The pyramid
Explore Steps 1 to 6
Seven rungs. Select one to open it; the address bar updates, so any step can be linked to directly. Use the up and down arrow keys to move between rungs, Enter to open one and Escape to close it.
Three different things happen to these seven rungs, and the difference matters more than the amounts do. The EFL above them has a share. Steps 1 and 2 have an amount. Steps 3 to 6 have neither. That distinction is set out in full under a share, an amount, and nothing.
With JavaScript disabled every step is simply open and readable down the page, which is the same information in a different shape.
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Step 1 clubs are full-time or close to it, play in front of four figures most weeks, and carry EFL-sized costs on non-league income. They are inside the National League’s £23.6m agreement, which is an amount rather than a share: a fixed sum, running to 2028, that does not move when the broadcast deal moves. The 2026 proposal from the Premier League to the EFL stops at the division above them. Nothing in it comes down here.
- Divisions
- 1
- Clubs
- 24 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Not published per club. The 72 National League clubs at Steps 1 and 2 are covered by a Premier League agreement worth £23.6m to 2028 — an amount, not a share, and no published source splits it by club. Clubs here can also apply to the Premier League Stadium Fund.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- National League
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 1 to 4, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
Clubs at this step
- Gateshead Gateshead
- Hartlepool United Hartlepool
- York City York
From our seed list of clubs, which is a sample and not the full step. Every step allocation is for 2026-27 and needs checking against The FA.
What this step needs
A share of the settlement rather than an amount that expires, and a floor under clubs that go full-time to chase promotion and then come back down.
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Part-time squads, a paid manager, a physio, a groundsman on a small retainer. A Step 2 club can be running a six-figure annual budget against a portion of the National League’s £23.6m that nobody publishes club by club, and that runs out in 2028.
- Divisions
- 2
- Clubs
- 48 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Not published per club. The 72 National League clubs at Steps 1 and 2 are covered by a Premier League agreement worth £23.6m to 2028 — an amount, not a share, and no published source splits it by club. Clubs here can also apply to the Premier League Stadium Fund.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- National League North
- National League South
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 1 to 4, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
Clubs at this step
- Darlington Darlington
- Spennymoor Town Spennymoor
- Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe
From our seed list of clubs, which is a sample and not the full step. Every step allocation is for 2026-27 and needs checking against The FA.
What this step needs
Income that outlasts 2028 and does not depend on the FA Cup run nobody can plan for.
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This is where the ground-grading rules start to bite: floodlights, covered accommodation, a stand of a certain capacity. Clubs are promoted into a division and then told what they must build to stay in it.
- Divisions
- 4
- Clubs
- 88 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Nil — neither a share nor an amount. The only Premier League money reaching this step is a grant fund clubs apply to.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- Northern Premier League Premier Division
- Southern League Premier Division Central
- Southern League Premier Division South
- Isthmian League Premier Division
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 1 to 4, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
Clubs at this step
- Whitby Town Whitby
- Farsley Celtic Leeds
- Worksop Town Worksop
From our seed list of clubs, which is a sample and not the full step. Every step allocation is for 2026-27 and needs checking against The FA.
What this step needs
Capital funding that arrives before the grading deadline rather than after the appeal.
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Volunteers, a bar, a raffle, a committee, and a directors' overdraft. A Step 4 club can be finished by a thirty thousand pound roof, and nobody above them would notice.
- Divisions
- 8
- Clubs
- 176 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Nil — neither a share nor an amount. The only Premier League money reaching this step is a grant fund clubs apply to.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- Northern Premier League Division One East
- Northern Premier League Division One Midlands
- Northern Premier League Division One West
- Southern League Division One Central
- Southern League Division One South
- Isthmian League North Division
- Isthmian League South Central Division
- Isthmian League South East Division
All eight Step 4 divisions for 2026-27.
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 1 to 4, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
Clubs at this step
- Consett Consett
- Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge
From our seed list of clubs, which is a sample and not the full step. Every step allocation is for 2026-27 and needs checking against The FA.
What this step needs
A few thousand pounds a year, guaranteed, that a treasurer can build a budget around.
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Gate money in the low hundreds. A club at this level is a group of people who between them own a mower, a kit and a lease.
- Divisions
- 16
- Clubs
- 320 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Nil — neither a share nor an amount. The only Premier League money reaching this step is a grant fund clubs apply to.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- Combined Counties League Premier Division North
- Combined Counties League Premier Division South
- Eastern Counties League Premier Division
- Essex Senior League Premier Division
- Hellenic League Premier Division
- Midland League Premier Division
- North West Counties League Premier Division
- Northern League Division One
- Northern Counties East League Premier Division
- Southern Combination League Premier Division
- Southern Counties East League Premier Division
- Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division
- United Counties League Premier Division North
- United Counties League Premier Division South
- Wessex League Premier Division
- Western League Premier Division
All sixteen Step 5 divisions for 2026-27. The Essex Senior League runs a single division.
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 5 and 6, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
What this step needs
Facilities money that does not require a development officer to apply for.
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Below this the pyramid stops being a pyramid and becomes a patchwork of county leagues. A Step 6 club is one bad winter away from folding and one good decade away from Step 2.
- Divisions
- 17
- Clubs
- 340 Counted from The FA
- Central funding per club
- Nil — neither a share nor an amount. The only Premier League money reaching this step is a grant fund clubs apply to.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Leagues at this step
- Combined Counties League Division One
- Eastern Counties League Division One
- Eastern Counties League Eastern Senior League
- Hellenic League Division One
- Midland League Division One
- North West Counties League Division One North
- North West Counties League First Division South
- Northern League Division Two
- Northern Counties East League Division One
- Southern Combination League Division One
- Southern Counties East League Division One
- Spartan South Midlands League Division One
- United Counties League Division One
- Wessex League Division One
- Western League Division One
- South West Peninsula League Premier Division East
- South West Peninsula League Premier Division West
All seventeen Step 6 divisions for 2026-27. The South West Peninsula League exists only at this step.
Source: The Football Association
National League System club allocations, Steps 5 and 6, season 2026-27. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
Under our one per cent model
Our model, not current funding and not anyone else's published figure. See the working.
What this step needs
To be inside the distribution formula rather than outside it.
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Step 7 was abolished before the 2020-21 season and these competitions became feeder leagues overseen by the county FAs. There are roughly 44 of them, beginning at level 11 and becoming more local all the way down to level 20, and a few Step 5 and 6 leagues run a lower division here as well, such as the Spartan South Midlands League's Division Two. They are not Sunday football: they have grounds, paid officials and a promotion route into the pyramid, and The FA counts clubs promoted from this level in its own allocation announcement. Recreational and Sunday football sits below them again, with no route into the pyramid at all.
Typical attendance and typical annual running cost are not shown because we have not found a published source for either at step level. We would rather leave a row out than put a number on this site we cannot defend. If you have the figures, send them to us.
Source: The Football Association
The FA releases National League System club allocations for Steps 1-6 in 2026-27 season. The Football Association, 2026-05-14.
What this step needs
To be counted at all, and to be told apart from recreational football when money is allocated.
None of these steps has a share
Two of them have an amount, fixed until 2028. Four have neither. A share moves with the broadcast deal and nobody has to agree it again, and that is the difference we are arguing for.