Editing Promotion and relegation (section)

===Early football leagues in England===
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{{See also|English football league system}}
In contrast to baseball's [[NABBP]], the first governing body in English football survived the onset of professionalism, which it formally accepted in 1885. Perhaps the great geographical concentration of population{{efn|To emphasize this point, compare England with [[Texas]]. Today, England's population is twice that of Texas, with slightly less than one-fifth of Texas' land area.}} and the corresponding short distances between urban centres was crucial. Certainly it provided the opportunity for more clubs' developing large fan bases without incurring great travel costs. Professional football did not gain acceptance until after the turn of the 20th century in most of [[Southern England]]. The earliest league members travelled only through the [[English Midlands|Midlands]] and [[Northern England|North]].{{efn|The modern [[regions of England|regions]] that encompass the Midlands and North—the [[East Midlands]], [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]], [[North East England]], [[North West England]], and [[Yorkshire and the Humber]]—have a combined land area slightly larger than that of [[West Virginia]], [[Latvia]], or [[Lithuania]].}}

When The Football League (now the [[English Football League]]) was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a rival of [[The Football Association]] but rather the top competition within it. The new league was not universally accepted as England's top-calibre competition right away. To help win fans of clubs outside The Football League, its circuit was not closed; rather, a system was established in which the worst teams at the end of each season would need to win [[re-election (Football League)|re-election]] against any clubs wishing to join.

A rival league, the [[Football Alliance]], was formed in 1889. When the two merged in 1892, it was not on equal terms; rather, most of the Alliance clubs were put in the new [[Football League Second Division]], whose best teams would move up to the [[Football League First Division|First Division]] in place of its worst teams. Another merger, with the top division of the [[Southern Football League|Southern League]] in 1920, helped form the [[Football League Third Division|Third Division]] in similar fashion. Since then no new league has been formed of [[non-league]] clubs to try to achieve parity with The Football League (only to play at a lower level, like independent professional leagues in American baseball today).

For decades, teams finishing near the bottom of The Football League's lowest division(s) faced re-election rather than automatic relegation. But the principle of promotion and relegation had been firmly established, and it eventually expanded to the [[English football league system|football pyramid]] in place today. Meanwhile, The FA has remained English football's overall governing body, retaining amateur and professional clubs rather than breaking up.