Football League First Division
former division of football league in England
The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was given to what had previously been called the Second Division. After the 2003–04 season, the division was renamed the Football League Championship (now EFL Championship, with the division below it called EFL League One).
The First Division contained between 12 and 24 clubs, playing each other home and away in a double round robin. The competition was based on two points for a win from 1888 until the increase to three points for a win in the year 1981.
History
The Football League was founded in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor. It originally consisted of a single division of 12 clubs (Accrington, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke (now Stoke City), West Bromwich Albion, and Wolverhampton Wanderers), known as The Football League. When the League admitted additional members from the rival Football Alliance in 1892, it was split into two divisions.
For the next 100 years, the First Division was the top professional league in English football. In 1992, the 22 clubs making up the First Division elected to resign from the Football League and set up the Premier League.
The public source identifies “Football League First Division” as former division of football league in England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Football, League and First.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q754839. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1991, 1992 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Football League First Division” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.