by Richard Leigh

Created on: February 02, 2009

When it comes to English football; the process of promotion and relegation is really quite simple. The top flight of English football is the Premier League, and each season the bottom three teams in the league are relegated from the top flight; the three teams that pick up the least points over the course of the thirty eight game season.

Below the Premier League is what is known as the Football League; the Football League consists of three additional leagues, the Championship, League One, and League Two. The Championship is the second level of English football; League One the third, and League two the fourth. There are only twenty teams in the Premier League, with the Championship, League One, and League Two however; there are twenty four teams in each of these leagues.

So every season, three teams are relegated from the Premier League, and these teams will therefore compete in the Championship the following season. Three teams get promoted each season from the Championship, whilst the bottom three get relegated. The top two teams in the Championship each season (the two teams that have picked up the most points over the course of the forty six game season) are awarded automatic promotion to the Premier League, the teams ranked third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, meanwhile enter the play-offs.

With the play-offs; the third placed team plays the team that finished sixth, and the teams that finished fourth and fifth play each other also. The teams play each other twice; home and away, and the team that scores the most goals over the course of these two games will progress into the play-off final.

The play-off final is played at Wembley Stadium in London, and the two teams battle it out for promotion over the course of a ninety minute game of football. If the score is still level at the end of ninety minutes; extra-time will occur, and there will be an additional thirty minutes of football. If at the end of extra-time the score is still level, then the game goes to a penalty shoot-out, and each team takes an initial five penalty kicks. If the game is decided in the first five penalty kicks then the winner can be crowned, and one team will win promotion; if however the score is still level at the end of the first five penalty kicks, then the penalty shoot-out will enter what is known as Sudden Death'. With Sudden Death', each team takes a penalty kick, and if one team scores and the other misses; the team to score is promoted, and the game is over.

In League One, the promotion

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