Last week the Football League proposed making some fairly radical changes to the structure of the Football League, including transforming the current system to five leagues made up of 100 teams - instead of four made up of 92 clubs. From the 2018/19 season, teams will no longer be relegated from the Football League (and presumably no teams will therefore be promoted from non-league football) but there are currently no proposals on the table affecting promotion or relegation to and from the Championship.
The reasons for the proposals are said to be to combat "fixture congestion," among other things, and will result in many fewer mid-week league games, possibly as few as one per season in the Championship.
To come into being, the proposals need the backing of 90% of Football League clubs (65 clubs - source: BBC website) and the decision will be made by November 2017.
Rob Langham, of the well-respected football website The Two Unfortunates, has written this well-balanced assessment of the proposals here, but there are many others around, both positive and negative. For many, there are good things in the proposals, but for others there are worrying aspects, particularly in the potential for future changes, made easier by the new system. Things, for example, that have already been suggested, and largely rejected by fans, such as B Teams, which although they haven't been specifically proposed here, may be facilitated by the change to a five-league structure. The devil may, indeed, be in the detail.
A group called Against League 3 is asking fans to complete a survey on the FL proposals. If you'd like to give your views, the link is here.
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