To football fans in the UK, Europe and much of the world, the notion of promotion and relegation is a key part of what makes the sport so exciting. However, to other sports fans, it is an entirely alien concept. Promotion and relegation do not really feature in any US sports, and certainly not in their main soccer league, the MLS.
But football fans in the UK should note that it is not just in North America where promotion and relegation are uncommon. For most of cricket’s long history in England, there was no demotion, with the major counties safe in the knowledge they would be competing against each other every season, no matter how badly they performed.
That said, the fact remains that little in football, or soccer, can better the excitement and tension of a close, well-fought promotion or relegation battle. Only one team can win any given league, but the other battles slightly lower down, and also right at the bottom of the league, can keep almost the entire division involved for much of the season. This is certainly a big part of the allure of the promotion and relegation system in football, with teams having so much to gain or to lose.
How Does It Work: The Basics
To better understand how promotion and relegation work, we will stick to the top five tiers of English football. Even the very concept of tiers will be unfamiliar to fans of US soccer. Fundamentally, it is a hierarchy of football teams, divided into divisions, or tiers. Known as the “football pyramid”, or English football league system, it has the world-famous Premier League at the top.
The Premier League consists of the best 20 teams in England (we won’t confuse matters by looking at the fact that the “English” football league system contains teams from Wales and, at the lower levels, places like the Isle of Man and Jersey too). Below the Premier League, we have the Championship, League 1 and League 2, known collectively as EFL, or English Football League. Each of these three divisions contains 24 sides, while below that, we have the fifth tier, called the National League, which also has 24 clubs.
When we talk about promotion, we are referring to a side moving up from their current division to the one above. In contrast, should a club suffer relegation, they move down a tier, for example, dropping from the Championship (second tier) into League 1 (third tier).
- Promoted – team moves up to the league above
- Relegated – team moves down to the league below
The number of teams that are relegated or promoted also varies by league:
- Premier League
- Relegation to Championship: Bottom three teams
- Championship
- Promotion to Premier League: Top two teams plus one winner from the play offs
- Relegation to League 1: Bottom three teams
- League 1
- Promotion to Championship: Top two teams plus one winner from the play offs
- Relegation to League 2: Bottom four teams
- League 2
- Promotion to League 1: Top three teams plus one winner from the play offs
- Relegation to the National league: Bottom two teams
- National League
- Promotion to League 2: Top one team plus one winner from the play offs
- Relegation to Regional leagues: Bottom four teams
The Premier League: Relegation Only
The Premier League (PL or EPL) is the most-watched and richest soccer league in the world, popular from Kansas to Cairo and Melbourne to Mumbai. It is the pinnacle of English football – even if Welsh sides Swansea and Cardiff have played in it, and Wrexham hope to – and so there is no promotion.
There is no division above the Premier League within the English football system and so, rather unfortunately, the only way is down. Over the years, 51 different clubs have played in the Premier League, but, as of the 2025/26 campaign, only six have been ever-present. That means that many have suffered the heartache and negative financial consequences of relegation.
For many years now, the relegation system for the Premier League has been fixed. It is simple and easy to understand. The bottom three clubs all get demoted to the Championship for the following season.
EFL Championship: Three Promoted, Three Relegated
Like almost all leagues in European football, aside from the various top-tier competitions, the Championship has both promotion and relegation. That means two sides can play each other one year and then be two divisions apart the next. As with the Premier League, the relegation equation is very simple: finish in the bottom three, and you are demoted, in this instance, to League 1.
The scenario with regards promotion is a little more complex. With three clubs coming down from the Premier League, three must also go up, but it is not the top three that automatically earn the right to play amongst the very elite. Instead, the team that finishes first are crowned champions of the division and they, along with the team that finishes second, are Premier League-bound.
Below them, the four clubs that finish third to sixth inclusive enter the post-season play-offs. Or, at least that has traditionally been the case. Third would play sixth and fourth would play fifth, those ties over two legs, home and away. The winners would meet in a one-off play-off final at Wembley, dubbed “the richest game in football”. That moniker is due to the fact that promotion to the PL is said to be worth more than £200m to the successful club.
The play-offs are set to change from 2026/27 onwards, though. The new system will see six clubs make the post-season, rather than four. The teams finishing third and fourth will earn automatic entry to the traditional two-legged semis.
Meanwhile, the clubs that finish fifth and sixth will host the ones that finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in one-legged qualifiers. Whoever wins these games advances to the semis to meet the two higher-ranked clubs, before the Wembley final between the two aggregate victors.
This change will introduce yet more jeopardy to the battle for promotion. So many teams will be in contention for a top-eight place that there will be fewer and fewer games with nothing riding on them in the last few weeks of the season.
League 1: Three Promoted, Four Relegated
In terms of promotion, League 1 is identical to the Championship pre-2026/27. The top two go up automatically. The side finishing third plays against sixth, home and away, for the right to meet the winner of fourth versus fifth at Wembley. However, the relegation battle is tougher, with the bottom four clubs in League 1 being relegated to the fourth tier.
League 2: Four Promoted, Two Relegated
League 2 again uses the same format, in essence, with slightly different numbers. There are three automatic promotion spots, with teams finishing fourth to seventh inclusive entering the play-offs. This makes things incredibly competitive at the top. At the other end of the table, just two clubs go down, dropping down to the fifth tier, typically referred to as non-league football.
National League: Two Promoted, Four Relegated
With just two teams being demoted from League 2, the National League only has one automatic promotion spot, granted to the champions. They then already use the six-team play-off format the Championship is moving to, with sides finishing second and third making the semis, while fourth and fifth host sixth and seventh respectively in the quarters.
There is a slight difference in the National League, however, in that the semis are, like the quarters, held over one leg, with the higher-ranked side having home advantage. The winners then meet at Wembley for the chance to join the Football League.
Relegation from the National League is also a somewhat complex picture. The bottom four teams get relegated, but not to one division. The top five tiers of English football are not geographically split. However, beneath the National League lie the National League North and the National League South, both operating at the same level.
In an ideal world, two clubs from the north, which generally also includes the Midlands, and two from the south, would be in the bottom four. In this scenario, two enter the National League South and two the National League North. However, soccer is rarely ideal, and if this does not happen, the authorities can shuffle the teams around to keep the best balance possible.