English football pyramid explained: promotion and relegation

The English football pyramid is the ladder that connects the Premier League with local football: every division is tied to the one above and the one below by promotion and relegation. At the top are the 92 league clubs, 20 in the Premier League and 72 in the three divisions of the English Football League (EFL). Directly beneath them, The FA's National League System runs from step 1 to step 6 and, in the allocations The FA published in May 2026, holds 996 clubs. This guide explains, for the 2026/27 season, how many clubs play at each level, exactly how many go up and down between each pair of divisions, how the play-offs work, including the new six-team format in the Championship, and how a club from outside the 92 can reach the EFL.

The pyramid at a glance

It helps to think in levels. The Premier League is level one, and the EFL's Championship, League One and League Two are levels two, three and four, with 24 clubs each. Levels five to ten form The FA's National League System, organised in steps: step 1 is the National League, the fifth tier, and step 6 is the tenth. For 2026/27 The FA placed 996 clubs in 48 divisions, 19 leagues and six steps. Below step 6 come the Regional NLS Feeder Leagues, the usual way into the system, and below those the amateur and community game.

What “the 92” means

“The 92” is shorthand for the Premier League and EFL clubs taken together: 20 plus 72. The Football League was formed in 1888 by 12 founder members, and the Premier League began in 1992. Being one of the 92 is what English supporters call league status, and there is even a 92 Club for fans who have visited all 92 league grounds. The list is never fixed, because promotion and relegation run straight through it. Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City were promoted to the Premier League for 2026/27, while York City and Rochdale rejoined the EFL by winning promotion from the National League.

Premier League and Championship: three up, three down

The Premier League has 20 clubs, each playing 38 matches, and the bottom three are relegated to the Championship. They are replaced by three Championship clubs: the top two, who go up automatically, and the play-off winner. The Championship also sends three clubs down, to League One. In 2025/26 Coventry City won the Championship and Ipswich Town finished second, Hull City went up through the play-offs, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley and West Ham United came down from the Premier League.

The new Championship play-offs

This is the big change of 2026/27. At a general meeting on 5 March 2026, EFL clubs approved expanding the Championship play-offs from four teams to six. Third to eighth now qualify. Fifth plays eighth and sixth plays seventh in one-off eliminators at the ground of the higher-placed club. The winners join third and fourth in two-legged semi-finals, where third faces the lowest-ranked side left, and the final is played at Wembley: seven fixtures in all. Under this format Wrexham, seventh in 2025/26 on 71 points, would have made the play-offs. League One and League Two keep four-team play-offs.

League One and League Two: where the numbers grow

League One has 24 clubs: the top two are promoted automatically, third to sixth contest the play-offs and the bottom four are relegated to League Two. League Two has four promotion places, the top three plus the winner of the play-offs between fourth and seventh, but only two relegation places, down to the National League. In the EFL, play-off semi-finals are played over two legs, with extra time and penalties if needed, and the final is a single match. In 2025/26 Lincoln City, Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers went up from League One and Exeter City, Port Vale, Rotherham United and Northampton Town went down, while Bromley, Milton Keynes Dons, Cambridge United and Notts County left League Two upwards. The full map of the top five levels for 2026/27:

• Premier League (20 clubs): the bottom three are relegated.
• Championship (24 clubs): top two promoted, third to eighth in the play-offs, bottom three relegated.
• League One (24 clubs): top two promoted, third to sixth in the play-offs, bottom four relegated.
• League Two (24 clubs): top three promoted, fourth to seventh in the play-offs, bottom two relegated.
• National League (24 clubs): champions promoted, second to seventh in the play-offs, bottom four relegated.

The bottleneck between League Two and the National League

The narrowest door in the pyramid is the one into the EFL. Since 2002/03 two clubs a season have gone up from the National League: the champions and the play-off winners. Those play-offs involve second to seventh: fourth plays seventh and fifth plays sixth in eliminators, the winners meet second and third in one-off semi-finals, and the final is at Wembley. It can be cruel. In 2022/23 Notts County finished second on 107 points behind Wrexham, and in 2025/26 Rochdale finished second on 106, two behind York City. Both still had to go through the play-offs, and both made it: Notts County in 2023, and Rochdale in 2026, when they beat Boreham Wood on penalties in the final.

In February 2025 all 72 clubs across the National League's three divisions wrote to the EFL asking for a third promotion place: the “3UP” campaign. The EFL says the issue has to be considered alongside wider reforms, and a change would need the backing of its clubs, including a majority of the Championship. The proposal was down for discussion, with no vote planned, at the EFL clubs' meeting in March 2026. For 2026/27 nothing has changed: League Two still has two relegation places and the National League two promotion places.

The National League System: steps 1 to 6

Below the EFL, The FA's National League System gives the pyramid its shape. Each step is wider than the one above, and the movement of clubs between steps is fixed in FA regulations. This is how the six steps look for 2026/27, with the clubs The FA allocated in May 2026:

• Step 1: the National League, a single division of 24 clubs. The champions go up to League Two, second to seventh play off for the other place, and the bottom four drop to step 2.
• Step 2: National League North and National League South, 24 clubs each. In each division the champions and the play-off winner, from second to seventh, go up, and the bottom four go down.
• Step 3: four divisions of 22 clubs, the Isthmian League Premier Division, the Northern Premier League Premier Division and the Southern League's Premier Central and Premier South. Each sends up its champions and a play-off winner, and four go down.
• Step 4: eight divisions of 22 clubs run by those same three leagues, again with two up and four down in each division.
• Step 5: 16 divisions and 320 clubs in regional leagues such as the Northern League, the Wessex League and the Combined Counties League. Two go up from each division and the bottom two go down.
• Step 6: 17 divisions and 340 clubs. The 17 champions and 15 play-off winners are promoted, and up to three clubs per division can be relegated to the feeder leagues.

Play-offs, grounds and the feeder leagues

The play-offs are growing down here too. The FA's regulations for 2026/27 give steps 3 and 4 the same six-club system already used at step 2: second to seventh qualify, with a qualifying round, semi-finals and a final, all single matches at the ground of the higher-placed club. Steps 5 and 6 keep four-club play-offs, second to fifth. Results are not enough on their own. Every club must reach the ground grading required for its step by 31 March, and a club that fails is not eligible for promotion or the play-offs and drops a step.

Below step 6

Directly below step 6 sit the Regional NLS Feeder Leagues: The FA's current regulations list 48 competitions with that status, such as the Anglian Combination, the Kent County League and the Wearside League. Going up from there is not automatic. A club must apply to The FA by 31 December, meet the ground requirements and normally finish first, although clubs down to fifth can be considered if those above decline or fall short, and only one club per feeder league can go up. Beyond them lies the amateur and community game: England Football says it supports 1,100 leagues and around 18,000 clubs outside the professional game.

Who went up and who fell out

Recent seasons show how much traffic crosses the border of the 92. Wrexham, out of the Football League since 2008, won the National League in 2022/23 and then went up from League Two and League One in the next two seasons: the first club to win three consecutive promotions in the top five tiers. In 2025/26 they finished seventh in the Championship. Bromley, founded in 1892, reached the EFL for the first time in 2024 through the play-off final and won League Two in 2025/26. The fall can be just as quick. Morecambe, still a League One club in 2022/23, dropped out of the EFL in 2025 after 18 years and went down again in April 2026, to National League North. Rochdale, relegated in 2023, returned in 2026. The exchange between League Two and the National League over the last four seasons:

• 2022/23: Wrexham and Notts County up; Hartlepool United and Rochdale down.
• 2023/24: Chesterfield and Bromley up; Sutton United and Forest Green Rovers down.
• 2024/25: Barnet and Oldham Athletic up; Carlisle United and Morecambe down.
• 2025/26: York City and Rochdale up; Harrogate Town and Barrow down.

How the pyramid feeds the FA Cup, and where the money goes

The FA Cup is where the whole structure meets, and 743 clubs were accepted for 2026/27. Clubs from the Premier League, the EFL and steps 1 to 5 that apply are accepted if their ground meets the standard, and those outside the 92 must also play in the FA Trophy or FA Vase; step 6 clubs only get in if places are left, ranked by points per game. Entry is staggered by level. Step 5 and 6 entrants and 123 step 4 clubs began in the extra preliminary round on 8 August 2026; the other step 4 clubs joined in the preliminary round, step 3 in the first qualifying round, step 2 in the second and the National League in the fourth, on 17 October. League One and League Two clubs enter in the first round proper on 7 November, and the Premier League and Championship clubs in the third round, on 9 January 2027.

Money moves between the levels too, and unevenly. Clubs relegated from the Premier League receive parachute payments for up to three seasons, worth 55%, 45% and 20% of the equal share of broadcasting money that each Premier League club receives; a club relegated after a single season in the top flight gets only the first two. EFL clubs without parachutes receive much smaller solidarity payments. The Premier League says it committed more than £550m to the wider game in 2024/25, and in January 2026 the Independent Football Regulator announced that it would examine parachute payments in its State of the Game report.

Simulate promotion and relegation across the top four levels

A table shows where the lines are drawn; a simulation shows how thin they are. On Fut Simulator Pro you can play out the rest of the 2026/27 season in the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two from the real table and fixture list, and see who ends up in the automatic places, the play-offs or the relegation zone.

It is a way to measure the effect of the new rules: how many points it might take to finish eighth in the Championship, or to stay out of League One's bottom four. And if you only care about one match, the AI match simulator will play any fixture.

"The pyramid is not a ranking but a set of doors: every May some open and others slam shut."

• Premier League simulator: play the rest of the season from the real table and the real fixture list.
• Championship, League One and League Two simulators, built on the same idea for the EFL.
• FA Cup page: re-pick the 2025/26 bracket and follow the 2026/27 rounds as they are drawn; League One and League Two clubs enter in the first round proper on 7 November 2026.
• Carabao Cup page: the 2026/27 rounds with an AI simulation for every tie.
• AI match simulator for any fixture, in a tactical view or a physics arena, with a vertical video export of arena matches.
• Line-up builder to pick your starting eleven.
• Supercomputer page with season projections for the Premier League.

"Pick a club, run the season and see which side of the line it ends up on."