Except when it was called any of the following: The Canon League The Today League The Barclays League The Endsleigh League The Nationwide Football League The Coca-Cola Football League The npower Football League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Football_League#cite_note-3
They're sponsors names, The Football League remained The Football League, regardless of whoever sponsored them.
The Taffs aren't happy... Football League rebrand to EFL 'insulting' to Welsh clubs The renaming of the Football League to the English Football League (EFL) is "insulting" to Welsh clubs, says the chairman of Cardiff City Supporters' Trust. The competition will take its new title from the end of the 2015-16 season. The league's 72 members include Newport and Cardiff, whose Supporters' Trust chairman has criticised the rebranding. "It's a little bit insulting that both Welsh clubs will be classed as English," Tim Hartley said. "The rebranding will make a lot of money for companies making logos and headed paper but will do nothing for teams playing in the three divisions. What's the point? "The Football League had status, we knew what it meant - why mess with a brand that clearly works?" Cardiff City and Newport have yet to comment publicly on the decision, which was made after clubs, stakeholders, commercial partners and more than 18,000 fans were involved in a consultation process. The individual league titles of the Championship, League One and League Two - introduced in 2004 - will remain.
If that was the case then why not the following?: The Canon Football League The Today Football League The Barclays Football League The Endsleigh Football League The more they use the sponsors name the more they devalue the league.
Exactly, that's why they've called it the English Football League, it makes use of the sponsor for anything other than the individual league names completely impractical.
There wasn't a league called The Welsh Football League until 1912. Cardiff City used to play in the Southern League until 1920 and they were invited to join the Football League 2nd Division and then the rest of the Southern League clubs (including Swansea Town) formed the Football League 3rd Division. It was a natural progression to go from the Southern League to the Football League. There was no mention of the "English Football League" then. What if there was a strong league on the eastern side of England and Hull City were in it and they decided to call the league "The Lincolnshire League"? I agree it's only for historical reasons that the Welsh clubs are/have been in the league but this whole name change seems unnecessary. As OLM referred to earlier, The Open doesn't call itself The Scottish Open or The UK Open or The British Open even to differentiate itself from the three Opens in the USA.
Actually I originally said that. Lambo referred to fact that is referred to as the British Open in the USA, whilst thet refer to their Open as just the Open. The English cricket team is run by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Though it is only referred to as the ECB,something else which sounds like an energy company.
What a load of crap. The Welsh play in the English League. That's not insulting, it's a simple statement of fact. Maybe it should be like cricket, where Wales is in the official title, but never used.
I could understand if the Football League was always called something with English in the name but it seems strange to attach the "English" to the name now.
What a bugger, the Welsh don't like being in an English football league. Maybe they would rather join one in Wales, with a Welsh name. Or maybe they would rather join the Scots. They were invited in, they can always leave, if it really grates on them. It's good to establish our identity in our name, some might take it for granted, but there's always some twat who wants to rebrand you. But things will change, they already have, one minute someone thinks it makes sense and then ....
I wish we had a United Kingdom cup, where all the teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland played each other in an enourmous knockout competition.
...with no seeding - everyone goes in the hat from the 1st round. plus, every game to a finish on the day - no overtime, just 90 mins then penalties.
Exactly. Hull City will play Elgin City in the UK Cup first round. North Ferriby travel to Cliftonville while Exeter City will travel to Inverness Caledoian Thistle.