A Football League (typically known as a Coca-Cola Football League for sponsorship reasons) is a league competition for English football (soccer) clubs (though a few Welsh clubs also participate) containing 3 divisions (a Football League Championship, Football League One and Football League Two) that occupy the 2nd, third & 4th levels of the English football league system (below a FA Premier League, but above a Football Conference). Additionally to a independent competition, a League as well organises deuce hard ventral suction cup competitions, the Football League Cup and the Football League Trophy.

Overview

A Football League is 72 office football clubs in England and Wales, and diarrhea a oldest office football league competition in the globe. It likewise organises 2 aepyceros melampus ventral suction cup competitions. A Football League was founded inside 1888 by having Twelve member clubs, however steadily incubation & a addition of extra divisions intended that by 1959 a League got 92 clubs. Fiscal considerations led to a major dislodge-reorganisation inside 1992 after, around a step to maximise their revenue, the leading members of The Football League broke away to form their have competition, the FA Premier League. A Football League so there is no elongated is a top Twenty clubs world health organization belong to this class action, although promotion & relegation between A Football League & a FA Premier League continues.

League competition

A Football League's 72 member clubs come grouped into threesome divisions: a Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two. From every one section has Two dozen clubs, & in any given year the club plays each of the others in the equivalent section twice, when at their personal arena & it used to be that at that of their opponents. This play the sum of 46 games played from each one year.

Clubs benefit terzetto points for the win, of these for the draw, & none for the loss. At a prevent of a year, clubs at a top of their section will win promotion to the next higher section, when people at the bottom can be relegated to the next moo of these. At a top prevent of A competition, iii Championship clubs win promotion from either a Football League to the FA Premier League, using the bottom 3 Premier League clubs ingesting their site. At a moo prevent, ii League Both clubs lose their Football League status sustaining relegation to the Conference National division of the Football Conference, while 2 teams from either Conference National join League Both of The Football League in their place.

Division	Promoted		Relegated
	Directly Up	Via Playoff
A Championship	Top Two clubs	Of these from either 3rd-6th place finishers	Bottom Three clubs
League One	Top Two clubs	Of these from either 3rd-6th place finishers	Bottom Four clubs
League Two	Top Three clubs	1 from either 4th-7th place finishers	Bottom Two clubs

Promotion & relegation come determined by final league position, however to sustain interest for further clubs above a length of the year of these promotion place from either both section is decided based on data from a playoff between quatern clubs, which requires place at the prevent of the year. These are so imaginable for even even a team finishing sixth within the Championship or League Of these, or seventh in League 2, to become promoted like than the clubs finishing immediately above the babies in the standings.

3 sales person football clubs from either Wales, Cardiff City, Wrexham, and Swansea City, play in The Football League. This disqualifies the two from either participation in the League of Wales and the Welsh Cup, and so as well deprives the children of the risk to qualify for UEFA competitions by this route. Of these English club, Berwick Rangers, plays in the Scottish football league system.

Reserve teams of Football League clubs unremarkably play in the Pontin's Holidays League (for the Midlands and North) or the Pontin's Holidays Combination (for the South), though some play in the national FA Premier Reserve League.

Cup competitions

A Football League organises 2 severe ventral suction cup competitions, a Football League Cup, currently known as a Carling Ventral suction cup, & a Football League Trophy, currently a LDV Vans Trophy. A League Ventral suction cup was established around 1960 & is open to tons Football League & FA Premier League clubs, sustaining a winner eligible to participate in the UEFA Cup. A Trophy is for clubs belonging to League One and League Two and certain Football Conference clubs.

History

When iv years of debate, The Football Association finally legalised professionalism on 20 July 1885. Prior to that date several clubs manufactured illegal payments to "professional" players to boost a fight of their teams, arousing a contempt of victims clubs abiding per laws of the amateur Football Association code. When supplementary & further clubs became office a ad-hoc fixture listing of FA Ventral suction cup, inter-county, & 'friendly' matches was seen by several as an undependable stream of revenue, & ways were considered of ensuring the uniform income. The Scottish draper & director of Aston Villa, William McGregor, was the number one to placed bent bring occasionally choose to the chaotic globe in which clubs intended their have fixtures. He wrote to a leading clubs & organised the creatiin meeting of The Football League on 22 March 1888. A 1st year of The Football League began two or three months subsequently 8 September with 12 member clubs: Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. For each the single club played the more twice, another time home & when away, & 2 points were awarded for a win & one for a draw. This points patterns was non agreed upon until when the year got began; a guide proposal was of these point for a win sole. Preston won a 1st league title forswearing losing a game, & completed the 1st league-ventral suction cup double by also ingesting a FA Cup.

the early years of a League saw the addition of extra clubs, & a freshly 2nd Section was formed within 1892 with the absorption of the rival Football Alliance. A bottom clubs of a moo section were compulsory to use for re-election to the League at the prevent of every year. Automatic promotion & relegation for 2 clubs was introduced when a League expanded to 2 divisions of 18 inside 1898; this came into result once a last models of test matches between a bottom deuce clubs of a 1st Section & the top deuce clubs of the 2nd Section was brought inside to discredit whenever Stoke & Burnley colluded in the final match to assure it were each in the Number 1 Section the next year. When you took this period of time a League was dominated by northern clubs, using a likes of Sunderland, Newcastle United, and Manchester United joining the League & getting profits. Liverpool won the 1st of their record Eighteen League titles around 1901. It was non until a early years of the fresh century that southern clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur established themselves in the League, and there would become the farther hold off until 1931 before a southern club, Arsenal, would win a League first.

A League was suspended for quaternion seasons when you took World War I and resumed in 1919 with the Foremost & 2nd Divisions expanded to Xxii clubs. A charted season, 1920, leading clubs from a Southern League joined the League to form the fresh Third Section, which inside 1921 was renamed the Third Division South upon the farther addition of extrthe clubs inside a fresh Third Division North. one club from either both of these divisions would benefit promotion to the 2nd Section, by having them relegated clubs existence assigned to the virtually all appropriate Third Section. To accommodate expected difficulties therein arrangement, clubs in the Midlands like Mansfield Town or Walsall would sometimes become moved from either a single Third Section to the more.

Ensuing this burst of postwar incubation, the League entered into a prolonged period of proportional stability by owning couple changes in the membership, although there were changes on the pitch. The freshly offsides law around 1925 reducing the total of opponents between a streaming video player & the goal from either 3 to 2 led to a big increase within goals. Totals around shirts were introduced in 1939 and white balls in 1951. A 1st floodlit game was played between Portsmouth and Newcastle United in 1956, opening up a possibility of midweekly evening matches.

A League was suspended againside in 1939 with the eruption of World War II, this time for septenary seasons. A Third Divisions were expanded to Xxiv clubs both inside 1950, bringing the amount total of League clubs to 92, & within 1958 the decision was mass produced to prevent a regionalisation of the Third Divisions & reorganise the clubs into a recently countrywide Third Section & Fourth Division. To accomplish this a clubs in a top half of each a Third Section Northward & South joined together to form a recently Third Section, & victims in the bottom half processed higher the For Section. 4 clubs were promoted & relegated between these 2 moo divisions, when 2 clubs exchanged web pages in the upper divisions until 1974, when a total increased to threesome.

a fresh ventral suction cup competition open to all the members of the League, the Football League Cup, was held for the first time around 1960-61 to provide clubs a recently source of income. Aston Villa won a initiatory League Ventral suction cup &, despite an initial want of enthusiasm on the section of a bit of of the large clubs, the competition became firmly constituted in the footballing calendar.

Substitutes were 1st provide wounded players within 1965, and for any cause a next season.

Beginning by using a 1976-77 season, clubs finishing level on points began to become separated based on data from goal difference (the difference between goals scored & goals allowed) like than goal typical (goals scored divided by goals allowed). This was an effort to cease too defensive play encouraged per greater benefit within limiting goals allowed. In a event that clubs got match points & equal goal differences, priority was given to the club that experienced scored the virtually all goals. There has been just of these year, 1988-89, after this level of differentiation was necessary to determine a League champion & this was a occasion of one of a virtually all spectacular nights around League history, when Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield in a last game of the year to win the League on this tiebreaker.

An additional significant vary was mass produced within 1981 when it was decided to award three points for the win instead of 2, the farther effort to increase attacking football. Withwithin the similar vein, playoffs to determine promotion site were introduced in 1987 to prolong hope for more clubs to a prevent of the year, & at the equivalent instance to help in the reduction ended ii years of the total of clubs in the Foremost Section from either 22 to 20. At a equivalent period, automatic promotion & relegation between a For Section & a Football Conference was introduced for one club, replacing a annual application for re-election to a League of the bottom little joe clubs & linking the League to the underdeveloped National League System pyramid. Emblematic of a confusion that was beginning to envelop a game, a total of clubs at the top of the league would go to to Twenty-two for the 1991-92 season, before over again dropping to Twenty for 1995-96. A issues creating a uncertainty in the game entirely centered in money.

A increasing influence of money within English football wwhen evident by owning such cases as a number 1 £1m transport in the game, that of Trevor Francis from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest in February 1979. A number one £2million streaming video player was Tony Cottee (West Ham United to Everton, July 1988). A foremost £3million streaming video player was Alan Shearer (Southampton to Blackburn Rovers, July 1992).

Since a creation of a Premier League, the record fee paid by English clubs has been broken just about each year. It rose to £3.75million around June 1993 (Roy Keane, Nottingham Outdoors to Manchester United), £5million witharound July 1994 (Chris Sutton, Norwich City to Blackburn Rovers), £7million in January 1995 (Andy Cole, Newcastle United to Manchester United), £7.5million within June 1995 (Dennis Bergkamp, Inter Milan to Arsenal), £8.5million inside July 1995 (Stan Collymore, Nottingham Woods to Liverpool), £15million - globe record - inside July 1996 (Alan Shearer, Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United), £19million within Could 2001 (Ruud van Nistelrooy, PSV Eindhoven to Manchester United), £28.1million within July 2001 (Juan Sebastian Veron, Lazio to Manchester United) & a record since July 2002 has been a £29million which Manchester United paid Leeds United for Rio Ferdinand. Then a creation of a Premier League has seen the record fee paid by English clubs broken Decade days in the number one 10 seasons. Alan Shearer's £15million record lasted about 5 years inside England, although his worldwide record was broken inside a year. Rio Ferdinand's record has and then far lasted about trey years.

Beginning around 1983 the League has accepted lucrative sponsorships for its independent competition. Following occurs as listings of world health organization a sponsors use been & what a League was known as under their sponsorship:

1983-1986: Canon (Canon League) 1986-1987: Today (newspaper) (Today League) 1987-1993: Barclays Bank (Barclays League) 1993-1996: Endsleigh Insurance (Endsleigh League) 1996-2004: Nationwide Building Society (Nationwide Football League) 2004-2007: Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola Football League)

A League's ventral suction cup competitions use different sponsors (view English football sponsorship for more principles).

A more major source of money, & far and away a first a single, is television. A 1980s saw competition between terrestrial broadcasters for a rights to show League matches, but the arrival on the scene of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (Sky TV), eagerly shopping for attractive programming to build its client base & unforced to salary brobdingnagian sums, changed a picture totally. A League's top tier clubs got been agitating for many years to become breathe to keep thomas more of the League's revenue for themselves, threatening to break away & form their have league in case necessary. Inside 1992 a threat was realised as a 1st Section clubs left to establish the FA Premier League and signed a contract for exclusive survive coverage of their games by owning Sky TV. a FA Premier League agreed to maintaaround a promotion & relegation of trine clubs sustaining A Football League, however A Football League was currently in a far weaker position - forswearing its better clubs & forswearing the clout to negotiate high revenue TV deals. This condition was exacerbated using a collapse within 2002 of ITV Digital, holder of TV rights for The Football League, which cost League clubs hundreds to thousands of pounds inside revenue.

A recently, slimmed down League, Lxx clubs until 1995 and 72 clubs since, renamed its divisions to reflect the changes. A old 2nd Section became a recently Number 1 Section, a Third Section became a 2nd Section, & a For Section became a Third Section. A fiscal health of its clubs has turn into possibly a greatest League priority due to the limited resources available. All a same there are occasionally promising signs for a fresh, when the League plans to announce new initiatives beginning sustaining the 2004-05 season, coinciding by owning the begin of a fresh sponsorship agreement with Coca-Cola. a 1st one changes was a rebranding of a League using a renaming of the 1st Section to The Championship, the 2nd Section to League One and the Third Section to League 2.

Football League clubs

Beneath come used a member clubs of The Football League for the 2005-2006 season. There are Two dozen clubs inside both section. Note: A Xx Premier League clubs are non involved when these are there are no yearn a portion of a league; all a same it is however most common practice to refer to the babies along sustaining the 72 Football League clubs when the 92 league clubs.

A Championship Brighton and Hove Albion Burnley Cardiff City Coventry City Crewe Alexandra Crystal Palace Derby County Hull City Ipswich Town Leeds United Leicester City Luton Town Millwall Norwich City Plymouth Argyle Preston North End Queens Park Rangers Reading Sheffield United Sheffield Wednesday Southampton Stoke City Watford Wolverhampton Wanderers

League One Barnsley Blackpool Bournemouth Bradford City Brentford Bristol City Chesterfield Colchester United Doncaster Rovers Gillingham Hartlepool United Huddersfield Town Milton Keynes Dons Nottingham Forest Oldham Athletic Port Vale Rotherham United Scunthorpe United Southend United Swansea City Swindon Town Tranmere Rovers Walsall Yeovil Town

League Two Barnet Boston United Bristol Rovers Bury Carlisle United Cheltenham Town Chester City Darlington Grimsby Town Leyton Orient Lincoln City Macclesfield Town Mansfield Town Northampton Town Notts County Oxford United Peterborough United Rochdale Rushden and Diamonds Shrewsbury Town Stockport County Torquay United Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers

Former Football League clubs

This listings doesn't include clubs presently swimming in the FA Premier League, all of which were erst members of The Football League.

Note: ^R indicates that a club was relegated from either A Football League.

Club	Years inside League	Notes
Aberdare Athletic	1921-1927
Accrington	1888-1893
Accrington Stanley	1921-1962
Aldershot	1932-1992
Ashington	1921-1929
Barrow	1921-1972
Bootle	1892-1893
Bradford (Park Avenue)	1908-1970
Burton Swifts	1892-1901	Incorporated by having Burton Wanderers inside 1901 to form Burton United.
Burton United	1901-1907	Merger of Burton Swifts & Burton Wanderers.
Burton Wanderers	1894-1897	Incorporate by using Burton Swifts inside 1901 to form Burton United.
Cambridge United	1970-2005R
Darwen	1891-1899
Durham City	1921-1928
Exeter City	1920-2003R	Foremost club to become relegated fallowing finishing 2nd from either bottom of The Football League.
Gainsborough Trinity	1896-1912
Gateshead	1919-1960	Called To the south Shields until 1930.
Glossop North End	1898-1915
Halifax Town	1921-1993R 1998-2002R	Simply club to develop been relegated from either A Football League twice.
Hereford United	1972-1997R
Kidderminster Harriers	2000-2005R
Leeds City	1905-1919
Loughborough	1895-1900	Likewise referred to as Loughborough Town.
Maidstone United	1989-1992
Merthyr Town	1920-1930
Middlesbrough Ironopolis	1893-1894
Nelson	1921-1931
New Brighton	1923-1951
New Brighton Tower	1898-1901
Newport County	1920-1931 1932-1988R
Northwich Victoria	1892-1894
Rotherham County	1919-1925	Incorporated by having Rotherham Town around 1925 to form Rotherham United.
Rotherham Town	1893-1896	Integrated by using Rotherham County inside 1925 to form Rotherham United.
Scarborough	1987-1999R
Southport	1921-1978
Stalybridge Celtic	1921-1923
Thames	1930-1932
Wigan Borough	1921-1931
Workington	1951-1977
York City	1929-2004R

Past League winners
NB: League & FA Cup Double winners are highlighted inside bold. 1888-1892

Whilst A Footbeverthing League was number 1 established, all clubs played inside merely a single section:

Year	A Football League
1888-89	Preston North End
1889-90	Preston North End
1890-91	Everton
1891-92	Sunderland

1892-1920

Within 1892 The Football League absorbed the rival Football Alliance, meaning it now got plenty clubs to form a second section. A existent section was renamed a 1st Section & a freshly section was known as a 2nd Section.

Year	1st Section	2nd Division
1892-93	Sunderland	Small Heath
1893-94	Aston Villa	Liverpool
1894-95	Sunderland	Bury
1895-96	Aston Villa	Liverpool
1896-97	Aston Villa	Notts County
1897-98	Sheffield United	Burnley
1898-99	Aston Villa	Manchester City
1899-1900	Aston Villa	The Wednesday
1900-01	Liverpool	Grimsby Town
1901-02	Sunderland	West Bromwich Albion
1902-03	The Wednesday	Manchester City
1903-04	The Wednesday	Preston North End
1904-05	Newcastle United	Liverpool
1905-06	Liverpool	Bristol City
1906-07	Newcastle United	Nottingham Forest
1907-08	Manchester United	Bradford City
1908-09	Newcastle United	Bolton Wanderers
1909-10	Aston Villa	Manchester City
1910-11	Manchester United	West Bromwich Albion
1911-12	Blackburn Rovers	Derby County
1912-13	Sunderland	Preston North End
1913-14	Blackburn Rovers	Notts County
1914-15	Everton	Derby County
1915-19	League suspended referable World War I
1919-20	West Bromwich Albion	Tottenham Hotspur

1920-1921

Within 1920 a Football League admitted the clubs from either the foremost section of the Southern League (the Southern League continued by using its unexpended clubs) & Grimsby Town, who got failed to exist as re-elected to a 2nd Section the year prior to & been replaced by Cardiff City (of the Southern League). A clubs were located in the recently Third Section:

Year	1st Section	2nd Section	Third Division
1920-21	Burnley	Birmingham City	Crystal Palace

1921-1958

When good 1 year under a old format, a League expanded once more. This period it admitted a total of clubs from either either a n of England (to balance items retired when a previous expansion brought primarily clubs from the south). A existent Third Section was reknown as a Third Section South & a fresh section was named a Third Section N. Grimsby Town transfered to the fresh northern section. every divisions ran inside parallel, by using clubs from either two Third Divisions existence promoted to a national 2nd Section at the prevent of each year:

Year	1st Section	2nd Section	Third Section Northward	Third Section South
1921-22	Liverpool	Nottingham Forest	Stockport County	Southampton
1922-23	Liverpool	Notts County	Nelson	Bristol City
1923-2 dozen	Huddersfield Town	Leeds United	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Portsmouth
1924-25	Huddersfield Town	Leicester City	Darlington	Swansea City
1925-26	Huddersfield Town	Sheffield Wednesday	Grimsby Town	Reading
1926-27	Newcastle United	Middlesbrough	Stoke City	Bristol City
1927-28	Everton	Manchester City	Bradford (Park Avenue)	Millwall
1928-29	Sheffield Wednesday	Middlesbrough	Bradford City	Charlton Athletic
1929-30	Sheffield Wednesday	Blackpool	Port Vale	Plymouth Argyle
1930-31	Arsenal	Everton	Chesterfield	Notts County
1931-32	Everton	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Lincoln City	Fulham
1932-33	Arsenal	Stoke City	Hull City	Brentford
1933-34	Arsenal	Grimsby Town	Barnsley	Norwich City
1934-35	Arsenal	Brentford	Doncaster Rovers	Charlton Athletic
1935-36	Sunderland	Manchester United	Chesterfield	Coventry City
1936-37	Manchester City	Leicester City	Stockport County	Luton Town
1937-38	Arsenal	Aston Villa	Tranmere Rovers	Millwall
1938-39	Everton	Blackburn Rovers	Barnsley	Newport County
1939-40	League abandoned imputable World War II
1940-46	League suspended ascribable World War II
1946-47	Liverpool	Manchester City	Doncaster Rovers	Cardiff City
1947-48	Arsenal	Birmingham City	Lincoln City	Queens Park Rangers
1948-49	Portsmouth	Fulham	Hull City	Swansea City
1949-50	Portsmouth	Tottenham Hotspur	Doncaster Rovers	Notts County
1950-51	Tottenham Hotspur	Preston North End	Rotherham United	Nottingham Forest
1951-52	Manchester United	Sheffield Wednesday	Lincoln City	Plymouth Argyle
1952-53	Arsenal	Sheffield United	Oldham Athletic	Bristol Rovers
1953-54	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Leicester City	Port Vale	Ipswich Town
1954-55	Chelsea	Birmingham City	Barnsley	Bristol City
1955-56	Manchester United	Sheffield Wednesday	Grimsby Town	Leyton Orient
1956-57	Manchester United	Leicester City	Derby County	Ipswich Town
1957-58	Wolverhampton Wanderers	West Ham United	Scunthorpe United	Brighton & Hove Albion

1958-1992

For the beginning of the 1958-59 season, national Third & For Divisions were introduced to replenish a regional Third Section Northward and Third Section South:

Year	Foremost Section	2nd Section	Third Section	For Division
1958-59	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Sheffield Wednesday	Plymouth Argyle	Port Vale
1959-60	Burnley	Aston Villa	Southampton	Walsall
1960-61	Tottenham Hotspur	Ipswich Town	Bury	Peterborough United
1961-62	Ipswich Town	Liverpool	Portsmouth	Millwall
1962-63	Everton	Stoke City	Northampton Town	Brentford
1963-64	Liverpool	Leeds United	Coventry City	Gillingham
1964-65	Manchester United	Newcastle United	Carlisle United	Brighton & Hove Albion
1965-66	Liverpool	Manchester City	Hull City	Doncaster Rovers
1966-67	Manchester United	Coventry City	Queens Park Rangers	Stockport County
1967-68	Manchester City	Ipswich Town	Oxford United	Luton Town
1968-69	Leeds United	Derby County	Watford	Doncaster Rovers
1969-70	Everton	Huddersfield Town	Leyton Orient	Chesterfield
1970-71	Arsenal	Leicester City	Preston North End	Notts County
1971-72	Derby County	Norwich City	Aston Villa	Grimsby Town
1972-73	Liverpool	Burnley	Bolton Wanderers	Southport
1973-74	Leeds United	Middlesbrough	Oldham Athletic	Peterborough United
1974-75	Derby County	Manchester United	Blackburn Rovers	Mansfield Town
1975-76	Liverpool	Sunderland	Hereford United	Lincoln City
1976-77	Liverpool	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Mansfield Town	Cambridge United
1977-78	Nottingham Forest	Bolton Wanderers	Wrexham	Watford
1978-79	Liverpool	Crystal Palace	Shrewsbury Town	Reading
1979-80	Liverpool	Leicester City	Grimsby Town	Huddersfield Town
1980-81	Aston Villa	West Ham United	Rotherham United	Southend United
1981-82	Liverpool	Luton Town	Burnley	Sheffield United
1982-83	Liverpool	Queens Park Rangers	Portsmouth	Wimbledon
1983-84	Liverpool	Chelsea	Oxford United	York City
1984-85	Everton	Oxford United	Bradford City	Chesterfield
1985-86	Liverpool	Norwich City	Reading	Swindon Town
1986-87	Everton	Derby County	Bournemouth	Northampton Town
1987-88	Liverpool	Millwall	Sunderland	Wolverhampton Wanderers
1988-89	Arsenal	Chelsea	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Rotherham United
1989-90	Liverpool	Leeds United	Bristol Rovers	Exeter City
1990-91	Arsenal	Oldham Athletic	Cambridge United	Darlington
1991-92	Leeds United	Ipswich Town	Brentford	Burnley

1992-2004

As a consequence a breaking away of a clubs within A 1st Section to form a FA Premier League, The Football League there are no protracted involved the top clubs in England. A 2nd Section was renamed a Foremost Section, a Third Section became a 2nd Section, & a For Section became a Third Section.

Year	Foremost Section	2nd Section	Third Division
1992-93	Newcastle United	Stoke City	Cardiff City
1993-94	Crystal Palace	Reading	Shrewsbury Town
1994-95	Middlesbrough	Birmingham City	Carlisle United
1995-96	Sunderland	Swindon Town	Preston North End
1996-97	Bolton Wanderers	Bury	Wigan Athletic
1997-98	Nottingham Forest	Watford	Notts County
1998-99	Sunderland	Fulham	Brentford
1999-2000	Charlton Athletic	Preston North End	Swansea City
2000-01	Fulham	Millwall	Brighton & Hove Albion
2001-02	Manchester City	Brighton & Hove Albion	Plymouth Argyle
2002-03	Portsmouth	Wigan Athletic	Rushden & Diamonds
2003-04	Norwich City	Plymouth Argyle	Doncaster Rovers

2004-present

Inside 2004, a Football League renamed its divisions: a Number 1 Section became a Football League Championship, a 2nd Section became Football League One and the Third Section became Football League Both.

Year	A Championship	League Of these	League Two
2004-05	Sunderland	Luton Town	Yeovil Town

Titles by club
Due to a breaking away of the Premier League around 1992, winning the Football League title there are no hanker makes a team the top tier champions of English football. A below table splits wins between people prior to & fallowing that date, & as well shows every a aggregate sum of top flight titles won by each club, & a total total of league titles won from either 1889 to 2005. These are sorted by total of top flight titles, which occurs as extrthe important measure of a club's profits all over its history than a total of Football League titles won - a top pack English football clubs might probably never win a Football League once more.

Club	League titles 1889-1992	Premier League titles 1993-2005	Top flight titles	Football League titles 1993-2005	Football league titles 1889-2005
Liverpool	18	0	18	0	18
Manchester United	7	8	15	0	7
Arsenal	10	3	13	0	10
Everton	9	0	9	0	9
Aston Villa	7	0	7	0	7
Sunderland	6	0	6	3	9
Newcastle United	4	0	4	One	5
Sheffield Wednesday	4	0	4	0	4
Huddersfield Town	3	0	3	0	3
Leeds United	3	0	3	0	3
Wolverhampton Wanderers	3	0	3	0	3
Blackburn Rovers	2	1	Three	0	2
Burnley	2	0	2	0	2
Chelsea	1	1	Two	0	1
Manchester City	2	0	2	One	3
Portsmouth	2	0	2	One	3
Derby County	2	0	2	0	2
Preston North End	2	0	2	0	2
Tottenham Hotspur	2	0	2	0	2
Nottingham Forest	1	0	One	1	2
Ipswich Town	1	0	1	0	1
Sheffield United	1	0	1	0	1
West Bromwich Albion	1	0	1	0	1
Bolton Wanderers	0	0	0	1	1
Charlton Athletic	0	0	0	1	1
Crystal Palace	0	0	0	1	1
Fulham	0	0	0	1	1
Middlesbrough	0	0	0	1	1
Norwich City	0	0	0	1	1

The Play-Offs
A Football League Play-Offs come utilized as a means of determining a final promotion place from either every of the league's tierce divisions. This occurs as way of keeping a bit of excitement for clubs at a prevent of the year. A format was number one introduced within 1987; initially, this was all over ii legs between a team finishing third from either bottom within a single section against a team finishing third in the section in the image below. Around 1990, this was changed - instead of teams from different divisions swimming every more, a quaternion teams following a automatic promotion web pages would contest 2 semi-semi, played terminated deuce legs. the winners of these ties would so play both more around a one-off final (normally at Wembley) for the last promotion place. These are therein format that a play-offs prove my point now. Controversy
For all the excitement it generate, the play-off conception stimulates important arguing, due to the lottery of getting to play the ii legged semi-semi, so a 1-off final. This is especially a outbreak for the team that ends third in the table, world health organization have had invariably been several points ahead of the chasing few dozen, & typically pushing for automatic promotion, just to so lose call at the play-offs. These are all a worse for victims in the section in the image below the FA Premier League given a numbers of money exposed within gaining promotion; the Football League Championship play-off final has often been known as "the richest game of football in the world" due to the money in offer across gaining promotion. Play-Off Winners
One: Due to fiscal irregularities, Swindon were prevented from either ingesting their place in the top section, which was awarded to the losing finalists, Sunderland.