Relegation
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In the sports leagues — especially soccer leagues — of many countries, relegation (or demotion) means the mandated transfer of the worst team(s) (often the bottom three) of a higher league into a lower league at the end of the season. An equal number of best team(s) from the lower league enjoy the opposite procedure, promotion.
A notable exception to this system is sport in the United States, where teams are not relegated. Compared to the American method, this has the effect of regularly rearranging the leagues according to the teams' playing strength, and also prevents the games of the not-so-good teams of each league from becoming boring towards the end of the season.
One argument in favour of the North American system is that the embarassment in coming last is often enough to cause bottom teams to play hard at the end of the season. Another is that teams in lower grades often struggle financially, so relegation can potentially mean severe hardship or even bankruptcy for demoted clubs. Relegation can be a heart-wringing melodrama for the fans, but just avoiding it can also be a source of pure bliss and continuing legends, sometimes even more so than winning the title.
The following are the promotion and relegation rules for the English Premier League and Football League, to serve as an example:
- English Premier League (level 1): Bottom three teams relegated.
- Football League Championship (level 2): Top two automatically promoted; next four teams play off, with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom three relegated.
- Football League One (level 3): Top two automatically promoted; next four teams play off, with the winner gaining the third promotion spot. Bottom four relegated.
- Football League Two (level 4): Top three automatically promoted; next four teams play off, with the winner gaining the fourth promotion spot. Bottom two relegated.
- Conference National (level 5): Top team promoted, subject to stadium being of required standard; next four teams play off, with the winner gaining the second promotion spot (again with the same stadium requirement). If stadia are not of the required quality, teams from League Two are not relegated. Note that Conference National is not part of The Football League, but is instead the top level of the National League System, a comprehensive system of lower-level leagues which itself has promotion and relegation between its levels.
Recently, the United Soccer Leagues of North America (with teams from across the United States and Canada) discussed a possible relegation system, and implemented two leagues, the USL division one and two.