UK football league WI

How could the structure of the football league in the UK be something like this with regional teams, particularly at the higher tier of the football league
Nationwide division (12 teams)
Southwest, Southeast, London East Anglia West midlands, East midlands, Yorkshire Northwest, Northeast, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (Depending on the security situation in Northern Ireland sometimes there are only 11 teams competing)
There is no promotion or relegation however the top 8 teams go into an end of season knockout cup which is quite prestigous and determines who is considered the winner of the league
Northern regional league(3 divisions consisting of 14 teams each) Contains teams based on counties from Scotland Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and the Northeast
Midlands regional league (2 divisions of 12 teams)
Contains teams based on counties from West Midlands and east Midlands
Southern League (3 divisions of 10 teams
Contains teams from the Southeast and Southwest
London and East Anglian league 4 divisions of 12 teams Contains teams representing the boroughs of London and teams based on the counties of East Anglia and includes the isle of Ely as well as Huntingdonshire.
All teams are automatic entrants to the United Kingdom regional cup and also play in other cups such as the British cup, which also includes teams from the lower leagues. Note that almost all teams within this are professional or in a few cases semi professional. Although there is promotion and relegation in within the divisions there is no promotion or relegation to the regional tier
Regional tier Contains teams representing various places in the various counties of the United Kingdom Some controversy has been caused due to Northern Ireland calling it's league the league of Ireland whilst the top tier in the Irish republic is called the same. The better teams are entrants to the British cup and there are various regional knockout competitions.
 
You would need a pre-1900 PoD.
There is no promotion or relegation
What? This is a completely alien concept to european leagues. You would have to completely change the social roots of football in Britain for a system like this to develop along american lines.

EDIT: Unless by football you are referring to Boring Rugby.
 
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I've actually been working towards a more regional football.
Reads a bit bleh to me though so....yeah. Not so exciting.
No promotion/relegation though is mad.

The sport of football has a long history. Throughout the world one can find references to traditional ball games played with the feet. It was in England however, that most of our modern ball sports originated and football is no exception.
Ever since medieval times primitive forms of football have been played in England, these games were often very different to the modern sport and involved the whole town, the rules were informal and tended to vary from town to town however they usually involved trying to move the ball to opposite ends of the town, by any means possible.
It was in public schools that rules of the game first began to be written down, these early rules varied from school to school however two broad camps existed depending on the playing facilities available to the students. Those restricted to small enclosed, hard ground areas for instance tended towards a less physical, rough and tumble game, largely dependant on kicking the ball short distances along the ground, whilst those with large playing fields available to them, such as Rugby school, did not have the same restrictions.
It was with the boom of rail transport in the 19th century and the simple, easy travel around the country that this afforded that inter-school sports began to become possible. A key problem did exist however in every school having different rules, often this was remedied by playing one half with the rules of each school. This was of course an imperfect solution at best and soon groups of schools began to agree a standard set of rules between them.
The first unified set of rules was drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848. Cambridge University, being a place where graduates of a range of public schools mixed, proved to be the perfect melting pot for creating a unified system that would be seen as widely acceptable. The Cambridge Rules to modern eyes are a strange beast, having aspects of both the modern sports of Rugby and Football. For instance in these rules catching the ball was allowed, however running with it was not. The Cambridge Rules soon spread to the public schools of southern England, creating a common sport to be played at inter-school games.
The popularity of the Cambridge Rules however remained very localised and restricted largely to public schools. Elsewhere, and amongst non-students, the rules of football remained varied.
In 1855 another universal set of football rules was drawn up by the players of Sheffield Cricket Club, to create a game to play in the off-season. At first the rules were not universal at all, being played solely internally by members of the club, nor were the rules universal, varying somewhat from season to season; the most drastic change coming in 1860 when holding the ball was outlawed (except for after a free kick).
Over time Sheffield Cricket Club gradually began to play games against outside teams, this began with a one off match against a local army regiment in 1858 however soon grew into matches against a wide array of teams, several other local cricket clubs also picking up the habit of playing the game in the off season. Additionally, in 1862 there is evidence of the game spreading beyond Yorkshire, with Manchester Cricket Club playing the game.
1862 also saw another first, with the meeting of representatives of a number of London football clubs to agree another common set of rules. These London rules were at first rather similar to the semi-rugby version of the game played in Cambridge, the rules governing running with the ball, and holding opposing players, were soon removed however, which led to several clubs leaving this new ‘Football Association’, eventually going on to found the modern game of rugby.
Throughout the 1860s the game of football picked up rapid popularity all across the United Kingdom, and beyond. The development of codified rules of football coincided with improving working conditions for the many, leading to football rapidly gaining popularity amongst the masses throughout the second half of the 19th century.
Football remained a divided game however, in the north of England the Sheffield rules predominated, whilst in the south it was the London rules which tended to hold sway. In Scotland meanwhile a once again different set of rules applied wherein handling, steadily being removed from the English game, continued to be an important aspect of Scottish football.
Over the course of the 1860s and 70, as football’s popularity spread it steadily became ever more than just a game for cricket teams to play in the off season, nonetheless there remained no formal organisation for the game with most matches being set up in an ad-hoc manner. There was however, the occasional one off local cup competitions, the first example of such being the Cromwell Cup, held between teams in Sheffield in 1867.
Throughout the 1870s a movement to finally close the small differences between the various versions of the game and produce a definitive, single set of rules to govern the entire game, had picked up pace. Many supporters of the movement were simply fond of the idea of the possibility of any team from Glasgow to Portsmouth being able to play each other without first having to agree on the rules before hand. There were others however, who supported a united rule set for the game for quite different reasons; several businessmen had taken notice of the gate receipts that could be taken from important games, such as for instance the 1875 W.H.Smith Cup (sponsored by the famous newsagent) trophy in London, which collected several hundred pounds in profit.
Following a meeting of representatives from several clubs from across England and Scotland, the United Kingdom Footballing Federation was formed in 1881 with the drawing up of a unified rule set and the creation of a Football Cup.
The Federation Cup started slowly, large entry fees and the requirement to play by a new code put off many teams, the first competition had only seven entrants, all from the south east of England, a separate Northern Cup was arranged by the teams in Northern Britain due to the failure to agree on compensation for away team travel expenses.
Despite its early teething troubles the Federation steadily grew in popularity, by the 1884 competition teams were beginning to enter from beyond the vicinity of London, a team from Blackburn winning the trophy in 1886.
As time went by fans became ever more drawn to the Federation, its rules allowed for a far faster paced, spectator friendly sport, and the presence of an annual competition pitting teams from across the country against one another proved very popular. Following the trail of money and glory the Federation Cup promised ever more teams began to play the Federation game with it being well established as the dominant form of football by the end of the century.
Not everybody accepted the Federation rules of course, a major objection being that they were drawn up unilaterally by representatives of a small group of professional, or soon to be professional, teams with little consultation of the wider footballing community.
Many teams refused to adopt the new rules and continued to play to the Sheffield, London and Scottish codes. Some of these hold outs did dabble in Federation rules, not being able to resist the lure of the Federation Cup. Over time the number of teams playing non-federation football has dwindled however even to this day competitions using ‘handly codes’ (as they are known due to their allowance of handling of the ball to varying degrees) remain popular.
The Federation Cup has proved to be quite a money spinner for its organisers. Many were however disappointed by the inconsistent revenue the cup offered. Games were limited in number, even if a team went right to the final, if they were knocked out early in the season then they would be solely reliant on friendly matches and one-off contests to try and draw in some spectators; much like today, such games were never as popular as true, competitive matches.
Taking inspiration from baseball in the United States, in 1890, the ‘All Britain Footballing League’ was formed by a group of teams from western England; teams from elsewhere were invited, but yet again failure to agree on travel costs for away teams proved the sticking point, and instead separate leagues were formed elsewhere in the country; the Tweed-Tees Challenge (1890), the All-London League (1891), the Lancashire League (1891), the Welsh League (1892), the British League (central Scotland, 1893), the Irish League (Leinster-Ulster, 1896), and, as time went by and the popularity of the league format showed itself, many others.
It was not until 1899 that several teams from across the country formed a true, all-Britain league, with the name of the National Football League. For its first seasons the league was organised into two divisions, north and south, with a play-off between the winners of the two leagues to determine an overall national champion.
 
You would need a pre-1900 PoD.
What? This is a completely alien concept to european leagues. You would have to completely change the social roots of football in Britain for a system like this to develop along american lines.

EDIT: Unless by football you are referring to Boring Rugby.
I am referring to soccer. There is some promotion and relegation, just not between the national tiers and regional tiers
 
The Home FAs would never allow the formation of an all-UK league. They would see it as the start of a slippery slope to their own abolition as independent entities.
 
I am referring to soccer. There is some promotion and relegation, just not between the national tiers and regional tiers

You need a 19th century PoD to allow that. The existance of a single league pyramid, from the elite teams at the Premier League down to pub teams who play local leagues twenty levels below is a fundamental part of english football, and has been since the first leagues were played.

A system like the one you describe exists in Scotland, where there is no regular relegation between the Third Division and regional leagues, but it is an exception in Europe, and teams can still be relegated if their performance is poor enough during several years. What you propose is similar to a franchise system like the one in the US, which would be quite difficult to achieve given the origins of the game.

The existance of an all-UK league and federation is pretty much ASB once the scottish, welsh and irish federations were well established as members of FIFA.
 
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