The Premier League is the top level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL).
Premiership Rugby is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of twelve clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe's two main club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the second division, the RFU Championship; the winner of the Championship is promoted to the Premiership.
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has three divisions - the Premier Division - and Division One East and Division One West.
The National League System comprises the seven levels of the English football league system immediately below the level of the English Football League. It contains 84 league competitions and more than 1,600 clubs. It comes under the jurisdiction of The Football Association. The National League System has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels. For details of leagues above and below the National League System, see the English football league system.
The Southern League, currently known as the Evo-Stik League South under the terms of a sponsorship agreement with Bostik Ltd, is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South West, 'South Central' and Midlands of England and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system.
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with six teams from Wales and one from Guernsey also competing. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system, although in practice it would take a team at the bottom levels at least two decades of consistently finishing at or near the top of each successive league to reach the top level, and even then additional restrictions, particularly in regard to stadium facilities, would then come into effect at the highest levels that could prevent a club from being allowed access to the top levels. There are more than 140 individual leagues, containing more than 480 divisions.
Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country as well as the world's first club, the world's oldest professional association football club, the oldest national governing body, the first national team, the oldest national knockout competition and the oldest national league. Today England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, with six of the ten richest football clubs in the world as of 2019.
The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, taking its place immediately below the top division National League. Along with the National League South, it is at Step 2 of the National League System and the sixth overall tier of the English football league system. It consists of teams located in Northern England, Norfolk, the English Midlands, and North Wales. Since the start of the 2015–16 season, the league has been known as the National League North. As part of a sponsorship deal with Vanarama, the National League North was renamed the Vanarama National League North.
The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is at the second level of the National League System, and at the sixth tier overall of the English football league system.
The Guildford Flames are an ice hockey team based in Guildford, Surrey and they play their home games in the Guildford Spectrum. They compete in the top-tier of hockey in the United Kingdom, the Elite Ice Hockey League.
Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it describes football played at a level below that of the Premier League and the three divisions of the English Football League. The term non-League was commonly used well before 1992 when the top football clubs in England all belonged to The Football League ; all clubs who were not a part of The Football League were therefore 'non-League' clubs. The term can be confusing as the vast majority of non-league football clubs in England play in a type of league. Currently, a non-League team would be any club playing in the National League and below and therefore would not play in the EFL Cup.
The National League, currently named the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. While all of the clubs in the top four divisions of English football are professional, the National League has a mixture of professional and semi-professional clubs. The National League is the lowest division in the English football pyramid organised on a nationwide basis. Formerly the Conference National, the league was renamed the National League from the 2015–16 season.
The English Football League Championship is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the English football league system, after the Premier League.
The English Football League Two is the third and lowest division of the English Football League (EFL) and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system.
The English Premier Ice Hockey League (EPIHL) was an ice hockey league of 10 teams, all of which were based in England. Headquartered in Blackpool, the EPIHL was one of two professional ice hockey leagues in the United Kingdom. A total of 27 teams played in the league at one time or another. Swindon Wildcats were the only team to have consistently featured in the EPIHL since its inaugural season in 1997-98. In 2017, the league was disbanded, with its teams either joining the top-tier Elite Ice Hockey League or the second-tier National Ice Hockey League.
The Chelmsford Chieftains are an Ice Hockey team based in Chelmsford, Essex that are currently playing in the NIHL South Division 1. Since the team was founded in 1987, the Chieftains have played their home games at the Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre.
The Greek Basket League (GBL), often also referred to as the Greek Basketball League, Greek A1 Basketball League, or Greek Basketball Championship, and known as the betshop.gr Basket League for sponsorship reasons, is the first tier professional basketball league in Greece. It is run by HEBA, under the legal authority of the Hellenic Basketball Federation (E.O.K.). The league is also known as the Betshop.gr Basket League for sponsorship reasons.
The English Football League (EFL) is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football. It was the top-level football league in England from its foundation until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League.
National League 1,, is the third level of domestic rugby union competition in England. It was known as Courage League National Division Three when founded in 1987. This is the lowest level of the English rugby union league system which is nationwide. The league consists of sixteen teams with all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis to make a total of thirty matches each. There is one promotion place and three relegation places. The champions are promoted to the Greene King IPA Championship and the bottom three teams are relegated to either National League 2 North or National League 2 South depending on the geographical location of the team.
The Football League First Division is a former division of The Football League, now known as the English Football League. Between 1888 and 1992 it was the top-level division in the English football league system. Following the creation of the FA Premier League it was a second-level division. In 2004 it was rebranded as the Football League Championship, and in 2016 adopted its current name of EFL Championship.
