Promotion and Relegation changes for Season 2018/19 – Steps 2-3-4-5-6-7
FA Statement
The NLS regulations for 2018/19 outline how promotion and relegation will apply at the end of this season.
The addition of an extra league at steps 3 and 4 of the non-league pyramid means that there have been certain adjustments made to the National League Systems regulations as to how promotion and relegation matters will apply at the end of the 2018/19 campaign and these are outlined below –
Between Step 2 and Step 3
The Clubs in the bottom three places in each of the two divisions (National League North & South) at Step 2 at the end of the Regular Season will be relegated to a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate Division at Step 3 for the following playing Season.
Edit: These teams are Ashton United, FC United, Nuneaton Borough, Truro City, East Thurrock and Weston Super Mare.
They will be replaced by the Clubs finishing in 1st position in each of the four divisions at Step 3 together with a further two Clubs determined by a series of Play Off Matches.
Edit: Farsley Celtic, Dorking Wanderers, Kettering Town, Weymouth plus 2x Super Play-Off winners
In each Division at Step 3, the Play Off Matches shall be played so that the highest placed of the eligible Clubs plays against the lowest placed and the other two Clubs play each other, so it will be 2 v 5 and 3 v 4 (the “Step 3 Initial Play Off Matches”);.
The winners of each of the Step 3 Initial Play Off Matches will play each other, resulting in one winner in each of the four Step 3 divisions (the “Step 3 Divisional Play Off Winners”).
Edit: Met Police, Tonbridge Angels, Warrington Town, Kings Lynn Town
The Step 3 Divisional Play Off Winners will play a further match against each other. The ties will be decided by the Committee pairing Clubs on the most suitable geographical basis. The ties will be played on a single match basis with the home Club being the Club with the best points per match ratio in the Regular Season.
Edit: Met Police 2-3 Tonbridge Angels, Warrington Town 2-3 Kings Lynn Town
The winning Clubs will be placed in a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 2.
In short, 6 go down from Step 2 as normal, the 4 League winners go up, then Play-Offs will decide 4 more teams that will play each other to produce 2 teams to also go up.
Step 3 and Step 4
The Clubs in the bottom three places in each of the four divisions at Step 3 at the end of the Regular Season will be relegated to a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 4 for the following Playing Season.
Edit: Marine, Workington, North Ferriby, Whitehawk, Burgess Hill Town, Harlow Town, St Neots Town, Halesowen Town, Bedworth United, Basingstoke Town, Frome Town, Staines Town
They will be replaced by the Club finishing in 1st position in each of the seven divisions at Step 4 together with a further five Clubs to be determined by a series of Play Off Matches.
Edit: Atherton Collieries, Morpeth Town, Peterborough Sports, Blackfield & Langney, Hayes & Yeading, Bowers & Pitsea and Cray Wanderers. (Plus the 5 below)
In each division at Step 4, The Play Off Matches shall be played so that the highest placed of the eligible Clubs plays against the lowest placed and the other two Clubs play each other (the “Step 4 Initial Play Off Matches”).
The winners of each of the Step 4 Initial Play Off Matches will play each other and the winner of those matches shall result in seven teams eligible for promotion.
The five Clubs to be promoted shall be the five Clubs out of the seven divisional Play Off winners with the best points per match ratio in the Regular Season.
Bromsgrove Sports, Horsham, Cheshunt, Radcliffe, Yate Town,
The promoted Clubs will be placed in a feeder pool and placed in the most geographically appropriate division at Step 3.
In short, 2 Play-Off winners will not go up from step 4! (Edit: Heybridge Swifts and Brighouse Town)
At Step 5 there are 14 Leagues and only the winners will be promoted. At Step 4 the bottom two of each of the 7 Divisions will go down making a simple swap.
The bottom 2 teams from the 14 Leagues will be relegated from Step 5 and be replaced by the 19 winners of the Step 6 Leagues. The remaining 9 places will go to the best Second Placed teams in terms of Points Per Game.The final PPG table can be found on my SCEFL page here
Step 7 promotion is even more complicated due to Ground Grading requirements. Clubs must have applied by the end of 2018 and met the criteria to have a chance of going up.
52 Clubs have applied for promotion from Step 7 and are now going through Ground Grading to see if they could potentially be the club to go up from their League. They can be viewed here
The FA will release the final constitution on Friday 17th May. Only then will we have confirmed the League line-ups for next season
Download of Peter Millers PPG spreadsheet
PPG 18-19