Promotion and relegation, explained

In one lineIn a league pyramid the bottom clubs drop a division each season and the best clubs from the division below take their places, so there is something at stake at both ends of the table.

What a pyramid is

A league pyramid is a stack of divisions linked to each other. At the end of each season, the lowest-placed clubs in a division are relegated, or moved down. The highest-placed clubs in the division below are promoted, or moved up.

There are two ways to move:

• Automatic places. Finish in a set position and you go up or down.
• Play-offs. A short knockout among clubs just outside the automatic places decides one more spot.

Here is how three countries do it between their top two divisions.

Spain: Primera and Segunda

These details come from the competition rules the Spanish football federation (RFEF) publishes for the top two divisions in 2026/27.

• Primera División has 20 clubs. The clubs finishing 18th, 19th and 20th go down.
• Segunda División has 22 clubs and 42 rounds. The champion and runner-up go up automatically.
• The play-off. The clubs finishing 3rd to 6th play for the last place: 3rd against 6th and 4th against 5th, over two legs, with the lower-placed club at home first. The winners meet over two more legs. If a tie is level after both legs, 30 minutes of extra time are played. If it is still level, the club that finished higher in the regular season goes through. There is no penalty shoot-out.
• Going down from Segunda. The clubs finishing 19th to 22nd drop to Primera Federación, the third level.
• Reserve teams. A club’s reserve team cannot play in the same division as its first team. If a reserve team finishes in a promotion or play-off position, it cannot go up to Primera; the next eligible club takes the place.

Tie-breakers. When two clubs finish level on points, Spain looks first at the matches between them:

1. goal difference in the games between the two clubs (the head-to-head record);
2. overall goal difference (goals scored minus goals conceded);
3. goals scored;
4. the fair-play ranking, based on disciplinary records;
5. a deciding match at a neutral ground.

If three or more clubs are level, a mini-table is drawn up using only the matches among them, then the same steps follow.

England: Premier League and Championship

The Premier League has 20 clubs, each playing the others home and away: 380 matches a season. The bottom three are relegated to the Championship. They are replaced by the Championship’s top two and the winner of its play-offs.

The EFL introduced play-offs in 1986/87. In the format used up to 2025/26, the Championship clubs finishing 3rd to 6th played two-legged semi-finals, and the winners met in a final at Wembley Stadium in London.

In March 2026, EFL clubs voted to expand the play-offs from four clubs to six, starting in 2026/27:

• the clubs finishing 5th to 8th play one-off eliminator ties;
• the two winners face the clubs finishing 3rd and 4th in two-legged semi-finals;
• the semi-final winners meet in the final at Wembley.

That makes seven matches in all. The EFL said some details would be agreed later in 2026.

Tie-breakers. Under the Premier League’s rule C.17, clubs level on points are separated by goal difference, then goals scored, then points won in the matches between them, then away goals in those matches. If they still cannot be separated, a play-off match decides.

Germany: a play-off between divisions

In Germany, only two clubs move each way automatically. The club finishing 16th in the Bundesliga plays the club finishing third in the second division, the 2. Bundesliga, over two legs. The winner plays in the top division the next season. Germany brought this play-off back in 2008/09. If the aggregate score is level, extra time and then penalties decide it; away goals have not counted since 2021/22.

Closed leagues: MLS

North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) works differently. It has no promotion or relegation. Clubs join through expansion: the league awards a new team to an ownership group and a city. In May 2023, for example, MLS awarded its 30th team to San Diego, to start playing in 2025. In 2014 a senior MLS executive said he did not expect promotion and relegation ever to be introduced.

The money: parachute payments

Clubs relegated from the Premier League receive parachute payments. The league’s stated aim is to let clubs spend on their squads and operations, knowing there is a cushion to help them reshape their finances if they go down. Since 2016/17 the payments have been spread over as many as three years, getting smaller each year.

For how league money is shared in the first place, see TV rights, explained and Football’s spending rules, explained.

Where to go next

• How the Champions League works
• TV rights, explained