Football League Clubs

Formed in 1888, The Football League is the oldest league competition in the world. The brainchild of a Scot, William McGregor, the competition provided regular fixtures for the top professional English sides from Lancashire and the West Midlands. Over time, the competition has grown from a single division of twelve clubs to its present four tier structure of Premier League (which became independent in 1996), Championship, League One and League Two, with 92 clubs in membership. Since 1986, automatic promotion and relegation between the Football League and National Conference has been in effect, making it theoretically possible for a club to climb from the very lowest level of the pyramid all the way to the English Premier League.