South Shields celebrated promotion from Northern Premier League Division One North last night, then this morning the league have issued this statement.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Ups & Downs
Collapse
X
-
- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
Basically, it's not in the NPL's gift to confirm the promotions and playoffs yet until the two parallel regional leagues (Southern and Isthmian) have also finished and the FA has confirmed that everything is in order. This is because of the restructuring.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Kevin S View PostBasically, it's not in the NPL's gift to confirm the promotions and playoffs yet until the two parallel regional leagues (Southern and Isthmian) have also finished and the FA has confirmed that everything is in order. This is because of the restructuring.
Comment
-
- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
Heh, cheers. Meanwhile AFC Hornchurch have won the Isthmian North and, relatedly, the Isthmian league has used the phrase 'promotion party' around the South division's Carshalton Athletic, unlike the hedgey NPL.
(I guess this is because the Isthmian is going to be in charge of the new step 4 division so can be a bit more certain about things?)Last edited by Kevin S; 18-04-2018, 12:46.
Comment
-
Suspect that's because Carshalton are sure to finish in the top two, which Shields aren't quite, yet. Top two= definite promotion, whereas it's not 100% guaranteed that best third place at step 4 will be promoted. It's more pertinent to the playoff chasing clubs, who don't at this point know if 7th place will be enough.
Comment
-
Originally posted by ad hoc View PostI don't even understand it. (And not just because of the ridiculous overuse of capital letters)Last edited by Ray de Galles; 18-04-2018, 14:01.
Comment
-
- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
At the risk of flogging a dead horse or teaching a grandmother to suck eggs, you know there are three regional leagues that sit in parallel below the National League. They roughly cover the regions like this:
Each of the three regional leagues have one top division, and each also has two parallel divisions below those (with the Isthmian and the NPL splitting their second tiers into North and South, while the Southern League splits East and West).
As of next season, the three leagues will still exist but there will be an extra (fourth) division at the top regional level. The Southern League will be in charge of it.
To create this division, there will be a shitload of promotions (21) from the six second-tier regional divisions and only three relegations. Hence the top two of the Southern West, Southern East, NPL North, NPL South, Isthmian North and Isthmian South are all going up (12 teams). Then three of the third placed teams will go up (3 teams) and all of the divisions will have a playoff for another team to go up (6 teams). So that's how we get to four regional top-level divisions.
But added to that there is the fun of going from the current six regional second-level divisions to seven. The extra second-level division is going to be run by the Isthmian League and they should look something like this:
Now at this point, I don't think I've seen where the extra teams are coming from or whether these divisions are just supposed to be smaller than now. I presume there will be some extra promotions from the local leagues. (Edit - some non-league blogs seem to suggest extra promotions from the local leagues, so quite likely that both Coggeshall Town and Felixtowe & Walton United will go up from the Eastern Counties League to the green Isthmian division.)Last edited by Kevin S; 18-04-2018, 13:51.
Comment
-
Then three of the third placed teams will go up (3 teams) and all of the divisions will have a playoff for another team to go up (6 teams)
Comment
-
Doing that either removes the normal play-off situation where teams finishing 6th/7th still have a chance of a backdoor promotion, or it creates a huge combined play-off featuring 24 clubs going for three places. Also having cross-divisional play-offs (as this would neccesitate) increases traveling.
Comment
-
- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
Well the teams in 6-7 don't normally get in these playoffs anyway, this is an unusual situation. I think SD's idea is sound. Have 4th v 5th in each division at 4th's home ground, then the winners of the NPL North match play the winners of the NPL South match (same in Southern and Isthmian). It would be fairly easy to find a neutral ground for these that wouldn't involve much traveling but even if not, the distance would be the same as the typical distances in the division they are being promoted to anyway.
Comment
-
- Oct 2011
- 26984
- Cambridgeshire
- Ipswich (convert)
- Those chocolate-coated ring-shaped ones you get at Christmas
I assume the boundaries won't be hard and fast to create the new divisions and I guess we will have a situation where teams around the King's Lynn - Peterborough area (ie around where yellow, green and grey all meet in the third map) could go in any of the three regional leagues.
Comment
-
Peterborough Sports have been saying for months that they're expecting this to be their only season in the NPL. For their sake I hope that it is - the league is going over to West / East divisions at step 4 and Sports would potentially be in the same division as Morpeth Town. That's a round trip of some 420 miles!
Comment
-
Originally posted by Kevin S View PostTo create this division, there will be a shitload of promotions (21) from the six second-tier regional divisions and only three relegations. Hence the top two of the Southern West, Southern East, NPL North, NPL South, Isthmian North and Isthmian South are all going up (12 teams). Then three of the third placed teams will go up (3 teams) and all of the divisions will have a playoff for another team to go up (6 teams). So that's how we get to four regional top-level divisions.
Three teams are relegated from Step 3 to Step 4 (making 16 additional Step 3 sides).
I assume a couple of teams will be moved from the Southern and Isthmian premier leagues to the new division bringing the total up to 20 and bringing the rest down to 22.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Kevin S View PostI assume the boundaries won't be hard and fast to create the new divisions and I guess we will have a situation where teams around the King's Lynn - Peterborough area (ie around where yellow, green and grey all meet in the third map) could go in any of the three regional leagues.
Comment
-
Hackney Wick relegated from the Essex Senior League after one season following their merger/absorption of London Bari. I wonder if that will affect their plans to move to move to the ground within the warm up track for the Olympic Stadium?
Edit : apparently not, they say they’ll still be moving there even after the drop.Last edited by Ray de Galles; 20-04-2018, 09:24.
Comment
-
Stade de Reims assured themselves of promotion to Ligue 1 with an a win over AC AjaccioLast edited by ursus arctos; 20-04-2018, 20:16.
Comment
Comment