The Northern Premier League, is one of the regional English football leagues which sits directly below the Football Conference featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs. Geographically, the league covers all of Northern England, and the northern areas of the Midlands. Originally just one division, a second division was added in 1987: Division One. This new division was split twenty years later (2007) into Division One North and Division One South.
Together with the Southern League and the Isthmian League it forms level 7–8 of the English football league system. It has various regional feeder leagues at level 9 and, due to restructuring, from 2005 onwards its champions/playoff winners have been promoted to the Conference North division rather than the Conference National as was previously the case. It is, however, also possible for these teams to be promoted to the Conference South.
Due to title sponsorship deals, the league has been billed under various names, including a sixteen year spell as the Unibond League, the longest such deal in world football. When this deal ended in 2010, a new deal was announced which will see the competition billed as the Evo-Stik League until at least the 2014-15 season.
Read more about Northern Premier League: History, Current Structure, Previous Winners
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or league:
“The northern sky rose high and black
Over the proud unfruitful sea,
East and west the ships came back
Happily or unhappily....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.