Structure
There are 24 clubs in Football League Two. Each club plays each of the other clubs twice (once at home, once away) and is awarded three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. From these points a league table is constructed.
At the end of each season the top three teams, together with the winner of the play-offs between the teams that finished in 4th–7th position, are promoted to Football League One and are replaced by the four teams that finished bottom of that division.
Similarly the two teams that finished at the bottom of Football League Two are relegated to the Conference National and are replaced by the team that finished 1st and the team that won the 2nd–5th place play-off in that division. Technically a team can be reprieved from relegation if the team replacing them does not have a ground suitable for League football, but in practice this is a non-factor because every team currently in the Conference National has a ground that meets the League criteria (and even if they did not, a ground-sharing arrangement with another team can be made until their stadium is upgraded). The other way that a team can be spared relegation is if some other team either resigns or is expelled from the Football League.
Final League position is determined, in this order, by points obtained, goal difference, goals scored, a mini-league of the results between two or more teams ranked using the previous three criteria and finally a series of one or more play off matches.
There is a mandatory wage cap in this division that limits spending on players' wages to 60% of club turnover.
Read more about this topic: Football League Two
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“For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
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Are the blocks with which we build.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
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The great structure has become a minor house.
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The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I’m a Sunday School teacher, and I’ve always known that the structure of law is founded on the Christian ethic that you shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself—a very high and perfect standard. We all know the fallibility of man, and the contentions in society, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr and many others, don’t permit us to achieve perfection.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)