Welcome, everybody to soccer 101, the podcast in which we attempt to make sense of a football

concept that can seem straightforward, but oftentimes has a lot more to it. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and this week we're tackling the English football pyramid. Graham Ruffin, how much pyramid research have you been doing? How far back did you go? How deep does the conspiracy go when it comes to the pyramids? Yeah, so I researched ancient Egypt and the Illuminati.

I presume that's the same. We're on the same page here, right? That's what this episode is about. Now, I would normally assume you're joking, but I believe you did just take some expired cold medication before we started recording. So at this point, I don't really know if that is a joke or reality as to what you've been researching. Yeah, it was the same stuff that Joe was on a couple weeks ago,

and we all remember that Patreon episodes where Joe was there in body but not spirit.

So this should be fun.

Indeed.

So we are going to talk about the English League Pyramid.

We had a question or two about this previously,

just about how it works, the structure itself.

If a pyramid is the best

way to describe it, all that good stuff. So, Graham, from a basic standpoint, from a basic

explainer, what is the English League pyramid when it comes to football in England?

Yeah, so first of all, it feels like there's been a flare-up of chat. The pyramid, as we know,

is often related to promotion and relegation. That's really the context for that discussion.

I don't know if this is just me, but it feels like there's been a flare-up of chat about

promotion and relegation in American soccer over the last 12 months. So we're recording in October

2023. And I think it's probably related to the Messi signing and this

idea that now is the time for MLS to do everything it can to capitalise on that. And that's where

you end up talking about pyramids and promotion and relegation. And then I think the purest pyramid

in soccer is the English league pyramid. It's certainly the league pyramid

that's been in place for the longest. So there's plenty to talk about here. And the term

pyramid, it refers to the structure of the different leagues in English soccer. So the word

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