Goulongese football league system
The Goulongese football league system, also known as the Goulong football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in Goulong. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system, although in practice it would take a team at the bottom levels at least two decades of consistently finishing at or near the top of each successive league to reach the top level, and even then additional restrictions, particularly in regard to stadium facilities, would then come into effect at the highest levels that could prevent a club from being allowed access to the top levels. There are more than fifteen levels of leagues with thousands of teams in hundreds of divisions populating them.
Structure
The top flight of Goulongese football is the Goulong First League with 20 clubs. Below it sits the Division B with 22 clubs, and Division C, Division D, and Football Premier Conference with 24 clubs each. The 114 clubs in the nation's top five divisions are referred to as professional or "League" clubs, with any sides below the Conference referred to as amateur or "Non-League" clubs.
The top tier of non-League football is the GFA Amateur League A. It contains a national division (League A) of 24 clubs (Level 5), and is the lowest level with a single nationwide league. There are two divisions at Level 6, covering the north (League B North) and south (League B South), with 22 clubs each. Some of these clubs are semi-professional and the others are amateur. Below the Amateur League, some of the stronger clubs are semi-professional, but continuing down the tiers, soon all the clubs are amateur. Lower-level leagues also tend to cater for progressively smaller geographic regions.
Cup eligibility
Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions.
- GFA Cup- Levels 1-9
- Professional Cup- Levels 1-5
- National Trophy- Levels 5-11
- Amateur Shield- Levels 6-11
The system
The table below shows the current structure of the system. For each division, its official name and number of clubs is given. Each level promotes to the level above it and relegates to the level below it.
Level one in the pyramid, the top division of Goulongese football, is run by the First League (which gives its name to the competition in that division), the winners of which are regarded as the champions of Goulong. Levels two to seven are run by the GFA. Together, these five divisions make up what is known as "league football".
|
Level |
League(s)/Division(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
First League | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
2 |
Division B | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
3 |
Division C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
4 |
Division D | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
5 |
Football Premier Conference | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
6 |
GFA Amateur League A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
7 |
GFA Amateur League B North |
GFA Amateur League B South | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
8 |
GFA Amateur League C Northwest |
GFA Amateur League C Northeast |
GFA Amateur League C Southwest |
GFA Amateur League C Southeast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||