn out of the hat |
In addition, once in a European competition, it becomes possible to qualify for others:
- All the winners of the Champions League Third Qualifying Round go forward to the Champions League
- All the losers of the Champions League Third Qualifying Round go forward to the UEFA Cup
- All the winners of the UEFA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round go forward to the UEFA Cup
- Any clubs playing in the Champions League that finish third in the group stage go into the UEFA Cup Round of 32