The ‘3 Up’ Campaign: Explained

The ‘3 Up’ campaign is an initiative aimed at increasing the number of promotion spots from the National League to the English Football League (EFL) League Two from two to three.

The biggest arguments for the extra promotion spot are fairness and to preserve the integrity of the football pyramid.

In every league across the EFL, three teams go up each season and three get relegated, National League clubs want that pattern to follow between League Two and the National League.

This restriction placed on National League teams makes it significantly harder for them to break into the EFL, start to climb the divisions and fulfil any ambitions they might have.

Ambition in football requires increasing amounts of money spent, which can be like walking a tight rope for non-league clubs with the bottle neck entrance to the EFL.

The EFL offers greater revenue opportunities and an added team going up would stop some clubs from stagnating in non-league football, which could be a financial death sentence as they have to spend more and more to try and secure the solitary automatic promotion place.

The main opposition to the campaign has unsurprisingly come from relegation fighting League Two clubs who worry the larger relegation zone would increase their chances of dropping out of the football league.

The argument against that notion is of course fairness - what gives the current League Two clubs a divine right to have less chance of going down compared to every other English division.

With all 72 clubs in the National Leagues supporting this movement and sending a letter to the EFL to express the need for change, the argument for ‘3-Up’ isn’t going away any time soon.