Fascinating Facts: promotion and relegation

Royce Franklin, a life member of the Association of Football Statisticians, digs up yet more fascinating facts about footballOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

PROMOTION TO the Football League from non-league football was rare until the end of season 1986/87 when the League and Conference agreed one team would be relegated automatically to be replaced by the champions of the Conference.

After the end of World War Two, either the bottom two teams in the regional third divisions or the bottom four in the newly-formed division four would have to apply for re-election to the Football League.

They would compete against non-league clubs who could apply, irrespective of their position in a lower league. It was rare for the ‘old pals’ act’ not to apply and after the Second World War only seven clubs were promoted by the ballot until the change in 1987.

They were 1951 when Workington re-placed New Brighton; 1960 Peterborough for Gateshead; 1962 Oxford for Accrington Stanley; 1970 Cambridge for Bradford Park Avenue; 1972 Hereford for Barrow; 1977 Wimbledon for Workington and 1978 Wigan for Southport.

For three seasons in the mid-1990’s because of minimum standards set for grounds, automatic promotion was abandoned.

From the beginning of the 2003/04 season, the agreement between the respective leagues allowed two teams for promotion (one after play offs) to replace the bottom two Football League teams.

On reflection, it appears teams’ feelings about ‘old pals’ act’ were well-founded because swift promotion back to the Football League has by no means been a formality.Only three teams have managed an immediate return: Lincoln City returned in 1988; Darlington 1990 and Shrewsbury 2004.

Of the current members of the Conference, Cambridge and Kidderminster are in their eighth season of membership, Wrexham sixth; Luton Town fifth; Grimsby fourth; Lincoln City third; Hereford and Macclesfield second; Barnet and Aldershot first.

Additionally, the newly-formed FC Halifax and FC Chester are now members of the Conference after their now-defunct predecessors were relegated from the Football League in 2002 and 2009 respectively.