Domestic football
English football
English football's fully professional game is built around four national divisions at the top of a much deeper pyramid, alongside two major cup competitions and a traditional season-opening curtain-raiser. The Premier League sits at the top, with the three divisions of the English Football League below it, and promotion and relegation moving clubs between them every year. At the top of the system, the Premier League is one of the world's most-watched sports leagues.
What English football is
English football's fully professional game is built around four national divisions, supported by two major cup competitions and a traditional season-opening curtain-raiser.
The four professional divisions sit at the top of a much longer pyramid that extends down through non-league, regional and amateur football. The top division is the Premier League, with 20 clubs. Below it are the three divisions of the English Football League — the Championship, League One and League Two — each with 24 clubs. These four national divisions together cover 92 professional clubs, with promotion and relegation moving clubs between them at the end of every season.
Alongside the league competitions, English football runs two major cup tournaments. The FA Cup, founded in 1871, is the oldest national cup competition in football and is open to professional clubs and many clubs from the upper levels of non-league football, subject to entry criteria. The EFL Cup is open to the 92 professional clubs in the top four divisions. The Community Shield is a one-off match, usually played shortly before the new league season, between the previous season's Premier League champions and FA Cup winners. If one club wins both competitions, the league runners-up normally take the other place.
The English football pyramid
The pyramid extends well below the four professional divisions, with promotion and relegation connecting every tier.
The Premier League is the top division. Below it are the EFL Championship at level 2, EFL League One at level 3, and EFL League Two at level 4. Each season, three clubs drop down from the Premier League into the Championship, and three clubs come up from the Championship into the Premier League. The top two in the Championship are promoted automatically; from 2026-27, the third promotion place is decided by a six-team play-off. The expected format gives third and fourth a bye to the semi-finals, with fifth to eighth starting in eliminator ties. League One and League Two also use automatic promotion and play-offs, while League Two relegates clubs into the National League at level 5.
Below the four professional divisions, the National League sits at level 5 as the highest level of non-league football. Some clubs at this level are full-time professional, while others operate with smaller budgets and different structures. Below that the pyramid branches into multiple parallel regional divisions, with the system continuing for several more levels of progressively smaller geographic coverage. In theory, a club at any level of the pyramid can climb all the way to the Premier League through successive promotions — a principle that connects English clubs to the top of the system through an unbroken chain of competitive leagues.
The four professional leagues
Each of the four professional divisions has its own format, character, and competition for promotion and survival.
The Premier League
The top division of English football, contested by 20 clubs across a 38-game season that runs from August to May. It is one of the world's most-watched football leagues and sits at the top of the English football pyramid, above the Championship, League One and League Two.
Read about the Premier LeagueThe EFL Championship
The second tier of English football, sitting directly below the Premier League. Twenty-four clubs play a 46-game season, with three clubs earning promotion to the Premier League — two automatically and one through an end-of-season play-off that culminates in what is often called the richest match in football.
Read about the EFL ChampionshipEFL League One
The third tier of English football, sitting below the Premier League and Championship and above League Two. Twenty-four clubs play a 46-game season. The top two are promoted automatically to the Championship, while the teams finishing third to sixth enter the play-offs for the final promotion place. The bottom four are relegated to League Two.
Read about EFL League OneEFL League Two
The fourth tier of English football and the lowest division of the English Football League. Twenty-four clubs play a 46-game season, with the top three promoted automatically to League One, the teams finishing fourth to seventh entering the play-offs for one further promotion place, and the bottom two dropping into the National League, the fifth tier and highest level outside the EFL.
Read about EFL League TwoThe cup competitions
English football runs two major cup competitions plus a traditional season-opening curtain-raiser.
The FA Cup
The oldest national football competition in the world, first contested in 1871-72 and held in most seasons since, except during the two World Wars. It is open to hundreds of clubs across the professional leagues and the National League System, from Premier League giants to non-league sides. The competition culminates each May with a single-match final at Wembley Stadium, one of the showpiece fixtures in the English football calendar.
Read about the FA CupThe EFL Cup
The secondary cup competition in English football, sitting alongside the FA Cup. Open to the 92 professional clubs in the top four divisions, it usually runs from August to February or March and ends with a final at Wembley. Sponsored in recent seasons as the Carabao Cup, the competition is also known as the League Cup.
Read about the EFL CupThe FA Community Shield
English football's traditional curtain-raiser for the Premier League season. It is usually played in August between the previous season's Premier League winners and FA Cup holders, or the Premier League runners-up if one club won both. The match is an official FA fixture with a trophy and medals, but clubs often treat it with some of the flexibility of a pre-season match.
Read about the Community ShieldHow clubs qualify for European competition from England
English clubs reach continental competition through Premier League finishing position and the two major cups.
The top four finishers in the Premier League normally qualify directly for the next Champions League league phase. In some seasons, a fifth Premier League place is added through UEFA's European Performance Spot system, based on how English clubs perform in Europe that season. The FA Cup winners normally qualify for the Europa League, and the EFL Cup winners normally qualify for the Conference League. If cup winners have already qualified for Europe by another route, the place normally passes to the next-highest Premier League club not already qualified for Europe.
The system gives English clubs multiple routes into European competition. A mid-table club that wins the FA Cup can reach the Europa League despite finishing well below the qualifying positions in the league. A lower Premier League club that wins the EFL Cup can reach the Conference League. The combination of league and cup paths means England usually has one of the largest national allocations in European club football.
A short history of English football competition
English football's modern structure has evolved over more than 150 years.
The FA Cup, launched in 1871, was the first national football competition anywhere in the world. The Football League, the first organised league competition, followed in 1888. Both remain central to English football, although major competitions were interrupted during wartime. The league expanded to four divisions over the following decades, and promotion and relegation between the divisions has been a feature of English football since 1898.
The major recent change came in 1992, when the 22 clubs from the old First Division broke away from the Football League to form the Premier League. The Premier League now operates as an independent competition with its own commercial and broadcast rights, while the three divisions below it are run by the English Football League (the renamed Football League). The four divisions remain connected by promotion and relegation, so a club promoted from the Championship enters the Premier League automatically the following season, and clubs relegated from the Premier League drop into the Championship.
What to read next
The Premier League is the natural starting point, with the FA Cup and the EFL divisions as alternative routes into English football.