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Conference to expand to twenty-four teams
Twelve of the twenty-two Conference chairmen have agreed to expand the league to include twenty-four sides from next season, report confguide.com.
The report reads:
Yesterday's Conference Chairman's meeting voted narrowly for an increase to 24 clubs for the Conference next season. The proposal was put forward by the chairman of a certain club currently battling against relegation. He claimed that it was a proposal from the Conference Management Committee, but at least one other chairman on that committee said he knew nothing about the proposal until yesterday's meeting.
It is likely that one club would now be relegated, instead of five being promoted from the feeder leagues, leaving Kettering Town as the likely relegation candidates. However, if one of the feeder league champions does not have the neccessary ground grading, most likely to be Accrington Stanley, then they will not be promoted and Kettering would be saved.
If the plan is passed, a two-up two-down system from the proposed new Conference 2 leagues would be in place, which is likely to see the champions of these leagues going up, and then play-off competitions to provide the second place.
The FA still need to ratify the proposal, along with the Conference 2 leagues, but this is expected today.