Football Leagues to be re-named

[FLiam]

Division One is to be known as The Championship as the Football League looks to raise the profile of the three tiers below the Premiership.

Divisions Two and Three will be re-named League One and League Two.

With the top flight dominating media and public attention, the League hopes the changes will boost awareness.

"The Championship is a term steeped in the history of the League. It will place a new emphasis on its status," chairman Sir Brian Mawhinny said.

The standard of football in the lower divisions has been heavily criticised in recent years.

Teams promoted from Division One have struggled to survive in the Premiership - Wolves and Leicester suffered instant relegation last season.

But Mawhinny is a firm fan of 'The Championship' and wants to build on the fact that the League enjoyed its best attendances in 40 years last term.

Definitely not in favour of the new names. They were not needed and will become confusing.

"Not only is it a gateway to the Premiership, it is one of Europe's leading league competitions, in terms of the standard of football, the stadia and the numbers of supporters attending," he insisted.

"We want our games to become ever more attractive, not only to our core audience, but also to a new generation of youngsters on the brink of discovering the game.

"We also want a commercial audience to be encouraged to re-evaluate its perception of the League."

source: bbc.co.uk/sport

One word.

Gay

[MDK]

One word.

Gay

←

A second word.

Needless

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Pointless.

It's the same league. They could call it 'Flying Space Monkeys in Football Fun', it wouldn't matter. It's the same teams, players and standard of football. Division One is not 'The Championship', it's a championship.

[stokeriño]

"And QPR have won promotion to the Championship"

"Here we come to the Championship Playoff Final between West Ham and Sunderland..."

"After just one season in the Premiership, Crystal Palace must return to being a Championship side once again."

And quite possibly the worst line ever:

"And that confirms it, with this victory Leeds are officially named as Championship champions!"

And so on.

I reiterate Gooner's sentiments.

[Guest Tommy]

Stupid.

Thats my one word answer anyway

[TMM]

To continue the one word trend:

Balls

Why? Why? Why? What in the hell is the point?

[pigeon]

How pointless. I still refer to the second flight as division two sometimes, and it will always be that in my eyes.

[fineintent]

I've always said that Watford were a championship side.

Meh, there is no need for it and the league will probally spend money relaunching - see the Royal Mail's name change - money that should be used to help sides like Watford get themselves out of financial hardship.

What next? What crazy name will they give to Division 2? Or like when division 1 became the Premiership, will Division 2 become Division 1? :blink: I need to sit down for a moment... Dizzy...

[stokeriño]

What next? What crazy name will they give to Division 2? Or like when division 1 became the Premiership, will Division 2 become Division 1?  :blink:  I need to sit down for a moment... Dizzy...

←

That's a good point about what'll happen to the 2nd/3rd divisions...who knows. It's only a matter of time before one of them is renamed "The League"...

In fact:

The Premiership

The Championship (Div 1)

The League (Div 2)

The....uh...Competition (Div 3)

The Cup (FA Cup)

The Other Cup (League Cup)

...

Edited June 10, 2004 by stokeriño

[britneyspearsisgod]

I'm not that bothered by this to be honest. It's just a name at the end of the day. It's still the essence of the Football League that shines through. Aside from a gay name like "The Championship", it's nothing too serious.

[Jook]

Fucks sake. Old people used to bug me when they said 'Division 4' for the 3rd division, and '1st Division' for the Premiership. But from now on I'm not calling the leagues anything but The Premiership, Div 1, Div 2, Div 3 and the Conference

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Fucks sake. Old people used to bug me when they said 'Division 4' for the 3rd division, and '1st Division' for the Premiership. But from now on I'm not calling the leagues anything but The Premiership, Div 1, Div 2, Div 3 and the Conference

←

Same here.

I'm going to combine a few comments already posted here, and call it a gay, needless, pointless, stupid waste of time. Just horrible, and unnessesary. Stupid.............

And they're going on about making it commercially better, and getting people to change their perceptions of the league - but last time I checked, ITS THE SAME FRIGGIN LEAGUE, WITH THE SAME FRIGGIN TEAMS!

It's like calling a pile of shit a beautiful rose - it's still a pile of shit. Not that i'm calling the lower divisions shit or anything

Plus, the name 'The Championship' will only get confused with 'The Premiership' by casual fans - I.E Parents:

Me: Sheffield United could win the Championship today!

Mum: Oh, have Arsenal slipped off form then?

Me: No, Arsenal are in a different league................

Mum: But I heard someone say Arsenal could win the Championship today

Me: They could win the Premier league Championship, we could win the Championship, the championship.......

Mum: I don't understand

Me: ARRRRGHHHHHHHHH

And so forth and so forth

Edited June 11, 2004 by timmayy

[Jam]

To the ones that asked, Divisions 2 or 3 are going to be league one and league two. Whoopie bloody doo.

To me, championship says the best. The thought of Plymouth, Crewe and Rotherham competing in a league called 'The Championship' makes me laugh

[Summers]

That's it. I'm no longer following Divis-.. the Championship.

[supergrass]

Division 2 is League 1. It was the only chance my local side Brentford had of getting promoted.

Nice to see the FA are working so hard for their money.

[Guest Tommy]

Did it ever occur to the FA or Fl that the way to increase the league's profile is to invest in talent. Its no surprise that the lower leagues are seen as abit shit by most casual fans, as well as potential investors. Surely the way to encourage money coming in is showcase what talent they do have already, there's obviously some.

having said all that maybe by changing the name, companies who know hee-haw about football will be more inclined to invest, with a snazzy name. Food for thought!

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

No matter what they call it, Division 1 will always be sub-standard to the Premiership, the transition from Division 2 to Division 1 isn't much, but Division 1 to the Premiership is massive.

In my eyes the Nationwide leagues are boring, and will be no matter what they are called. Gay name too, they might aswell be called 'The we think we're better than we are' leagues.

[sirdavinator]

I thought Division 1 would be called the Coca Cola Leauge?

[TheArsenal]

So is the Old Division One now the Old Old Division One?

And Division One the New Old Division One?

[J-Rod]

These names suck. It doesn't matter what they're called, I'm still going to call them by their true names.