At the beginning of February 2025, the National League clubs launched a campaign for three promotion places to the English Football League (EFL). All 72 clubs have called for this change, which they see as a move to provide financial sustainability, economic resilience, and preservation of the sport’s heritage.
Before 1987, National League clubs had to be elected by League members to enter the EFL, meaning winning the league did not guarantee promotion. By the end of the 1980s, automatic promotion and relegation between the two leagues was agreed for the champions, and by 2003, a second promotion place was awarded through a playoff. We’ve seen different variations of the National League playoff over the years, but the current model sees the clubs finishing second and third automatically progress to a semi-final, while the clubs in fourth and fifth compete in qualifying round ties against the teams finishing seventh and sixth. The winners of those matches then complete the semi-finals.
However, talks of a third promotion place to the EFL have become increasingly louder over the past seasons, with the current model being seen as outdated. No team to be promoted from the National League to League Two has ever gone straight back down the following season. If anything, most have gone on to flourish at the step above. Let’s revisit some of the promoted National League teams from the past ten seasons that have gone on to bigger and better things.
Bristol Rovers
Playoff winners in 2014/15. Back-to-back promotions saw them climb to League One and have spent a total of eight seasons there since.
Lincoln City
Winners in 2016/17. They were League 2 champions within two seasons after promotion and are now a solid League One side sat in and around mid-table.
Leyton Orient
Winners in 2018/19. Topped the League Two table four years after winning the National League. They have since established themselves as part of the League One pack.
Stockport County
Winners in 2021/22. A meteoric rise for Stockport, from winning the National League North, National League and League Two in the space of five years. They are currently pursuing a top-6 finish in League 1.
Wrexham
Winners in 2022/23. While the money and attention that Hollywood brings definitely helps, back-to-back promotions is nothing to be sneered at. They’re currently chasing promotion to the Championship.
In the last 10 years, only five of the 20 promoted teams have been relegated back to the National League, meaning 75% of them are still playing in the EFL. This is where the debate comes in. The quality of the teams and the football being played in the top half of the National League is on show for everybody to see. It begins to create a bottleneck scenario at the top of the table, where there is an imbalance in the number of great teams and promotion places available. We’ve seen it in recent years, where sides with huge points tallies missed out on automatic promotion and have had to endure the challenge of the playoffs, i.e., Notts County in 2022/23, having to go through the playoffs after finishing on 107 points.
Contrary to this argument, one might suggest that having just two promotion places is beneficial to the teams that do get promoted. The competition at the top of the National League can be so intense with only one automatic place up for grabs, that it allows those promoted teams to carry that positive momentum into the EFL. Just look at Bristol Rovers, Lincoln City, Stockport County and Wrexham who made it to League One within one or two seasons.
As you might expect, EFL teams are generally against the idea of a third promotion place for the National League. If the statistics suggest that once promoted, a National League team is likely to stay in the EFL at the expense of a current league side, then why would EFL teams vote in favour of it? Turkeys voting for Christmas comes to mind. Speaking on the 72+ Podcast, Gareth Ainsworth let his views be known, saying, “Obviously we’re not going to vote for it. Who in their right mind in the EFL is going to vote for three down, three up?”.
Then there is the factor of finances. According to current regulations, League Two clubs are permitted to spend up to 50% of their revenue on player costs (i.e., wages). However, there is no official cap in the National League. Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has revealed that Wrexham and Stockport County operated at losses of £4 -5 million in their respective title-winning campaigns. “There isn’t the same degree of scrutiny in the National League as in the EFL”, Maguire said. For this vote to be passed, there has to be some common ground found on football finances and operating losses.
The National League has called on the EFL to schedule a vote on this debate at the league’s AGM in June. The timing of this campaign was deliberate, to coincide with the scheduled introduction of an independent football regulator in England. Whether or not this vote passes in the summer only time will tell, but National League CEO Mark Ives seems hopeful – “We are grateful to Rick Parry and the EFL for ‘looking down as well as up’ and hope they will now turn those words into action and support 3UP, so it passes the vote at their AGM this Summer”.
