The English Football League Two, simply known as League Two in England and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet League Two, is the third and lowest division of the English Football League (EFL) and fourth-highest tier overall in the English football league system.
Introduced for the 2004–05 English football season as Football League Two, it is a rebrand of the former Football League Third Division,[1] which itself is a rebrand of the now-defunct Football League Fourth Division prior to the 1992 launch of the Premier League.
As of the 2024–25 season, Newport County hold the longest tenure in this division following their promotion in the 2012–13 season. There are currently two former Premier League clubs competing in this division: Bradford City (1999–2001) and Swindon Town (1993–94).
The current holders are Stockport County.
There are 24 clubs in this division. Each club plays each of the other clubs twice (once at home and once away) for a total of 46 matches per season and is awarded three points for a win, one for a draw and no points for a loss. From these points a league table is constructed.
At the end of each season the top three teams, together with the winner of the play-offs between the teams which finished in the fourth to seventh positions, are promoted to EFL League One and are replaced by the four teams that finished at the bottom of that division.
Similarly, the two teams that finished at the bottom of League Two are relegated to the National League and are replaced by the team that finished first and the team that won the second through seventh place play-off in that division. Technically a team can be reprieved from relegation if the team replacing them does not have a ground suitable for League football, but in practice this is a non-factor because every team currently in the National League has a ground that meets the League criteria (and even if they did not, a ground-sharing arrangement with another team could be made until their stadium was upgraded). The other way that a team can be spared relegation is if another team either resigns or is expelled from the EFL.
Final league position is determined, in order, by points obtained, goal difference, goals scored, a mini-league of the results between two or more teams ranked using the previous three criteria, and finally a series of one or more play-off matches.
There is a mandatory wage cap in this division that limits spending on players' wages to 55% of club turnover.
League Two is the most watched fourth-tier domestic sports league in the world, and the 14th most watched football league in Europe of any tier.[4] The total number of spectators who watched a League Two game in the 2022–23 season was 3,191,719.
Since the restructuring into League Two in 2004, the average attendance across all seasons is 4,602. The highest average attendance was 6,274 in the 2023–24 season. The highest average attendance for an individual club was achieved in the 2022–23; 17,967 for Bradford City. The lowest average attendance was 3,856 in the 2009–10 season.
Since the restructuring into League Two in 2004, 69 teams have spent at least one season in the division, including 2 of the 20 teams in the 2024–25 Premier League.
Morecambe have spent the longest in League Two; 16 seasons in total, as well as having had the longest spell in the division, 13 consecutive seasons between 2005 and 2019. Newport County have the current longest tenure, with 12 consecutive seasons.
Northampton Town and Bristol Rovers have each been promoted four times from League Two. There have been 18 different champions, with Swindon Town and Chesterfield champions on two occasions. 19 teams have been both promoted and relegated from League Two.
