Editing Promotion and relegation (section)

{{short description|Transfer of teams between divisions in a sports league system}}
{{Redirect|Relegation|text=Not to be confused with [[Regulation]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}

[[File:Luton Town FC League Performance.svg|thumb|right|250px|[[Luton Town]] have played in all fully professional divisions of the [[English football league system]] (plus the highest tier in the non-league system). Their history shows how teams can move quickly between the levels through successive promotions or relegations.]]

'''Promotion and relegation''' is used by [[sports league]]s as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a [[league system]], based on their performance over a [[Season (sports)|season]]. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called '''open leagues.'''   In a system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are ''promoted'' to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are ''relegated'' to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the [[Standings#Sport|league table]] that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the ''promotion zone'', and those at the bottom are in the ''relegation zone'' ([[colloquially]] the ''drop zone'' or ''facing the drop''). These can also involve being in zones where promotion and relegation is not automatic but subject to a playoff, such as in the [[EFL Championship]] where teams 3rd to 6th enter a playoff for promotion to the [[Premier League]], or in the [[Bundesliga]] where the 3rd lowest team plays the 3rd highest team in [[Bundesliga 2]] to decide if promotion takes place.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/aug/28/match.sport1|title= Hulse sinks limp Canaries|author= Buckley, Will|date= 27 August 2005|work= The Observer|quote=[I]t is Leeds who are in the promotion zone of the Championship.... |access-date=16 June 2012}}</ref>

An alternate system of league organization, used primarily in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States, is a [[Closed league|closed model]] based on licensing or [[Franchising|franchise]]s. This maintains the same teams from year to year, with occasional admission of [[expansion team]]s and [[Relocation of professional sports teams|relocation of existing teams]], and with no team movement between the [[major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada|major league]] and [[minor league]]s.