England's third tier draws bigger crowds than any rival anywhere
No third-tier sports league on Earth pulls crowds like England's League One. In 2022–23 it averaged 10,613 fans a game, more than 5.3 million in total, putting it among Europe's ten best-attended leagues. Germany's 3. Liga, its nearest third-tier rival, averaged 8,219.
The division took its current name in 2004–05, when the old Second Division was rebranded, though a third level of the Football League goes back to 1920–21. Twenty-four clubs play each other home and away, earning three points for a win and one for a draw. If teams finish level on points, goal difference, goals scored and head-to-head results, the tiebreakers dig as deep as disciplinary records.
Movement is constant. The top two go up automatically, joined by whoever wins a play-off among the teams placed third to sixth, while the bottom four drop into League Two. Since 2004, 79 different clubs have spent at least a season here. Peterborough United and Milton Keynes Dons share the record for most seasons, 16 each, while Oldham Athletic managed the longest unbroken stay at 14. Rotherham United have bounced in and out more than anyone, with six separate spells and four promotions. Burton Albion now hold the longest current tenure, dating from 2018–19.
Big names pass through, sometimes painfully. Nine clubs that once played in the Premier League were in the division at the same time recently, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday among them. Sunderland averaged 32,157 fans a game in 2018–19 and set the single-match record that Boxing Day, when 46,039 watched them face Bradford City. Wigan Athletic have won the title three times, and Birmingham City set the points record with 111 in 2024–25.
Money is policed too. Since 2012–13 a salary cap has limited clubs to spending 60 per cent of turnover on player wages, with transfer embargoes for those who break it.
Source: EFL League One
