Unibond League

The Northern Premier League, known in recent years as the UniBond League under a title sponsorship contract, is one of the regional English football leagues which sits directly below the regional conference. Due to restructuring, from 2005 onwards its champions have been promoted to the Conference North division rather than the Conference National.The Northern Premier League was founded in 1968, decades after the other two leagues at what is now the seventh tier of the English football league system - the Southern League and Ryman Isthmian League. At that time it was considered to share the fifth tier with these leagues as well as the established Northern League.Over the next two decades, the NPL successfully displaced its older rival to become the preminent regional competition in northern England, with the Northern League eventually forced to accept status as feeder league to the NPL. The creation of what is now the Conference in 1979 and the Conference's addition of regional divisions in 2004 have effectively "demoted" the NPL by two tiers.The League has two divisions. The Premier Division has 22 clubs. The champions of this division together with the winner of a playoff between the second to fifth place finishers will be promoted to Conference North. The bottom three teams are relegated to the first division, or another division at the same level in the pyramid. The First Division has 24 clubs. For the First Division, the champions will be promoted to the Premier Division, along with the winner of a playoff between the second to fifth place clubs. The bottom two clubs of the First Division will be relegated to one of the three feeder leagues. Promotion to the First Division is possible from each of these three leagues covering smaller sections of northern England, the Albany Northern League, the Northern Counties East League, and the Moore & Co. Solicitors North West Counties League.(Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Premier_League)The Northern Premier League First Division is a football league covering the north of England. From the 2004-05 season it sits at step 4 of the National League System.The champion team, together with the winners of a playoff between the 2nd to 5th places, are promoted to a step 3 league, usually the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The bottom two clubs may be relegated to one of several step 5 leagues.As of 2006-07, the league was intended to be split into the Northern Premier League First Division (North) and the Northern Premier League First Division (Midlands) This was to reflect a standardisation of the National League System, in which the Northern Premier League and the Isthmian League will have their first divisions split to reflect the situation in the Southern League. However, although the Isthmian League split went ahead, the split of the Northern Premier League has been cancelled for the time being, and may instead be implemented for the 2007-08 season. (Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Premier_League_First_D ivision)