League Rationalisation

Non League football has been stratified and there is now a standard although there are many variations as you descend the pyramid.

The National League is Step 1 of Non League and Level 5 of the pyramid. It has two feeder leagues At Step 2 (Level 6). They are the National League North and National League South.

Steps 3 and 4 (Levels 7 and 8) are the Isthmian, Northern Premier and Southern Leagues. They each have one Premier Division and two feeder leagues which in the case of the first two are North and South while in the Southern League it is East and West.

This idea of a Primary (Premier) Division with two feeder leagues is now the standard and I am sure that the F.A. will want to standardise that going on down through the pyramid. I have watched the changes over the last few years with keen interest and although there is some way to go I think we can see the direction in which the F.A. is pushing things.

Steps 5 and 6 (Levels 9 and 10) contain a variety of leagues, 14 in total at the moment. The F.A. has designs on reducing this to 12 Leagues so that each of the Step 3 Leagues will have two leagues feeding up to it. With all the bargaining and switching that goes on year after year as teams switch between leagues it would certainly simplify things if promotion and relegation was more rigid but I am not yet convinced that a perfectly matching pyramid is the best thing for the game of football.

The Hellenic League is already set up correctly with East and West divisions leading into the Premier Division.

The South West Peninsula League is similarly standard in structure but its Premier Division sits at level 10 so it does not fit the perfect system that the F.A. is trying to create. If each League has to have its Premier Division at an odd numbered step or level it would need to be regraded down to Level 11 which is the County Level so the F.A. have a problem unless they accept that there will be exceptions. The Western League works with Division One getting a promotion slot and the South West Peninsula League Premier Division getting a promotion slot. If the F.A. were to force a standard structure it could kill the game in the South West Peninsula.

Most of the other Leagues at Step 5 (Level 9) have a Premier Division and a Division One which works for them.

The key exception to this now that the Kent League has become the Southern Counties East League Premier Division and the Kent Invicta League has become the Southern Counties League Division One (a step closer to the standard required) is the Essex Senior League. It sits at Step 5 (Level 9) and has no Step 6 feeder league. The Essex Olympian League sits at Level 11.

The F.A. has plans to fix this by getting the Essex Senior League to merge with the Eastern Counties League (Premier Division and Division One) to create a Premier Division along with a Division One North and Division One South. This will fit the format that the F.A. is pushing but it remains to be seen how the teams involved adapt to greater travelling distances. Certainly, now that the Sussex League has become the Southern Combination we need to push any mention of the County in the League Name down to Level 11. The standard is becoming County Leagues at Level 11.

If that merger takes place then the total number of leagues at this level will be reduced to 13 and I will leave it up to you to work out which other leagues should be merged to remove the 13th member at this level and give the F.A. the perfect 12 that they are after.

What are your thoughts?