I noticed on SSN earlier that the bottom teams in Nationwide Conference are relegated...just to where are the relegated? what division? i thought conference was the lowest there was.
Directly below the conference there are 3 leagues known as the Northern League, the Southern League and the Ithsmian (no, I've no idea why) League. These are regional leagues and the relegated clubs go into whichever regional league seems most appropriate. Below those leagues, well they go on and on, seemingly forever, until you get to a level where the crowd changes and read to the teams before kick-off. Here's a page with the full tree structure of the semi-pro game (at the bottom of the page) and a whole chunk of (slightly bitter) info about how the semi-pro game works http://www.btinternet.com/~brentours/SP32.htm A quick count up shows there are 104 divisions below conference level, so in all there must be well over 2000 clubs in England.
Understanding of how uropean league are put together. Since i can see that you who have posted this question is american i will help you understanding the groundprinciple in how european sport leagues are made up. The philosophy is that all amateur grassroot teams shall have the rights to become a first class pro team, all leaguea are connected. In sweden in the supperrettan (2 division just under the top league) there is a club called Cafe Opera. Cafe Opera is... yes a Cafe team. The owner of Cafe Opera started for 15 years ago a soccer team with his employees. they have become better and better and risen through the ranks every year to become a semi pro team. Thats the heart of European Sport. I personally hopes they would gain one more promotion and play against former UEFA cup Champions IFK Gothenburg, that would really show how fun european soccer are.
Re: Re: Conference Relegation In the interests of gross pedantry, I should point out that one of the three leagues beneath the Conference is the Northern PREMIER League. The Northern League is a separate competition, with clubs generally based in the north-east of England, and claims to be the second-oldest league in the world. When the Pyramid was started it refused to join; it joined recently and is now a feeder league to the Northern Premier League. As for the Isthmian league, I assume this is based on the idea that the pioneers of sports clubs in the late 19th century were following the example of ancient Greeks, e.g. the Athenian League and the Corinthians FC. "Isthmian" is derived from the Isthmus of Corinth.
Below the Football League (i.e. the Conference downwards) the competitions are separate leagues, not divisions of a single league (although some of those minor leagues do have more than one division). In principle, any of them could decide not to take part in promotion / relegation with other leagues.