English football league system

The English football league system is a series of leagues that are connected for men's association football clubs in England. Five teams also come from Wales, one team comes from Guernsey and one comes from Jersey. It is also called the football pyramid. The system has a hierarchical format. It has promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels. This means that in theory, even the smallest club can get to the top of the system. In the system, there are more than 140 leagues, and more than 480 divisions.^[1]

The total number of clubs changes every year. This is because clubs join and stop playing in leagues. Sometimes it is also because a club stops existing or merges with another club. An average of 15 clubs per division means that more than 7,000 teams of nearly 5,300 clubs are in a league in the English men's football league system.

There are no official definitions of any level below 11. This means that the structure at level 12 and below is not definitive.

The pyramid for women's football in England is not the same. It has nine levels. Also, some English men's football clubs play outside the English football league system.

1. ↑ "Thepyramid.info: Statistics". 7 November 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2007.