Introduction
A Football Conference is formed of three divisions and it represents a football league in Britain. The three divisions are Conference National, Conference North and Conference South. English football is a bit more complicated than other types, maybe because it is in their nature to thicken things. The term mentioned above is exactly like a football club, only that it has some different features.
Some of the Football Conference clubs are professional, but most of them rank as semi-professional. It is something typical for British sport and it has an important significance in its history. In 1979, the Northern Premier League and the Southern League founded the first Football Conference. This league is not specific to the entire United Kingdom, but only to England and Wales.
A short overview
The Football Conference is above the National League System (NLS). “Step 1” of the NLS is represented by the Conference National, “Step 2” by Conference North and Conference South and “Step 3” is situated below the Conference. The last “step” renders the lower leagues of English football. Premier League and The Football League stand at the highest level and only the best players are able to be part of teams that compete in these leagues. Conference National is formed of 24 clubs and the other two are formed of 22 clubs each. The clubs struggle to win as many points as possible.
They play once at home and once away, and gain 3 points when they win, 1 point when they set a draw and zero when they lose. When the season comes to an end, two clubs are promoted to Football League Two while two others are assigned to Conference National due to the fact that they did not score enough. Football League Two is among the highest division of The Football League and it is also known as Football League Third Division. Apart from these general details, there are many others concerning the Football Conference, which render the exact rules of a competition.
The Conference League Cup
If you ever heard of Bob Lord Trophy or the Spalding Cup, then you know exactly what the Conference League Cup is. The names previously mentioned were its past designations. This cup was organised by the Football Conference throughout its history. It sometimes encountered some barriers and did not take place due to lack of sponsors, but that did not represent its end. Although it has a high importance in English football, it is not ranked at a professional level. It is very popular among all football fans, but it is viewed as of secondary importance in the Football Association Challenge Trophy.
The role of the media
In 2010, Premier Sports bought the UK television rights. This implied thirty matches per season for a total of three seasons. These matches included the Conference national play-offs and the agreement made with the Football Conference stipulates that 50 % of the revenue coming from subscriptions will go to the clubs. Unfortunately, Premier Sports did not manage to gather a high rating during the 2010-11 season and that did not make the clubs happy.
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