Football League

The Football League was the first established league competition in the world for the game internationally known as Association Football or just football (known as soccer in the U.S.A).

The Football League was established in 1886 to provide a more frequent schedule of games as an addition to the Football Association's knock-out cup competition which had made provision for professional teams in 1885. The teams were predominantly from the midlands and north-west of England and the league's headquarters are in Lytham St. Annes in Lancashire. The two organisations have had love-hate relationship over their history with the Football League being concerned with a mainly working class but professional teams, while the Football Association has been concerned with all levels of the game including amateur sides and is the official codifier of the laws. The founding members of the league were:

Accrington Stanley
Aston Villa
Blackburn Rovers
Bolton Wanderers
Burnley
Derby County
Everton
Notts County
Preston North End
Stoke City
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers

In 1892 a Second Division was established and by 1898 there were eighteen teams in each division. The early 1900s saw the addition of clubs from the south of England but it was not until 1931 that the competition was first won by Arsenal. After a break for World War I the competition resumed in 1919 with 22 teams in each division and in 1920 top clubs from the Southern League joined to create a Third Division. In 1921, following an influx of teams from the north of England, there was a reorganisation with the southern teams being in the Third Division South and the northern teams being in the Third Division North. The winners of each Third Division would be promoted to the Second Division and the relegated teams would be assigned to their respective geographical region. To keep the numbers in each division constant it meant that midland teams could be reassigned to different divisions at the end of each season. Without the diversion of television, the inter-war years saw tremendous growth in attendance at club games and many ground records date from this time.

The leagues were suspended for a period of seven years during World War II \- from 1939 (with only five or six games of the season played) until 1946 when the game resumed. In 1950, both Third Divisions were expanded to 24 clubs but in 1958 the regionalisation was ended with the top half of each division forming the new Third Division and the bottom half forming the new Fourth Division.

While the F.A. Cup has been open to all clubs, the Football league instigated their own knock-out competition in 1960 as an extra source of income, despite some initial reluctance by the bigger clubs. The Football League Cup has had several sponsors during its history and has been known as the:

Milk Cup (1981–86)
Littlewoods Challenge Cup (1986–90)
Rumbelows Cup (1990–92)
Coca-Cola Cup (1992–98)
Worthington Cup (1998–03)
Carling Cup (2003 to present)

The League itself begain to accept commercial sponsors and since 1983 has been known as the following :

1983-1986 - Canon League
1986-1987 - Today League
1987-1993 - Barclays League
1993-1996 - Endsleigh League
1996-2004 - Nationwide Football League
2004-2007 - Coca-Cola Football League

Television broadcasting began to play a more important part in the game especially with the introduction of commercial satellite broadcasting which needed something to attract viewers away from the "terrestial" channels. The larger clubs began to demand a larger share of the revenue and in 1992 the twenty-two First Division clubs broke way from the Football League and to create the Premier League under the auspices of the Football Association. This left the Football League in a weak position and the lower divisions were rebranded so that the Second Division became the First Division, the Third Division became the Second Division, and the Fourth Division became the Third Division. After the failure of a broadcasting deal with the now defunct ITV Digital in 2002 the Football League suffered a financial crisis, but following a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola in 2004 divisions were again re-branded with the former First Division becoming The Championship, the Second Division becoming League One and the Third Division becoming League Two.