Understanding the English Football League Pyramid System

There are many different styles of play when it comes to sport all around the world. This is because every country has their own ideas about how to organise and regulate the competitive professionals who compete every year. In England, a method called the pyramid system is used for football. 

If you haven’t ever heard of this one before it might be pretty confusing to you. There are several things to understand, and we’re going to be looking at all of them here and now. 

How Does the System Work?

So how does the English football league pyramid work? Well, try and picture your average pyramid in your head. It is a shape which is larger at the bottom than it is at the top, obviously. This principle is actually what forms the fundamental cornerstone of play. 

You see, what we have here is a system where all of the competing teams start at the bottom. They’re all equal and have no points which can elevate them higher, just yet. At some point, all the teams will play. This means that each winning team will move up the pyramid, while another team will stay where they are. Then the teams that won all of their first matches will play against each other, and so on and so forth. It’s easy for people to get involved as it moves like that, right up until you reach the top of the pyramid and the final best teams battle it out from all the different leagues for one team to stand at the very top. 

Now obviously people gain points by winning matches, scoring goals and advancing up the pyramid. A straight win is obviously the best way for people to do what they need to do to advance, but all the points and merits can help to give players an indicator of which teams are at their best. You can begin to cultivate an idea of how strong a team is performing while they’re competing because they’ll have more points, a better percentage of goals and some overall stronger statistics. Think of these as being like individual guarantees of quality. 

Does This System Work? 

So a lot of people are wondering whether the system even works out. It doesn’t seem as interesting as the round robin style that is employed elsewhere, or the bracket system. In fact, it seems pretty underwhelming. However, if you stop and take a look at all of the options, you begin to understand why this is so highly recommended and easy to use in the long term. 

What we have here is a classic case of a system which has been built for the sake of ease and simplicity. It has been designed to make sure that the tournaments can still move on and gain momentum. You see, there are a lot of teams playing in this. They’ve all got a stake in the game. To have every team play off in every competition would be very time-consuming and expensive, not to mention impractical. 

Smaller Scale 

What you have to try and think about is that people are easily bored by things. You need your average season of sports in England to go on for a fixed period and then stop. Otherwise the players, the fans and the sponsors all get tired. They don’t have the stamina for a longer tournament so this season works well. 

Plus, having a smaller scale means that you can think a little bit more about quality and what it means for your tournament. There’s no more instances of people struggling to find things to fill each match with. Everything feels more natural and it’s easier for people to enjoy. You have this palpable sense of excitement because the stakes build quite quickly. People like that, and it makes it a lot easier for all to enjoy. 

Overall, understanding this system isn’t difficult when you know what you are looking for. There are a lot of different options and they have all been made to be as efficient and easy to work with as possible. What you need to do next is to try and work out what it is that you are looking for from an experience like this. What it means to you and how you’re going to ultimately create an experience which works for you. It is definitely not easy but this system has been operating efficiently for a long time now and is the default way for people to create tournaments. Understandably if you are not used to playing English football then this can be something of a challenge for you which is why it is nice to sit back and try to understand it. This is a different system but within the confines of English football it works well.