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League Chairmen to discuss promotion and relegation
The chairmen of Football League Clubs have their Annual General Meeting at Chester this week and one of the items on the Agenda is about the number of teams that are promoted or regulated from one division to another.
Of interest to Hereford United will be whether there is enough support for a change to the system as regards moving up from the Conference.
At present four clubs move up from Division Three to Division Two. Three move automatically, and the fourth place is via the play-offs. However only one club moves up from the Conference to Division Three automatically, the second team has to win the play-offs.
After the disappointment of being so many points in front of third placed Shrewsbury and then losing out in the play-offs, Hereford United might like to see a review of the rules.
There is little doubt that the play-offs are a money spinner and it seems highly unlikely that club chairmen will wish to see them dropped. The financial reward to the Bulls of the games against Aldershot was probably in the region of £40,000. And there is an arguement that the play-off system this season helped gates in the last couple of months as well.
For example if the top two clubs were promoted from the Conference and there were no play-offs, would attendances been as high towards the end of the season when the gap between second and third place was so great?
The quality of the football in the Third Division play-off final last Monday was little if any better than that at the top of the Conference last season. The two leagues are now very close to each other. The number of teams moving between them needs to be increased.
However there will be arguments against change. One point, in particular, will be the parachute payments for clubs that get relegated. But that cost is minimal when set against the extra revenue created by having three clubs promoted from the Conference.
It has to be hoped that Chairmen will feel that it is time to move to three up and three down, even if one of the promotion places is settled by a play-off.
Also coming up is the AGM of the Conference Chairmen. One of the issues on their agenda on Saturday is to confirm the composition of clubs in the new Conference set-up.