The Big English Shakeup

The English FA have shocked the country this morning as they've called for a big shake up to the English leagues as we know them as they look to attract 'extra interest' to the countries football. The changes would see teams swap through the leagues and could lead to a lot of unhappy players and a very busy few transfer windows.

This morning The English FA announced they are looking at revamping the English football leagues from top to bottom which could see teams such as Manchester United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal all feature in the lowest 'playable' tier of football from July 2015. In reverse of those teams, it would see the likes of Harrogate, Lowestoft, FC United of Manchester and Truro reach the top tier of English football for the first time in the clubs history, albeit by default.

Its believed English FA Chairman Greg Dyke will take these ideas forward to their next meeting at the start of June [2015] where it could be send to the football league managers for a vote. Greg [Dyke] was briefly interviewed this morning on this announcement. "Its been proposed that we look into redeveloping the English league and this would see a massive switch for plenty of clubs."

"It may take some time, we've got a couple months until the new season is set to being and can confirm everything will be in place and confirmed by the start of July."

Its believe that many teams are against the idea, especially the Premier League teams as you can imagine, however if it goes to a club vote then it could prove to lose the vote and this could provoke a big issue within the footballing world. This would heavily affect English teams participation and 'success' in Europe however it'd make for a much more fascinating league whatever happens.

This could be, er, interesting. You've got a follower as per usual, good luck lad.

Thanks Shedender, I wanted to bring a complete different idea to the board and this will do that as I cant see many others attempting this save for once" The full story won't be written this way but its nice to get the background across and open a story in a different method.


Sir Alex Ferguson has today broke silence following the English FA' planned shakeup of the English footballing leagues claiming it could go on to 'ruin English football for many years to come' as he becomes the first to speak out regarding the potential changes.

Former Manchester United legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson has announced his 'disgust' at the planned changes from the English FA as he becomes the first of potentially 'plenty' of managers and former greats set to speak their mind.

Yesterday we were first to reveal The English FA plans to shakeup the Football leagues and now Ferguson has claimed it will ruin the English league and he is disgusted of the idea, potentially ruining the English leagues. Interviewed this morning Ferguson went on to say 'I think its absolutely ridiculous, the idea has come out of nowhere and it doesn't make sense in the short term let alone the long term of the game'.

'I think its an idea quickly thrown together that will benefit the lower teams currently, it'd potentially ruin the top teams, the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.' He also added 'this is no fix to Englands poor Champions League showing, nor the poor national team showing. If anything, this could go on to completely ruin the countries chances of any potential silverware in the near future.'

this sounds good will be watching.

Thanks Ipswich Knights, as I said to Shedender, I just wanted to try something different.


Live Reporting

By Andy Cryer
All times stated are UK

10:00
Anyone got that Friday feeling? Friday 12th June 2015, the day the English league could change for the foreseeable future. The day many clubs in the top two tiers are dreading, and the day many lower clubs are looking forward to. We've also got our views on the gossip column whilst the vote goes on in Manchester.

If you want to get involved we're on twitter, use the hashtag #BBCsportsday so we can hear your views.

10:15
Remember our main story yesterday Sir Alex Fergusson speaking out, well you can re read his views by following the link in this tab. We're also expecting a live chat with Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and FC United of Manchester manager Karl Marginson.

10:30 The top headlines

Before we get going, what are the top headlines so far?

English FA Vote in Manchester: English shake up faces first vote
New Liverpool manager?: Klopp set for Kopp
Cycling: Chris Froome hopes released blood data answers doubters.

10:45
The first votes been made! After a short introduction from Greg Dyke in Manchester its believed the first of fifty votes expected this morning has been made, the box will remain open until 12 today and then they will be counted, this will be the first step towards a potential big reconstruction.We'll bring more on the story as we get it.

10:55
A few people have been using the hashtag on twitter to get in touch, heres a couple so far.


Two completely different views, I think Greg may well have split the opinion of the whole country.

11:15
Mourinho interview
We've just spoke with Jose Mourinho whos had this to say: "I think its completely ridiculous, the FA haven't thought this through, I'm hoping they'll keep their heads and vote against the idea. It would ruin a club like this, a club like Chelsea. We would lose our Champions League clubs for a long while."

"We'd lose a lot of money, a lot of players, a lot of staff."

11:30
Marginson interview
Karl Marginson, manager of FC united of Manchester, who recently won promotion to the Conference North, has also been in contact with BBC Sport this morning and this is what he had to say: "Of course I'd be backing the vote this morning, I think its a great chance for a club of our size, it'd definitely help all of us smaller clubs financially and could really make things interesting five to ten years down the line.

"Now I know exactly where the bigger clubs are coming from,they don't want to move out the top tier, move away from European football, but hopefully a shake up will go ahead."

12:00
VOTING CLOSED!
We're going live to Manchester within the next half an hour as the voting poll has just been closed. All fifty members of the English FA who were in attendance this morning have now made their vote and the votes will be counted shortly. This is only the first step to the potential English Shake Up. Should this vote go 'for' the decision, we'll be back here in a couples weeks with a club vote through the seven tiers of English football where that may well decide what happens.

Join us in half an hour, live in Manchester for the final vote results.

Could you imagine the outrage if this was to happen? Should be a very interesting story to follow... good luck Dan!

Fantastic writing so far, very jealous of your quality haha

It'd be massive Wilz121, they'd never do it thats for sure! haha

Thanks Ipswich Knights, this isn't my normal style but its good to get the back story out this way.



Friday 12th June, remember the date. The date The English FA voted to change the football leagues as we know them. Greg Dyke has revealed this afternoon that following this mornings vote its been counted at twenty seven votes to twenty three in favor of a league switch around, a narrow margin but one that will please chairman Greg Dyke.

It'll go down as a day in English footballing history, the day Greg Dyke changed the layout as we know it. The day the majority of the FA voted for a complete switch around after it was reported 27 out of 50 voted to completely swap the leagues around.

This was disappoint many managers and fans of the well known 'bigger clubs' but will offer a great opportunity for those smaller clubs currently. This is not over yet though, now the FA will take the vote to the chairman of the football clubs between the Premier League and Conference North/South where these votes will then be the final chance for managers to have their say on the situation.

Greg Dyke had this to say "I'm delighted the vote got through today, it was clinical we made it through today, this was the toughest test we would of had, I'm confident now we'll go on to pass this through the clubs and we'll be able to restructure before the new season begins."

"Its an exciting time for English football" he went on to say "we all talked about how it will affect European football for the next few years but we won the majority over and thats what counted today."

Interesting write up Good luck!

Be interesting to see how the new PL teams handle their transfer business and whether or not the big named players stay in the lower leagues.

How will you be playing this? Managing someone or just holidaying through it?

Some great updates lad keep it coming chum, thoroughly enjoying this.

Thanks Johno!

It certainly will bmg033 thats why I thought I'd take it on and do a story. I do plan as playing as a side, haven't decided which team or even which end yet.

Thanks Shedender, nice writing differently for once.



All twenty Premier League chairmen have confirmed they plan to boycott the league change vote in order to not be relegated to the bottom tier of football following the FA passing the vote of the English league shake up on Friday. Two days later and all twenty chairman plan to vote against the change as the clubs prepare to vote over the next couple of weeks.

This is the first time any sort of shake up has ever happened to these professional football leagues and one as big as England, potentially the biggest and best league in the world, the Premier League and its come as a disgrace to the top tier sides but thats not surprising. It is thought the Championship chairmen will also vote against such a change happening this season.

Friday all fifty members of the English FA voted on the changes to the leagues and a big shake up and it was announced just after midday that twenty seven of the fifty members had voted for the shake up. The twenty three who voted against saw them narrowly lose out. Greg Dyke was quoted saying how 'delighted' he was to have got the vote through the first hurdle.

However following this potential boycott from the Premier League clubs and potentially most Championship clubs it could see a big change come the vote which will happen in a couple of weeks.

The FA have announced the final say on the league structure will happen by the end of June, to allow all English teams to get prepared for the new league season. It is also expected that the FA will announce the league structures and teams in each division within the next week.

Another top update, can't wait to see who you're going to manage.

Thanks against Shedender, all will be revealed soon!


The FA are delighted to finally release the new 'potential league structures should the vote be passed when its handed to the chairmen of the football league clubs in a weeks time. There has been a lot of speculation on how the new setup would be announced and how it'd work, now all has been released. We can now give you a quick run down on all the leagues and how'd they will look should it all go ahead.

Premier League

Here is the new look Premier League and look how different it looks. Half the teams from the Conference North and Conference South have been put together and they will now form the new look Premier League.

Championship

And this is the new second tier of English football, the other half of the current Conference North and South teams as that completes the top two tiers. This league includes newly promoted Manchester side FCUM and the likes of Boston United, Margate, Oldham City. These smaller teams will know they've got every chance to hit the Premier League after just the first season, what an incentive.

League One

League one consist of Conference Premier League sides, the likes of Aldershot, Boreham Wood, Dover, FC Halifax will all be fighting for a place to reach the second tier of English football, the Championship, this certainly will be a close league table come the end, anyone can win it, anyone can go down.

League Two

Heres League two and well, theres very little changed around it, infact, correct me if I'm wrong, League two hasn't changed one bit.

Conference Premier

The Conference Premier will be made up of teams from League One, they'll be just one league outside of the known 'football league' now and this will be a key incentive for them to try and push up the table and back to where they were before.

Conference North

The Conference North are where we begin to see the real big teams now, the unhappy teams, just one league away from dropping out the playable tiers and six steps away from the top division. Should this pass we have the likes of Liverpool. Manchester City and Manchester United fighting for that top spot, along with a few more Premier League teams and some Championship sides.

Conference South

And the rest of the teams, the remainder of the Premier League teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs as well as the rest of the Championship teams, another league where if you finish in the bottom three it'll be curtains for your side.

Oh my word!!!

This is very cool!

Interesting eh Ipswich Knights?

It should be Sam!



The first of seven 'league votes has taken place and it won't come to much a shock to learn the majority of the Premier League clubs have voted against the change. You will notice the first sentence said 'the majority' not all the clubs, more on that a little later. The FA have confirmed they'll tally up all votes from each team and at the end, the option with the most votes will get the go ahead.

Following the FA passing the vote just over a week ago its now been put to the Premier League who have already claimed they'll boycott the vote. Now the chaimans have voted from the Premier League clubs and there is no big surprise in the final vote at this hurdle. This will not please Greg Dyke nor will it come to a shock as he expected this to be the tricky vote to win over.

Here is the quick rundown on each clubs vote:

AFC Bournemouth - Against

Arsenal - Against

Aston Villa - Against

Chelsea - Against

Crystal Palace - Against

Everton - Against

Leicester City - Against

Liverpool - Against

Manchester City - Against

Manchester United - Against

Newcaslte United - For

Norwich - Against

Southampton - Against

Stoke City - Against

Sunderland - Against

Swansea - Against

Tottenham - Against

Watford - Against

West Brom - Against

West Ham United - Against

So there we go, nineteen out of twenty Premier League clubs vote against the change and more surprisingly, Newcaslte chairman Mike Ashley will be making the headlines once again as he is the only chairman to vote for the change and is prepared to see his Newcastle United Football club relegated all the way down to the Conference North! We'll catch up with Mike as soon as we can.

Next up the vote will head to the football league to see the outcome from the Championship, League One and League Two.

Very lol

Newcastle United chairman Mike Ashley has caused a stir among the fans once again this afternoon as he refused to explain his decision to vote for the English shake up the FA announced which is all over the news lately. He was the only chairman of the twenty, two days ago from the Premier League who voted for the change and now he failed to explain why.

Following yesterdays vote many Newcastle fans headed to the stadium in protest asking for answers on his vote however they were left 'answer-less' as he refused to speak with the fans on his way in and out of St James Park this afternoon. The protests went on for a couple hours before the fans were moved on by the police.

BBC also tried to speak with mike [Ashley] this afternoon but again we struggled to get a concrete answer out of him as he continues to cause an upset among the fans and the club who are beginning to lose patience with the owner.

Mike Ashley said "I don't feel I need to explain myself to the fans nor the media, this was my choice and I believe I've made the right choice"

"We've always struggled in the league of recent so to give ourselves a brand new start won't be all that bad, thats all I'm saying"

Brilliant read Dan! Really nice style. Love the look of the new leagues, like the fact Mike Ashley went against everyone else ha ha

Thanks George14brfc, this layout will only be for the backing story and maybe a couple of extra post throughout the season.



Exactly a week after the Premier League voted nineteen to one against the English League shakeup the vote has now gone to the three 'Football League clubs' as the Championship, League One and League Two all had their say on the changes that could happen. This vote would be a crucial one as the seventy two clubs currently in those three leagues make their say.

With the current vote at nineteen to one against the league shake up, Greg Dyke was hoping for a more substantial turn around in this football league vote as he seeks to finally implement his change and get the ball rolling. Last week the FA announced the new league structure to really give the teams a chance to see how it'd look and where they'd be, we now have their vote results below.

Championship Against

Hull, QPR, Middlesbrough, Burnley, Cardiff, Reading, Derby, Nottingham Forest, Brighton, Blackburn, Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons, Ipswich, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Wolves, Leeds

Championship For

Bristol City, Rotherham, Preston, Brentford, Charlton, Fulham, Bolton

Championship vote ends with seventeen votes to seven against the change. This currently leaves the vote at thirty six votes against the league change up and just seven votes for the league switch around. Currently we will not see a league change, onto the next two leagues.

League One For

Coventry, Southend

League One Against

Barnsley, Blackpool, Bradford City, Burton, Bury, Chesterfield, Colchester, Crewe, Doncaster, Fleetwood, Gillingham, Millwall, Oldham, Peterborough, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, Sheffield United, Shrewsbury, Swindon, Walsall, Wigan.

League One vote sees just two clubs in favor of the league shake up whilst the other twenty two all vote against it. Backing the Premier League and majority of the Championship teams, taking the current vote to fifty eight teams against the vote and nine votes for, it seems one sided so far.

League Two For

Luton, Plymouth, Stevenage, Newport County, Crawley, York, Wycombe, Bristol Rovers, Exeter, Carlisle, Mansfield, Northampton, Hartlepool, Accrington, Barnet and Cambridge, Dag & Redbridge, Morecambe

League Two Against

AFC Wimbledon, Yeovil, Leyton Orient, Portsmouth, Oxford, Notts County

The vote from League Two, which won't change a thing for these clubs ends as you'd imagine, they'd like to see the turn around, with a vote of sixteen to eight in favor of a switch around. That now takes the vote to sixty six votes against the turn around and now twenty six votes for the league switch around.

We now just have to wait a couple more days for the Conference Premier, North and South votes to see where we go, the majority are likely to vote in favor of the change, it'll surely end up a close vote but could well see the leagues being switched around big time.

Trust Newcastle to be the only Premier League club 'for' the league shake up, they always need to awkward ffs.

Thought you may enjoy that part of it Shedender



The 'English Shakeup' is now on its final voting stage, having been passed through by the FA almost two weeks ago now the vote is in full swing. Its already been to the Premier League, where it got rejected heavily and has now passed through the football league, Championship, league One and League Two. Now its in its final stage, the Vanarama Conference with the vote currently at sixty six votes to twenty six votes against the league change.

The FA originally passed the vote by twenty seven to twenty three thirteen days ago much to the delightment of Greg Dyke, FA Chairman after he proposed the idea almost a month ago now. This will see the leagues completely switched on their head, not to the amusement of the Premier League clubs who went on to vote nineteen teams to one against the idea with only Newcastle backing the idea.

Three days ago it went to the Football leagues where eventually, after all the clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two voted and it swung even further against the idea of a switch around. This moved vote to just twenty five votes for the switch around, heavily populated by the League Two sides who won't change, to sixty four votes against the idea. Now we have the results from the three remaining leagues.

Vanarama Conference Premier For

Cheltenham, Grimsby, Tranmere, Kidderminster, Forest Green, Torquay, Woking, Gateshead, Southport, Lincoln, Braintree, FC Halifax, Eastleigh, Chester, Welling, Altrincham, Bromley, Boreham Wood

Vanarama Conference Premier Against

Wrexham, Aldershot, Macclesfield, Dover, Guiseley, Barrow

The Vanarama Conference Premier results are in and begin to mix things up a bit, what seemed a certain vote against the league structure changing is now back in balance as eighteen teams in this league voted for the change with six teams voting against switching, maybe they want to work towards their future. This moves the current total vote count to seventy votes to keep the leagues as they are and forty four teams now for the vote.

Vanarama Conference South For

Concord Rangers, Eastbourne Boro, Gosport, Bishops Stortford, Oxford City, Margate, Wealdstone, Chelmsford, Maidenhead, Bath, Whitehawk, Basingstoke, Sutton United, Maidstone, Havant & Waterlooville, Ebbsfleet, Hayes & Yeading

Vanarama Conference South Against

Hemel Hempstead, Weston-Super-Mare,St Albans, Truro, Dartford

As expected, the Vanarama Conference South were heavily in favor of the change with half of them moving to the Premier League, not a whitewash, but close. Seventeen votes in favor of switching the leagues up and five votes against it. The vote moves on and now sits at seventy five votes against the change and sixty one votes for the change.

Just sixteen votes separate the vote going into the final league vote...

Vanarama Conference North For

Alfreton, Nuneaton, Stockport, AFC Telford, FC United, Tamworth, AFC Fylde, Boston United, North Ferriby, Brackly, Corby, Solihull Moors, Gloucester, Bradford PA, Lowestoft, Stalybridge, Gainsborough, Hednesford, Worcester, Curzon Ashton

Vanarama Conference North Against

Harrogate, Chorley,

Another expected result from the Vanarama Conference North as it once again is heavily in favor for switching and seeing half the teams hit the top tier and the other half hit the Championship, is it enough though, here we saw a twenty to three vote in favor of the change, how does that make our final vote look.

Final vote count:

Against the 'English Shake Up' - 77 teams

In favor of the 'English Shake Up' - 83

Greg Dyke has this morning announced his excitement ahead of the new season now the leagues have been confirmed with the vote going his way narrowly, by just six votes. Every team from the Premier League to the newly promote sides of the Conference North and South had their say over the lat couple weeks with the vote ending eighty three to seventy seven in favor of Gregs plans.

Yesterday saw the final vote of the league structure having already had it passed by the FA with twenty seven votes to twenty three almost three weeks ago now. It then went to the Premier League, heavily losing out nineteen to one against the change and Dyke said here he was nervous whether the league vote would get the turn around he wanted.

Having then passed it through the English Leagues it began to stir up a little and become more in contest, however still heavily losing out at this stage. Following the English league votes we saw the vote standing at sixty six votes to twenty six votes, against the English shake up, however it was common knowledge the lower teams were more favorable for the change.

The Vanarama Leagues voted as we expected, heavily in favor of the change with just thirteen teams from the possible sixty eight teams voting, this swung the vote back around to see the league shake up confirmed, voting eighty three to seventy seven come the end..

Now Greg [Dyke] has explained how excited he is ahead of the change in league structure. 'This league shakeup is massive and a great opportunity for the smaller sides in the league, I'm hoping we can see the most from this experiment.'

'It'll be tough for the smaller teams at first but the financial gains these teams will receive over the years will surely make a better Premier League in a few years to come when the bigger teams bounce back to the scene.'

Hayes and Yeading chairman, Tony O'Driscoll has announced the bright future of the club following their automatic promotion to the top tier. The side were set to play in the Vanarama South again this year after finishing down in nineteenth last season however this promotion to the Premier League means they'll have a great chance of winning the inaugural prize.

Whilst Tony [O'Driscoll] voted for the vote he went on to explain how it will financially boost the club despite earning it by default, he still feels a proud man to have his side all the way up there. The odds for the Premier League were released earlier, with Hayes & Yeading favorites to take the title come the end of the season.

'The financial gains for a team like ours, and all the others being automatically promotion is massive and now the incentive will be to stay in the top tier and milk the financial gains of the division and potentially European football.' Tony went on to say 'knowing we are just a season away from potentially European football is huge, whilst the squad is more than a season away, I'm hoping we can really build over the next five years.'

'If we're still a Premier League team in five years time I see it as a huge success for us, the league and the FA. It'll implement huge financial gains for us new sides and give us a challenge when the big boys turn up in the top division in five or six years time."

How are you actually gonna play this and who with? (i mean what team)

What does the database do with the European places in the first season, do the likes of Chelsea, City etc... still play in Europe despite being in the National League North/South?

VP, I've got three options I feel, I either play as my beloved Liverpool from the bottom, play as a team in the Premier League and try to get them to safety in the Premier League even when the big teams arrive, or I play as one of each. I'm open to any ideas though so feel free to throw your opinion at me.

Gaz12321 first season the normal teams are in the European Champions League and Europa League, next season it'll all change of course.



Liverpool have been left in shock this afternoon as Jurgen Klopp, who was appointed Liverpool manager, has asked for his contract to be terminated with immediate affect following the shake up of the league. The FA saw the vote passed recently which will now see the Anfield based club searching for a new manager, in the Conference North.

Jurgen Klopp, the former Dortmund manager, came in to replace recent outgoing manager Brendan Rodgers following a long run of poor performances and the board finally giving up with their former man. They had Jurgen lined up for months and all went through last week. Now, they're back to the drawing board as he leaves with immediate affect.

A brief statement from Liverpool came moments ago 'Jurgen has left the club with immediate affect on an issue we can only confirm as mutual consent. He came to Liverpool to manage at the top and thats where we were a couple weeks ago, he's not prepared to drop down to the bottom tier of English football.'

'We accepted Jurgen' resignation when he came to us this morning, we understand where its come from and with it being in the first week or so we haven't lost anything.'

'We would like to thank Jurgen for originally agreeing to come to Anfield and apologies on behalf of the FA for the mix up. Now we'll search for another new manager to take us back to where we belong.'

Would love to see you try to keep a team in the premier league .

Ok cool as