Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League 2 for sponsorship reasons) is the third-highest division of The Football League and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system.
Football League Two was introduced for the 2004–05 season. It was previously known as the Football League Division 3. Before the advent of the Premier League, the fourth-highest division was known as the Football League Fourth Division.
At present (2014–15 season), Accrington Stanley
hold the longest tenure in League Two, last being out of the division
in the 2005–06 season when they were promoted from the Conference
Premier.
There are 24 clubs in Football League Two. Each club plays each of
the other clubs twice (once at home, once away) and is awarded three
points for a win, one for a draw and no points for a loss. From these
points a league table is constructed.
At the end of each season the top three teams, together with the
winner of the play-offs between the teams which finished in 4th–7th
position, are promoted to Football League One and are replaced by the four teams that finished bottom of that division.
Similarly the two teams that finished at the bottom of Football League Two are relegated to the Conference Premier
and are replaced by the team that finished 1st and the team that won
the 2nd–5th place play-off in that division. Technically a team can be
reprieved from relegation if the team replacing them does not have a
ground suitable for League football, but in practice this is a
non-factor because every team currently in the Conference Premier has a
ground that meets the League criteria (and even if they did not, a
ground-sharing arrangement with another team can be made until their
stadium is upgraded). The other way that a team can be spared relegation
is if some other team either resigns or is expelled from the Football
League.
Final League position is determined, in this order, by points obtained, goal difference,
goals scored, a mini-league of the results between two or more teams
ranked using the previous three criteria and finally a series of one or
more play-off matches.
There is a mandatory wage cap in this division that limits spending on players' wages to 100% of club turnover.
The 2014–15 Football League Two (referred to as the Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship reasons) is the 11th season of the Football League Two
under its current title and the 23rd season under its current league
division format. The season is set to begin on 9 August 2014.
Twenty four clubs will participate, eighteen of which remain in
League Two having been neither promoted nor relegated at the end of the 2013–14 season. These clubs will be joined by Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United, Shrewsbury Town and Stevenage who were relegated from 2013–14 Football League One, and by Luton Town and Cambridge United who were both promoted from the 2013–14 Football Conference.
Source: http://www.football-league.co.uk/sky-bet-league-2
No comments:
Post a Comment