Why do four teams go down from League One?

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fatboy

Active member
Jul 5, 2003
13,094
Falmer
But only three from The Premier League and The Championship?
 








Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,640
Is it to give poor old Rochdale, officially the Football League's least exciting team, a chance of actually getting out of the division?
 


Scotty Mac

New member
Jul 13, 2003
24,405
Is it to give poor old Rochdale, officially the Football League's least exciting team, a chance of actually getting out of the division?

if it is it hasnt bloody worked!

i always though it was because only one team used to go down to the conference, so in order to keep the division fresh each year they decided four should swap at the other end
 




Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,640
Welcome to Rochdale AFC: proudly occupying the Football League's bottom division since 1974.

34 years without a promotion or relegation. Do you think their fans ever wonder why they bother?
 


vulture

Banned
Jul 26, 2004
16,515
Goes back to the good days when there divison 3 south and divison 3 north when they brought in divison 4 it was agreed 4 would go down
 






jfs

Member
Jul 6, 2003
121
Brighton
I don't know if it's the reason but Leagues 1 & 2 are much closer in standard to each other than Prem to Champ, Champ to L1 or L2 to Conf. So, it makes sense that more teams move between them.
 


Jul 5, 2003
220
Would be interesting to hear a constructive answer.
The boring answer is that after the introduction of Div 4 in 1958 there were 22 Div 1 and 2 teams plus 24 Div 3 and 4 teams.

Two teams were relegated from Divs 1 and 2 with four teams relegated from Div 3 as there were two extra teams in the division.

The football league was virtually a closed shop but after 3 years of finishing bottom of Div 4 Bradford Park Avenue lost their vote for re-election in 1970 and were replaced by Cambridge Utd of the Southern League. Two years later Barrow failed to be re-elected after finishing 3rd from bottom.

It wasn't until 1973-74 that they introduced 3 promotions to the top flight.

Rochdales proud 34 year record would not exist today if the rules were the same in 1978 when they finished bottom of Div 4. They got voted back in. That was the same season as we finished 11 points ahead of the next team, Blackburn, but failed to get promoted on goal difference. There were only 2 points for a win in those days and we won 6 more games than Blackburn that year! The following season we were promoted behind 'The team of the 80's' but sadly Mr Venables side got relegated two years later :D
 


The boring answer is that after the introduction of Div 4 in 1958 there were 22 Div 1 and 2 teams plus 24 Div 3 and 4 teams.

Two teams were relegated from Divs 1 and 2 with four teams relegated from Div 3 as there were two extra teams in the division.

The football league was virtually a closed shop but after 3 years of finishing bottom of Div 4 Bradford Park Avenue lost their vote for re-election in 1970 and were replaced by Cambridge Utd of the Southern League. Two years later Barrow failed to be re-elected after finishing 3rd from bottom.

It wasn't until 1973-74 that they introduced 3 promotions to the top flight.

Rochdales proud 34 year record would not exist today if the rules were the same in 1978 when they finished bottom of Div 4. They got voted back in. That was the same season as we finished 11 points ahead of the next team, Blackburn, but failed to get promoted on goal difference. There were only 2 points for a win in those days and we won 6 more games than Blackburn that year! The following season we were promoted behind 'The team of the 80's' but sadly Mr Venables side got relegated two years later :D
Don't knock the changing of rules.

If it hadn't have been for that brief experiment of ranking teams with equal points by taking account of goals scored, rather than goal difference, who would have been relegated out of the Football League in 1997?
 














cardboard

New member
Jul 8, 2003
4,573
Mile Oak
Welcome to Rochdale AFC: proudly occupying the Football League's bottom division since 1974.

34 years without a promotion or relegation. Do you think their fans ever wonder why they bother?




Arsenal have been in the same division since 1919 - 1920. I wonder why their fans bother!!!!!
 


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