Football League test matches were a series of post-season
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
play-off
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...
matches organised by the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
, to determine the membership of each division, between the worst finishers of the
First Division and the best of the
Second Division. They were first contested at the end of the
1892–93 season, following the inaugural season of the Second Division, and were replaced with automatic
promotion and relegation
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...
from
1898–99.
Unlike the modern-day
English Football League play-offs
The English Football League (EFL) play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football leag ...
, which is only contested between the four teams below the automatic promotion places in each division, test matches involved the bottom teams of the First Division and the top teams of the Second Division going head-to-head. This meant that the Second Division champions were not guaranteed top-flight football, as was the case with
Small Heath in 1893. On no occasion has all of the Second Division and First Division sides been either respectively promoted and relegated or remained in the same division in any season through this system.
From 1893 to 1895, six teams competed for three places in the top division. Each team played one match against the corresponding team from the other division (Second Division champions versus the bottom First Division side, and so on) at a neutral venue, usually close to the designated home team. The winners of each game were considered for election for First Division membership for the following season, whilst the losers were invited to the Second Division.
From 1896 until 1898, the series was revamped with into a mini league format, with four teams competing for two First Division places. The Second Division sides played both First Division teams on a home-and-away basis. When the proceedings have concluded, the top two finishers were elected into the First Division and the bottom two were invited to the Second Division for the following season. As the 1898–99 First Division was expanded to include two more teams, the 1898 test match series was ultimately a
dead rubber as all four competing teams were elected into the top tier.
List of test matches
1893
''Newton Heath remain in the First Division, Small Heath remain in the Second Division.''
''Darwen elected to the First Division, Notts County invited to the Second Division.''
''Sheffield United elected to the First Division, Accrington invited to the Second Division.''
1894
Events January
* January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire.
* January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States.
* Ja ...
''Liverpool elected to the First Division, Newton Heath invited to the Second Division.''
''Small Heath elected to the First Division, Darwen invited to the Second Division.''
''Preston North End remain in the First Division, Notts County remain in the Second Division.''
1895
Events January
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...
''Bury elected to the First Division, Liverpool invited to the Second Division.''
''Derby County remain in the First Division, Notts County remain in the Second Division.''
''Stoke remain in the First Division, Newton Heath remain in the Second Division.''
1896
Events
January
* January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers.
* January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
* January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...
Table
1897
Events
January
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a punitive expedit ...
Table
1898
Events
January
* January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...
Table
''All teams were elected to the
1898–99 Football League First Division as the league was expanded by two teams.''
See also
*
English Football League play-offs
The English Football League (EFL) play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football leag ...
Notes
{{Cnote2 End
Further reading
* Soar, Phil & Tyler, Martin: ''Encyclopedia of British Football'', Willow Books, London. Fourth, updated and revised edition, 1984
* A. H. Fabian & Green, Geoffrey: ''Association Football'', Volume Two. The Caxton Publishing Company Ltd., London, 1960
test matches
1893 establishments in England
1898 disestablishments in England