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.From now on its champions will be promoted to the Conference North division rather than the national.

The Northern Premier League was founded in 1968, decades after the other two leagues at what is now the seventh tier of the English football league system - the Dr Martens Southern League and Ryman Isthmian League.At that time it was considered to share the fifth tier,but the creation of what is now the Conference in 1979 and the Conference's addition of regional divisions in 2004 have effectively "demoted" the NPL.

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 decreases 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 East League, or North West Counties League, to be replaced by two of the champions of these leagues.

Premier Division teams 2003/2004

• Alfreton Town
• Altrincham
• Ashton United
• Barrow
• Blyth Spartans
• Bradford Park Avenue
• Burscough
• Droylsden
• Frickley Athletic
• Gainsborough Trinity
• Harrogate Town
• Hucknall Town
• Lancaster City
• Marine
• Radcliffe Borough
• Runcorn FC Halton
• Southport
• Spennymoor United
• Stalybridge Celtic
• Vauxhall Motors
• Wakefield & Emley;
• Whitby Town
• Worksop Town

This article is part of the series: Football in England
League competitions	The FA	Cup competitions
FA Premier League		FA Cup
The Football League (Ch, 1, 2)	England team	Football League Cup
National League System		FA Community Shield
Football Conference (Nat, N, S)	List of clubs	Football League Trophy
Northern Premier League (Pr, 1)		FA Trophy
Southern League (Pr, 1W, 1E)	Records	FA Vase
Isthmian League (Pr, 1, 2)		FA NLS Cup