When I first discovered the "Football Pyramid" several years ago I determined to fully understand it and document the leagues that I came across.
It was an education because although I knew about the Football Conference as well as the Northern, Southern and Isthmian Leagues I had no idea how things fitted together. I started listing the leagues and all the teams that were in those leagues and then came the fun bit at the end of each season as I tried to find out on the internet which teams were switching leagues and which ones were not.
I had assumed that things worked similarly to the Football League where teams at the top get promoted and teams at the bottom get relegated but very quickly it became apparent that this is not how things work. Some Football Clubs fold because they cannot fund the players necessary to play at a certain level. When a name disappears one of the relegated clubs is usually reprieved. I also found out that very often the players and fans will form a new club with a similar but distinct name and try to claw back from two or more levels down the pyramid.
The whole concept fascinated me so I got my spreadsheets working and quickly mapped out the Premiership (Top Level) down through the Football League and Football Conference. Therein lies another problem as sometimes entire leagues change their name and we now have to refer to the Conference as the National League. This caused me a problem as I was cross referencing clubs and NL was my designation for the Northern League but it had to be used for the National League so I started using NFL for the Northern Football League.
The first real insight was when I started noting teams from the Conference North and Conference South and wondered what happens when two teams from the North and two from the South are promoted if all the teams relegated are from either the North or the South. I have seen many times three teams relegated to one subsidiary division and one to the other with a random team transferred between the two Level Six divisions to balance things. How is that team selected and do they have any choice in the matter?
There have been many more insights as I worked through the 14 Level Nine Leagues and the 17 Level 10 Leagues. There are some changes going on that will change those numbers soon. East Anglia is a strange place and when they tried out regional accents around the country the broad Essex accent was the hardest for most of the country to understand. In recent years several London clubs havestarted to play their way out east.
When I got bored of the English Football Leagues somewhere between Levels 16 and 22 (not officially part of the pyramid but I still want to know) I looked at Scotland and Wales to try and work out their structures but the internet information is much more sparse so I moved back to concentrate on England pure and simple. What about Spain, Italy, Germany and all of the International Nations. They all have football league.
My niece started playing a good standard of womens football so I looked into the Womens Super League and subsidiaries and saw that some well known clubs have womens or girls teams in the feminine side of the game. Her team were promoted twice in two years and I wanted to know when I could start watching her on television. Unfortunately her club split with their manager and half the team left so she was left with the choice of switching or accepting relegation the following year. She has retired from football.
So to my point.
Millie Bright (Chelsea and England) has just appeared on my PC offering support to the Weston-Super-Mare Ladies as they enter a top of the table clash so I checked to see that they are in the Somerset County Womens League. They are playing Pen Mill who are second in the league. I notice that Merriott Ladies are bottom of the league but they would be if they are that Merry.
I have not tracked the Womens Pyramid beyond Level Five which contains regional leagues so I have no idea how many promotions are needed to reach the pyramid that I am aware of. If and when they do they will be in the South West Regional League and it may be as soon as next season if they keep winning.
There must be people that know all these things but at the moment I am enjoying the voyage of discovery.
