Historic league table generator

Choose any day in Football League or Premier League history to see the league table as it stood at the end of that day's play.

Dates after the end of a season will return the end of season table for the most recently completed season.

League & table info

Enter year only for end of season table.

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League Division 2 table after close of play on 26 April 1997

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Bury 45 23 12 10 60 38 22 81
Stockport County 44 22 12 10 57 40 17 78
Luton Town 45 21 14 10 70 44 26 77
Brentford 45 20 14 11 56 42 14 74
Crewe Alexandra 45 22 6 17 55 46 9 72
Bristol City 44 20 10 14 67 49 18 70
Blackpool 45 18 15 12 59 45 14 69
Watford 45 16 19 10 44 34 10 67
Walsall 44 19 10 15 54 49 5 67
Wrexham 45 16 18 11 52 49 3 66
Burnley 45 18 11 16 67 54 13 65
Chesterfield 43 17 14 12 41 36 5 65
Gillingham 44 17 10 17 56 59 -3 61
Millwall 45 16 13 16 50 53 -3 61
AFC Bournemouth 45 15 14 16 43 45 -2 59
Preston North End 45 17 7 21 47 55 -8 58
Bristol Rovers 45 15 11 19 46 48 -2 56
Plymouth Argyle 45 12 17 16 47 58 -11 53
Wycombe Wanderers 45 14 10 21 49 56 -7 52
York City 45 13 12 20 46 67 -21 51
Shrewsbury Town 45 11 13 21 49 72 -23 46
Peterborough United 45 10 14 21 54 73 -19 44
Notts County 45 7 14 24 33 58 -25 35
Rotherham United 45 6 14 25 37 69 -32 32
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League table information

Historical variations in league table calculations, and treatment in the 11v11 league table generator.

Historic varations at a glance

Points for a win

Until 1981 English Football Association (FA) leagues awarded 2 points for a win.

Starting with the 1981-82 season, 3 points were awarded to encourage more competitive play.

Discriminating point ties

Teams tied on points are disciminated by goal difference or goal average (depending on FA rules in force at the time), then by goals scored.

Goal average

From seasons 1896-97 to 1995-96, FA leagues used goal average (GAve) to resolve point ties.

Goal "average" (actually a ratio, not an average) is the result of dividing goals for by goals against (GF/GA) to three decimal places.

Goal average and zeros

Where GF > 0 and GA = 0 then GAve = infinity (∞), which (perhaps anomalously) gives a team with 10 goals for and 1 against a worse GAve (10/1 = 10) than a team with 1 for and 0 against (1/0 = ∞).

When GF = 0 and GA > 0, mathematically the value of GF/GA is undefined.

When GF = 0 GA = 0, mathematically the value of GF/GA is indeterminate.

11v11 treatment of zeros in goal average calculations

It is unclear how the Football Leagues treated division of or by 0.

For pragmatic reasons, and in the absence of additional information, 11v11 assumes:

  • When GF = 0 and GA > 0, GAve = -GA (favours teams who have conceded fewer goals)
  • When GF = 0 and GA = 0, GAve = 1 (consistent with GF = n and GA = n)

Additionally:

  • When GF > 0 and GA = 0, GAve of ∞ is represented as 100 (cannot sort on ∞)

Goal difference

Goal difference (GD) is the difference between goals scored and conceded (GF-GA), and replaced goal average in FA leagues starting with the 1976-77 season.

When teams remain tied

For some leagues, if ties are not resolved according to the rules in place at the time, relative position is calculated by considering only those matches the tied teams played against each other, applying the same rules to resolve ties. Effectively these matches are treated as a sort of "mini-league".

Alternatively position may be assigned alphabetically by team name.

Playoffs

League playoffs were introduced for the 1987 season.

For the first 2 seasons they were played between teams in adjacent leagues, but from the 1989 season they were played within each league.

Additional information

Resolving points ties prior to 1896-97

There is some uncertainly regarding how points ties were resolved prior to the 1896-97 season. It may have been goal average, or possibly this situation had not previously arisen.

The 11v11 league table generator uses GAve + GF in the absence of any definitive information to the contrary. [if was never an issue, this not needed]

Calculating position before the league ends using goal average

Using goal average makes tie resolution almost impossible for early-season tables.

This is because teams are most likely to tie when only a few games have been played, but will not usually have played the teams they tie with at that stage in the season, making it impossible to use their mutual encounters to resovle the tie.

It is noteworthy that until SSSS league tables were not published until a few weeks into the season, presumably to avoid the problems of resolving early-season points + GAve + GF ties when so few points or goals had been scored.

Users should note these points so that they are able to interpret early- and mid-season tables appropriately.

Historic league details at a glance

League Seasons Win points Tie resolution Playoffs
Premier League 1993 on 3 GD + GF + team name
League Championship 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name LC
League One 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name L1
League Two 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name L2
League Division 1 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD1
League Division 2 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD2
League Division 3 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD3
League Division One 1889-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs One & Two
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name
League Division Two 1893-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs One & Two
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Two
League Division Three 1959-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs Two & Three
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Three
League Division Four 1959-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs Three & Four
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Four
Division Three (North) 1922-1958 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
Division Three (South) 1921-1958 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
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