Promotion Rules
Results get you into a promotion place. Your ground decides whether you take it. From Season 191 the league enforces its ground rules: a club whose stadium is too small for the division above does not go up.
Promotion places
- Premier DivisionTop tier. No promotion, bottom 4 relegated.
- ChampionshipTop 4 up to the Premier Division, bottom 4 down.
- League OneTop 4 up to the Championship, bottom 4 down.
- League TwoTop 4 up to League One, bottom 4 down to the League 3s.
- League 3 (16 regions)No direct promotion. Each champion enters the League 2 playoff: 16 clubs, a round of 16 and quarter-finals, and the 4 winners go up to League Two. Bottom 4 down.
- Regional leaguesTop 4 up, bottom 4 down, inside your region.
- Weekend LeagueBottom tier. Top 4 up, nobody goes down.
While a top division is short of clubs, extra places open up until every top division is back to 12.
The stadium you need
The requirement belongs to the division you are going INTO. It is only checked for promotion: nobody is ever relegated for a small ground.
| Going up into | Minimum seats |
|---|---|
| Premier Division | 20,000 |
| Championship | 12,000 |
| League One | 6,000 |
| League Two | 3,000 |
| League 3 and below | No requirement |
If your ground is too small
- You keep your finishing position, trophies and prize money, but you do not go up.
- Your place passes to the next placed club whose ground does meet the rule, and so on down the table if several clubs are short. Places are never taken from the relegation zone.
- If no club in the division can take a place, the division above keeps its highest placed relegated club instead, so every league stays the same size.
The League 2 playoff
Only clubs whose ground is fit for League Two (3,000 seats) enter. A champion that is short is left out and the next placed club in its division that meets the rule takes the slot.
If nobody in a division meets the rule, the slot goes to the best club elsewhere in League 3 that does, so the playoff always has 16 clubs.
When it is checked
At the end of the season, when the playoff is drawn and at the rollover. A stadium build that is already under way counts in full: it is finished before the check.
The last gameday to start a build is gameday 51. A build takes about 2 gamedays per 1,000 seats (between 3 and 20 gamedays) and one build adds at most 10,000 seats, so a big gap needs an early start.
Warnings
If you are in or close to a promotion or playoff place and your ground is short, the board writes to you at gamedays 10, 25, 40, 50 and 55, and the first time you climb into a promotion place. Your stadium page, dashboard and finances show the gap, the cost and the deadline.
If you cannot afford it
Stadium loan: the league can lend the cost of closing the gap, up to one season of your club’s income. It is repaid automatically from 25% of every home gate.
Special dispensation: the league can let one club go up this season despite a shortfall. Each request is reviewed by hand and is the exception, not the rule.
Apply from your stadium page. The league replies in your inbox.