should there be promotion and relegation between the national league and the football league? or shoul it revert back to the election system they used before 1987?
Is the gap between 4th and the 5th tier as big as it was 20 years ago? It doesn't seem it. Lincoln going well, with Forest Green competing, all be it towards the bottom. Season before, Grimsby and Cheltenham survived. Bristol Rovers achieved back-to-back promotions. Luton and Cambridge are competing at the top end of the table after a few years back. I don't think it would be unfair to change it to three promoted teams, plenty of teams in the National League with the infrastructure to survive in League Two and more.
National League might as well be division 5 or League 3 now a days. Might as well standardise the 3 up, 3 down rule. I still find it out its 4 down from L1/up from L2 I'm guessing the two up from NL/down from L2 originates from the days where divisions were still split North and South
3 up 3 down between football league and the national league the sooner the better. when do u think it will happen?
because the two most common elements are hydrogen and stupidity I don't see it happening any time soon if at all! there is always someone blocking progress because of their stupidity. why are so many people so stupid!
It' ok for a Aston Villa supporter to say 3 up 3 down because you are not in the lower league but 2 up 2 down is fine in my book.
Obviously as a League Two side it increases the chance of relegation but at the same time, the current format makes life difficult for National League teams looking to get promoted. I think its something that deserves consideration.
Same again, when you are looking into this division from a higher league then it's easy to say reformat that league 3 up 3 down, when you are in this league I'm positive your view would change
Of course it would but your view is biased as you want to reduce the chances of your club being relegated. Who wouldn't? Teams in the National League will also be biased when arguing for an extra promotion spot as it improves their chances. From an impartial point of view, I don't think the difference in quality between L2 and the Conference is that big, especially not as noticable as League One to the Championship for example. Based on that, I don't think 3 up, 3 down is a daft idea.
It's not just being relegated, and yes on the pitch playing standards are not that far apart, but teams in the lower leagues need revenue and a lot of teams rely on away support to boost the coffers, the other day Notts got 13,250 against FGR and how many from FGR came? 55 yes 55 on a Saturday afternoon not mid week, we average about 7.5k but many teams in League two get below 4k and what will happen if more National league teams come in? Dover who are top get around 1200 and 75% of the National league get around that figure, it will kill League two not make it more competitive.
It's a fair argument, but when you see the likes of Fleetwood and Burton in higher leagues its hard to make too strong an argument in terms of crowds. Accrington have been surviving in League 2 for the last decade and average crowds of about 1,600, Morecambe have also survived for a similar amount of time on crowds of below 2k. Either way, its a good debate and I suppose you would have to have minimum criteria for sides entering the Football League, perhaps taking average attendances into account. I agree though, it is depressing when you play someone like Crawley or Yeovil and they have less than 100 in the away end. Think it just creates apathy in the entire ground.
Having seen it from both sides, I'm in favour of 3-up 3-down. It takes some of the fear out of relegation if it's a bit easier to get back. We'd have only been down there a year if there'd been 2 automatic places, as we finished 2nd in our first season. And in our 3rd season Fleetwood won it with 103 points, and Wrexham matched them nearly all the way and finished with 98. We limped to a 5th place finish on the last day with 81, but hammered Wrexham in the play-off semi. Wrexham are still trying to get out.... In terms of quality - there is a step up but the biggest difference is in consistency. There's always a few part-time whipping boys in non-league who may sometimes beat you on their day (we lost to a fair few of them in our 5 years ) but can always be relied upon to finish bottom half. League 2 doesn't have that.
