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Championship and EFL Football

Wimbledon leading on aggregate with 7 minutes remaining and now the floodlights are being shut off.
 
The biggest shake-up of English football for a generation was under way on Thursday after plans to introduce a fifth division and increase the number of league clubs to 100 were unveiled.

Proposals to move to a 20-team-per-division system across the professional game were tabled as part of an overhaul of the calendar which could also see FA Cup ties played in midweek, replays scrapped and the creation of a winter break.

The Football League announced the plans, the most revolutionary since the Premier League was formed almost 25 years ago, which are designed to cut fixture congestion and improve the country’s fortunes on the international stage.

They would see the Championship, League One and League Two all cut from 24 to 20 clubs – in line with the Premier League – and a new 20-team division formed below them.

The changes, which would take effect from 2019, would mean an increase in the total number of league sides from 92 to 100 but a decrease in the number of Football League rounds from 46 to 38.

That would allow the number of midweek rounds to be slashed from what was 10 this season down to just one and free up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for other competitions to be played, particularly the FA Cup.

Moving cup ties or scrapping replays would release more dates in the calendar for Premier League fixtures and lay the foundations for a winter break, which the Football Association has long argued would benefit the England team and English clubs in Europe.

The plans unveiled were drawn up following talks between FA chief executive Martin Glenn, Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore and Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey.

The latter’s clubs were officially informed of the proposals at lunchtime and will begin debating them at their summer meeting next month.

Any increase in the membership of the Football League requires the support of 90 per cent of its teams – 65 of the 72 – and any formal vote on the plan will take place no earlier than a year’s time.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome may be convincing clubs to vote for a plan that would reduce the number of them fighting for promotion to the Premier League each season by almost 17 per cent.

As well as deciding whether they are in favour in principle of such a change, teams must also iron out the fine detail about how it would be implemented in practice.

Harvey said the preferred option was for the proposed new format to be introduced in its entirety at the end of the 2018-19 season, rather than being phased in over two or three years.

That would result in mass relegations in May 2019, particularly from League Two, where at least 12 teams – potentially more if promotion is not put on hold – would drop down to the new fifth tier.

Up to seven clubs could also be relegated from the Championship if the number of sides promoted from League One is not simultaneously curtailed.

If only two teams are promoted then six would need to be relegated, whereas if one is promoted, five would have to drop down a division.

Harvey said he would prefer the champions of League One at the very least to be awarded automatic promotion to the Championship.

Promotion and relegation from the Premier League would remain three up, three down in May 2019, while the National League champions and whichever club finishes best of the rest would still be promoted to the Football League, albeit into the new fifth tier.

A decision on who would fill the six remaining spots in that division would form part of any discussion among the 72 current teams but Harvey said he was in favour of those places being awarded on merit.

He said there was no appetite from the Premier League to sneak B teams into the league by the back door and all but ruled out the revamp being used as an excuse for inviting Celtic and Rangers to join English football.

He did admit, however, there was a possibility of B teams entering a revamped Football League Trophy.

Playing eight fewer league matches per season would cost each Football League club hundreds of thousands of pounds in vital ticket revenue and Harvey said one of the preconditions of teams agreeing to the new plans would be that they would be no worse off financially as a result.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ld-have-a-fifth-division-and-number-of-leagu/

Someone has finally listened to my ideas.
 
I don't understand who this is meant to benefit.

The top clubs in the PL have fixture congestion, the reason why UEFA wanted 18 club (or was it 16 club) top divisions. They play lots of extra cup games, especially in Europe, and this can be difficult without big squads.

The Football League clubs don't have this problem. Why take off 8 games a season, when their clubs rely more on gate money than the TV and commercial revenues of the top clubs? Before the proliferation of European cup games, clubs used to arrange mid-season friendlies (e.g. our early 60s sides) to get extra revenue. This was why they created the League Cup.

It makes no sense unless they have plans to introduce more games elsewhere, say an expanded playoff series.
 
Agreed, it is the Prem clubs who have too many games, with Euro competition.

Good idea to scrap replays, and reduce number of teams in a division, and have more breaks.

Better to split it into 5 divisions of 18 = 90 in total

Just f.uck off two of the brick northern clubs nobody cares about, like Grimsby and Liverpool.



Who am I kidding, if there is a winter break we'll fly to Dubai/Australia for a break (£££ games).
 
Playoff final today - Sheffield Wednesday vs Hull City. I don't know whether it says more about the CL final than about me, but I'm looking more forward to the game on Wembley than the Champions League final. :D
 
Playoff final today - Sheffield Wednesday vs Hull City. I don't know whether it says more about the CL final than about me, but I'm looking more forward to the game on Wembley than the Champions League final. :D

I'm looking forward to them both. Hoping Wednesday go up and Atletico get a well deserved Champions League.
 
Really hope Wednesday go up, proper traditional football club would like to see them back in the top league after a lengthy absence
 
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Little doubt whose fans deserve to come up.
 
I'm looking forward to them both. Hoping Wednesday go up and Atletico get a well deserved Champions League.

I can't dance with that! Can't see Wednesday getting back into this, but still some minutes left. Hull has dominated from the start.

I despise Real Madrid almost as much as Arse*al, so really hope Atletico will win it (although they're a snore to watch).
 
I can see Bruce coming in for a few of our players as he usually likes to do.
 
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