Once upon a time, when football was young and shorts were long, there was just one English Football League. Respectable Victorian gentlemen kicked leathery balls about and were generally jolly sportsmanlike. Additional divisions were added as the professional game became more popular, sensibly numbered Two, Three and Four. And so it stayed until 1992 when football got greedy. The top division broke away from the League to form the Premiership, financially breastfed by a multimillion pound Sky TV deal. And the remaining three divisions renumbered themselves, just so that they didn't feel too inferior. At the end of that season Blackpool found themselves promoted from Division Four to Division 'Two', while Darlington were relegated from Division Three to Division 'Three'. So much for continuity.
And it's happening again. Those corporate wannabes at the Football League have decided to rebrand and restructure, tempted by oodles of sponsorship from a well-known manufacturer of waistline-enhancing fizzy beverages. The current Division One will be renamed 'The Championship' ("reclaiming this name for our leading clubs will place a new enhanced emphasis on its status at the pinnacle of our competition"). The remaining divisions become League One (was Two (was Three)) and League Two (was Three (was Four)) and all of a sudden everyone is better than they used to be. Even the runt of Wimbledon FC, plummeting headlong from former heights, still manages to be playing in League One next season. So much for justice.
The trouble with modern football is that every team demands to be top despite the fact that not every team can be. Just ask Chelsea's recently sacked manager. Anything less than first class status is now seen as an abject failure and somehow the season is an empty sham. But never mind because the new league restructure has ensured that there are now three first divisions to be top of. Next season Doncaster Rovers and Grimsby Town will be amongst the over-inflated teams competing for the League One title, and a century-old tradition will be cheapened. So much for progress. (Oh, and the other trouble with modern football is the French, but we'd better not mention them this morning...)
