Should the Championship, League One, League Two, and Conference National contract to 20 teams each?

Discussion in 'League Championship' started by shizzle787, Dec 16, 2015.

  1. shizzle787

    shizzle787 Member

    Apr 27, 2015
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Currently, each has 24 clubs, playing a 46-game league schedule plus 2 cups (or 3 in the case of all but the Championship) which amount to over 50 games a season. To me, that screams fixture congestion and a lot of injuries. If each league were to contract by 4 clubs, injuries would go down, the average match-day squad would be better, squads could be smaller (saving clubs money), and travel costs could be reduced? Yes, 12 clubs would be cast into non-league football, but does England really need 92 professional clubs? Wouldn't it be a tad more smooth with 80?
     
  2. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The contraction won't happen unless they do something like adding another league at the same level as Conference National. I think clubs would rather play more games than have so many of them get relegated. Here's how it could work if all that contraction happened after the same season and each league from League One down promoted two clubs:

    League Championship could continue promoting 3 clubs to the Premier League.

    League Championship would relegate 6 clubs to League One and League One would promote 2 clubs to League Championship. This would leave League Championship with 20 clubs and League One with 28 clubs before relegations from League One were taken into account.

    League One would relegated 10 clubs to League Two and League Two would promoted 2 clubs to League One. This would leave League One with 20 clubs and League Two with 32 clubs before relegations from League Two were taken into account.

    League Two would relegate 14 clubs (over half the league) to Conference National and Conference National would promote 2 clubs to League Two. This would leave League Two with 20 clubs and Conference National with 36 clubs.

    This would leave Conference National and the two levels below it with 152 clubs combined. One way to structure it would be for Conference National to have 20 clubs, with Levels 6 and 7 having 132 clubs combined. 132 clubs fit evenly into 6 leagues of 22. One possible would be for Level 6 (currently Conference North and Conference South) to add a third league, leaving Levels 6 and 7 with the same amount of leagues and clubs. Alternatively, Level 7 could expand from 3 to 4 leagues.

    If your idea was going to be done, it would make more sense to do it over two seasons (24 clubs to 22 clubs to 20 clubs). Decreasing the number of clubs by 1 would make an odd number of clubs which isn't good.

    As for there being too many games, I made a spreadsheet for the 2008-2009 season of how many games clubs played in Premier League/League Championship/League One/League Two, FA Cup, League Cup, and Johnstone's Paint Trophy (for Levels 3 and 4 only) combined. Manchester United played 49 such games, the most in the Premier League. 68 out of 72 clubs in League Championship, League One, or League Two played at least 49 such games. The range for those 72 clubs was 48 games to 58 games with a mean of 51.8 and a median of 51.5 (the two middle numbers were 51 and 52, in which case the median is the mean of the middle two numbers).
     
  3. shizzle787

    shizzle787 Member

    Apr 27, 2015
    Connecticut
    Club:
    Juventus FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree that it would have to be done over two seasons. As far as the 2008-09 season, why was that chosen?
     
  4. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It was chosen because that was the most recently completed season when I collected that data and I decided not to spend time doing it again for 2014-2015. I think the number of clubs in each league and structure of the cup competitions is still the same.
     
  5. Dune

    Dune Member

    Feb 10, 1999
    The Football League clubs play 8 more league games then the Premier League clubs. But they have no european cup games, few of their players go on national team duty and they are in most cases out of the cups early. I can't see fixture congestion or player fatigue being any worse then in the PL. The FL clubs also rely much more on matchday income. I don't see any need and certainly no support from clubs and supporters for reducing the size of the leagues.
     
  6. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In 2008-2009, here is the mean of how many FA Cup, League Cup, and Johnstone's Paint Trophy (League One and League Two only) games were played by clubs at the top four levels:

    Premier League: 6.05
    League Championship: 5.08
    League One: 6.75
    League Two: 5.58

    Note that on FIFA matchdays, League One and League Two play games.
     
  7. pookspur

    pookspur Moderator
    Staff Member

    Nov 3, 2001
    Indiana
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    that's about it, right there.
     
  8. msilverstein47

    msilverstein47 Member+

    Jan 11, 1999
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  9. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Championship clubs have exactly the same breaks for international fixtures as premier league clubs.

    Many premier league clubs have very large squads. They could put out their 2nd XI in a league fixture, and still expect to win a lot of the time. Football league clubs just don't have the depth to be able to do that.


    Regardless, it's not going to happen. It'd need 90% support, and with this proposal seeing a whole set of current 4th tier clubs dumped into a 5th tier, there's no way there won't be more than 7 clubs rejecting it.
     
  10. SJJ

    SJJ Member

    Sep 20, 1999
    Royal Oak, MI, USA
    Club:
    Michigan Bucks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  11. EPJr

    EPJr Member+

    Los Angeles FC
    United States
    Mar 21, 2009
    Richmond VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  12. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm a Manchester United fan. I root for English clubs in UEFA competitions except I don't want Liverpool or Manchester City to win any trophies. I don't care how the Premier League schedule affects the English National Team. I like the Premier League not having a winter break and having FA Cup games on weekends.

    I don't like the idea of having a bunch of clubs promoted or relegated at the same time. Counting Conference National, England already has five nationwide levels. Is it necessary to have six nationwide levels?
     
  13. EPJr

    EPJr Member+

    Los Angeles FC
    United States
    Mar 21, 2009
    Richmond VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    apparently none of this affects you
     

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