7:05 am sep 19, 2014 beneath the premier league stands the
TRANSCRIPT
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Chelsea ’s Nemanja Matic, left, competes for the ball with Swansea City ’s Ki SungYueng during their EnglishPremier League match in London on Sept. 13. TIM IRELAND / AP
7:05 AM SEP 19, 2014
Beneath The Premier League Stands The GreatFootball Pyramid Of EnglandBy OLIVER ROEDER
UPDATE (Aug. 8, 10:14 a.m.): With the opening weekend of the PremierLeague upon us, we’re recycling this piece from September 2014 about England’sgreat football pyramid. There’s a whole lot more than just Chelsea and Arsenal.
On Saturday, Swansea City will host Southampton in an English Premier Leaguefixture in South Wales.1 Southampton was a founding member of the PremierLeague, having played at the top tier of English football since 1978 — footballroyalty. Swansea City, though, is a football Cinderella.
Swansea City was founded in 1912 as Swansea Town. It hovered in the middlingleagues of the English sport for much of the century. But in the 1960s, the teamtumbled down the ranks, eventually requiring a financial rescue package and HighCourt approval just to survive. In 2001, it was sold — for a pound. But fortunesturned once again, for the better. It was promoted in 2005, 2008 and, finally, in
SOCCER
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2011. The team had arrived. It was in the Premier League.
Cinderella got her slipper.
The Premier League is the pinnacle of world football. Nearly 15 percent of the menwho played in the 2014 World Cup play professionally in the Premier League,easily more than any other league in the world. Four English teams — Arsenal,Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City — have World Cup playersnumbering in the double digits.
But the EPL is just the tip of the English football iceberg. It’s the most visibleelement of an intricate hierarchy of some 7,000 football teams, playing under theauspices of the Football Association (the FA) — let’s call it the Great FootballPyramid of England. In terms of the number of teams, the Premier Leaguerepresents about onequarter of 1 percent of it. (This and much of the empiricshere rely on information from football stats site ThePyramid.info, which in turnassembled data from the FA’s league administration website, and individual clubs’and leagues’ sites.)
The pyramid has more than 20 levels and hundreds of leagues. This is what it lookslike:
Importantly, unlike its analog in Giza, the Great Football Pyramid of England isnot set in stone. The levels are linked through a process of promotion andrelegation. Depending on the specific rules of a given tier, a number of teams thatperform the best get to move up a level (promotion), and a number of teams thatperform the worst have to move down a level (relegation). Each year, there is aminor upheaval of the hierarchy — a shifting of the pyramid. The romance, thebeauty of this system is the following: Given strong enough performances andenough minor upheavals, in theory, any team can climb the ranks and, eventually,breathe the rarefied Premier League air.
Let’s take a deep dive into — or, rather, a steep climb down the side of — theEnglish football pyramid.
The Premier League (Level 1)
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On top of the pyramid — the capstone,Level 1 — is the Premier League. Twentyteams compose it. Some — ManchesterUnited, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea —are probably wellknown to U.S. sportsfans. A few — Hull City, Stoke City, WestBromwich Albion — probably are not.But all of these are competing for themost coveted award in English football:the Premier League title. Unlike mostAmerican sports, it’s the regularseasonwinner that matters here. There are noplayoffs or championship series. Alsounlike most American sports, any teammay be taking part in a number ofcompetitions at once — the league, theFA Cup, the League Cup — but the onethat really matters these days is theleague title.
As a result of the system of promotionand relegation, not every team hasalways had the pleasure of thiscompetition. Like Swansea City, justabout 10 years ago, Hull City waslanguishing. In 2003, the Tigers weremembers of the unglamorous fourth tierof the pyramid. But this team, too,climbed the summit. But, no rest forweary — Hull City are 5,000to1 dogs towin the title, and 92 to get relegated.Hull City will take on Newcastle United— fourtime champions of England —this weekend.
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The Premier League was formed, in itspresent incarnation, in 1992. Most of theteams in the Premier League for the201415 season haven’t always beenthere. Here are the histories of theleague’s current teams, by level ofpyramid2:
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The Football League (Levels 2, 3 and 4)
Within sight, but not quite within grasp, of the Premier League summit are theteams of the Football League. In fact, before the original Premier League teamsessentially seceded in 1992, the Football League was the top league in England.Nowadays, the Football League encompasses Levels 2, 3 and 4 of the pyramid.
Level 2, just beneath the Premiership, is the Football League Championship. Eachyear, 24 teams compete here for three coveted promotions to the Premier League.
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The top two finishers at the end of the season earn automatic promotion. The nextfour, the third to sixthplace finishers, compete in a playoff for the finalpromotion.
The secession of the Premier League by no means drained the Football League ofits meaning. The consulting firm Deloitte has calculated that promotion to thePremier League is worth about $200 million in extra revenue for a Football Leagueteam. In some cases, the difference between promotion and relegation can comedown to one game. And in some cases, in can come down to one minute.
A moment from the end of last season well exhibits the high drama that plays outin the Football League. Facing elimination, and another season in the second tier,Queens Park Rangers doggedly advance the ball up the field, with the secondswaning. After a cross and a misplayed clearance, QPR’s Bobby Zamora sends histeam to the Premiership in the last minute of the last game of the season — in adecisive part of the playoff to determine the promoted team. They call it the “120million pound goal.”
Often, the difference between a lengthy stint in the Football League andPremiership glory is money — the investment of wealthy club backers. The
Derby 0-1 QPR 2014 - Championship Playoff Final - FULL GAME
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fascinating behindthescenes documentary “The Four Year Plan,” for example,explores the investment by a group of billionaires into Queens Park Rangers, anattempt to elevate the team to the Premiership. Money can secure players, playerscan secure wins, and wins can secure promotion. And promotion means, well,money.
A promotion or two away, we find the next levels of the pyramid. Levels 3 and 4 areknown as Football League One and Football League Two. Football League Onepromotes three teams to the Football League Championship and relegates four toFootball League Two, respectively. Football League Two promotes four to FootballLeague One and relegates two out of the Football League altogether, to Level 5 ofthe pyramid.
These leagues are not without their storied members. Football League One iscurrently the home of one of the most interesting teams in the history of theEnglish football hierarchy — Milton Keynes Dons.
Well, sort of. They weren’t always known as MK Dons.
The Wimbledon Football Club was founded in 1889, in Wimbledon, in southwestLondon. A century later, it completed one of the most remarkable rises toprominence of any club ever. According to the Football Club History Database,Wimbledon spent most of the 20th century in the Isthmian League — currentlyLevels 7 and 8 on the pyramid. But it was promoted, and promoted, and promoted,and promoted again. It won the 198788 FA Cup and was a founding member ofthe Premier League in 1992.
But who owns this history has been a subject of bitter controversy. In 2003, theteam relocated to a new stadium, about 60 miles away in the town of MiltonKeynes, taking the town’s name but retaining Wimbledon’s “Dons” nickname —and laying a claim to Wimbledon F.C.’s history and hardware. But there is anotherDons club, which objects. AFC Wimbledon, based in southwest London, wasformed in 2002 by fans dissatisfied with the move of their former home team.
Currently, MK Dons play in Level 3, while AFC Wimbledon Dons play in Level 4.The two teams with the shared, messy heritage played in a Football League Cup
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game last month. MK Dons won, 31.
The National League System (Levels 5 to 11)
The next seven levels of the pyramid (Levels 5 through 11) are referred to as theNational League System.
Anyone familiar with the details of, say, royal succession, might not be surprised tolearn of the arcane nature of the depths of the English football pyramid. Anyoneconsidering a certainly nonhabitforming alternative to Ambien might do well toperuse a guide to club structures of the English league system.
Teams competing in the National League System have to squint to see the PremierLeague above them, but membership here still matters — a lot. Teams in thissection of the pyramid are the last eligible to compete in the FA Cup — aprestigious knockout tournament and the oldest football tournament played. ThinkMarch Madness — Premiership teams compete alongside teams many rungsbeneath them, and a single loss sends them home. As in basketball, this createsfairytale possibilities — giantkilling, and Cinderella runs.3 (However, thedefending champions of the FA Cup are the elite Arsenal squad.)
The NCAA basketball tournament, of course, begins with 68 teams. The 201314instance of the FA Cup began with 737. (Imagine March Madness with everyDivision I team, every Division II team and maybe some really good high schoolteams.) And a lowlevel team need not win the Cup to see a windfall. The FAawards 18,000 pounds even for a firstround win — a potentially huge boon to aclub trying to climb the ladder or stay afloat.
Teams in the lower regions of this group can also compete for other FA hardware,including the FA Trophy (open to Levels 5 through 8, with 50,000 pounds going tothe winner) and the FA Vase (Levels 9 through 11, 25,000 pounds). In just thesetwo relatively minor competitions, last year the FA awarded 1.6 million pounds, orabout $2.7 million, in prize money.
Here’s a summary of the competitions open to the teams in the National LeagueSystem and above (this excludes, of course, the regularseason competitions beingplayed in the leagues themselves):
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ThePyramid’s (Wide, Wide) Base (Levels 12 to 24)
Believe it or not, we’re not through yet. Not even, like, close. Behold the “nonLeague” teams.
By my calculations, from the ThePyramid’s information, there are 446 separatedivisions hosting competition at Level 12 and below. And there are 5,510 teams!Depending on how many players lowtier teams keep on their rosters, there issomething like 100,000 soccer players on teams in the pyramid.
But the land of 32 million pound transfer fees this ain’t.
The rules of the Duchy League — in Level 15 and sponsored by J.J. Jones & Sonsbuilding contractors — state, “If … two Clubs have the same or similar colours, theaway team shall make the change. Any team not having a change of colours ordelaying the kickoff by not having a change shall be fined £10.00.”
The East Sussex Football League — Level 12, sponsored by ADA Turkish Barbecue& Meze Bar — charges a one pound fee for each player a team registers. Referees inthis league earn 29 pounds a match. Unable, for some reason, to play in yournormal team colors in this league? Sorry, that’ll be 20 pounds.
What these teams lack in salary or facilities, they make up for in character,including their names, which are fantastic and undeniably English. A sample:
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Uphill Castle, Viney St. Swithins, the Kidlington Old Boys, the Victoria Baptists,the Didcot Casuals, Capel Plough, Quedgeley Wanderers, Kimberley MinersWelfare, Uffington United.
To give a sense of scope, here’s a histogram of these leagues by size:
When the 20 Premier League teams do battle this weekend, millions will watch.But thousands of other English football teams will do battle, too. And, for the mostpart, the pyramid will not be televised.
Footnotes
1. Despite typically being referred in the States as the English Premier League, or EPL, certain Welsh
teams are eligible to play in the Premier League. This year, there is just one — Swansea City. Another
Welsh team, Cardiff City, was relegated last year. ^
2. Note that the 1994 champions, Blackburn Rovers, currently play in the secondlevel Football League
Championship. ^
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3. The lowest seed to win the NCAA tournament was eightseed Villanova in 1985. The only “nonLeague”
side to win the FA Cup was Tottenham Hotspur in 1901, playing then in the equivalent of the third tier
of English football. ^
Oliver Roeder is a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight. @ollie
FILED UNDER ARSENAL, FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION, FOOTBALL PYRAMID, PREMIER LEAGUE, SOCCER, SWANSEACITY