Big changes made to National League structure from the 2020/21 season

It has been revealed that there will be big changes made to National League structure from the 2020/21 season following a recent league meeting.

One club released a short article about the changes, which would see the North and South divisions the same number as the National League.

Bath City confirmed on Tuesday night: “At the recent League EGM on 16 January at Walsall FC, it was confirmed that all three Vanarama National League divisions will comprise 24 teams for the 2020/21 season. This means that City are guaranteed to have two extra home league matches next season whatever happens in our promotion chase. The change in the league structure will be achieved with just two teams being relegated from each of National Leagues North and South, but four champions and four play-off winners rising up from the feeder divisions.

The start date for the new season has also been revealed and it’s set to be put back further than it was for the current campaign.

Bath City added: “In further news, the league will kick off on Saturday 8th August, slightly later than this year’s 3rd August K.O. and there will be nine scheduled midweek fixtures across the season.”

The current structure sees the top team and the winner of the play-off of the Premier division promoted to League Two, while the bottom four are relegated to the North or South divisions. The champions of the North and South divisions are promoted to the Premier division, alongside the play-off winners from each division.

For this season only, as both North and South will expand to 24 teams each in 2020–21, the bottom two (instead of three) in each division will be relegated to the premier divisions of the Northern Premier League, Southern Football League Central or South, or Isthmian League.

As the table stands as of the 5th of February:
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– Barrow are top of the National League
– Harrogate Town, FC Halifax Town, Yeovil Town, Boreham Wood, Notts County and Bromley are in the National League playoff places
– AFC Fylde, Ebbsfleet United and Chorley are in the National League relegation zone, Chesterfield sit in a position where a reprieve could be likely for numerical reasons as a knock-on effect to Bury’s EFL expulsion
– King’s Lynn Town are top of the National League North
– York City, Boston United, Chester, Brackley Town, Altrincham and Gateshead are in the National League North playoff places
– Blyth Spartans and Bradford (Park Avenue) are in the relegation zone of the National League North
– Wealdstone are top of the National League South
– Slough Town, Weymouth, Havant & Waterlooville, Bath City, Dorking Wanderers, Dartford are in the National League South playoff places
– Chippenham Town and Hungerford Town are in the relegation zone of the National League South