Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League, known in recent years as the UniBond League under a title sponsorship contract, is one of the three regional English football leagues whose champions are promoted to the Football Conference, currently called the Nationwide Conference.The Northern Premier League was founded in 1968, decades after the other two leagues at the second tier of the National League System - the Dr Martens Southern League and the Ryman Isthmian League. Beginning with the 2004-05 season, all three of these leagues will move down one level in the pyramid with the introduction of Conference North and Conference South between them and the Football Conference.
The League has two divisions. The Premier Division has 23 clubs and the champions win promotion to the Football Conference. The First Division has 22 clubs and its champion exchanges places with the Premier Division's bottom side. Promotion to the First Division is possible from each of three leagues covering smaller sections of northern England, the Albany Northern League, the Northern Counties East League, and the North West Counties League (First Northwest Trains League).
With the restructuring beginning with the 2004-05 season, the Premier Division will decrease from 23 to 22 clubs. The champion of this division together with the winner of a playoff between the second to fifth place finishers will be promoted to Conference North, and the bottom four clubs will be relegated to the First Division, or to another division at the same level of the National League System pyramid. For the First Division, the champions and second place club will be promoted to the Premier Division, along with the winner of a playoff between the third to sixth place clubs. A fourth club will be promoted to the Premier Division from one of the other divisions at this level. The bottom two clubs of the First Division will be relegated to one of the three feeder leagues, the Northern League, Northern Counties League, or North West Counties League, to be replaced by two of the champions of these leagues.
Premier Division teams