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The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football League (EFL) and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system. Football League Two was introduced for the 2004–05 season. It was previously known as the Football League Third Division. Before the advent of the Premier League in 1992, the fourth-highest division was known as the Football League Fourth Division. As of the 2022–23 season,
Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ye ...
and Newport County hold the longest tenure in League Two, having promoted to the division in the 2012–13 season. There are currently two former Premier League clubs competing in League 2:
Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...
(1999-2001), and Swindon Town (1993-94).


Structure

There are 24 clubs in League Two. Each club plays each of the other clubs twice (once at home and once away) and is awarded three points for a win, one for a draw and no points 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 which finished in the fourth to seventh positions, are promoted to EFL League One and are replaced by the four teams that finished at the bottom of that division. Similarly, the two teams that finished at the bottom of League Two are relegated to the National League and are replaced by the team that finished first and the team that won the second through seventh 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 National League has a ground that meets the League criteria (and even if they did not, a ground-sharing arrangement with another team could be made until their stadium was upgraded). The other way that a team can be spared relegation is if another team either resigns or is expelled from the EFL. Final league position is determined, in 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 100% of club turnover.


Current members

The following 24 clubs are competing in League Two during the
2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
season.


Teams promoted from League Two


Play-off results


Relegated teams


See also

* Football League Fourth Division ( 1958–591991–92) * Football League Third Division ( 1992–932003–04) *
List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom This article features a listing of all professional sports teams based in the United Kingdom, in addition to teams from other countries that compete in professional leagues featuring teams from the United Kingdom. Football Premier League EFL ...


References and notes


External links


Football League Two official site
{{Authority control 2004 establishments in England 3 4 Eng Sports leagues established in 2004 Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom