I was intrigued by Don Garber's comment a couple of weeks ago to Reuters Soccer Blog when asked about the future of the relationship between MLS and the second-tier, independent USL: "USL is going through some transition on their own. . . I am not sure what the future holds for that league or our relationship with it.

Now that the Coca Cola Championship has come to a halt (temporarily, at least, with the playoffs still to be played), us Premier League fans have three new teams to look forward to seeing next season. While only Wolves and Birmingham have locked up promotion spots for next season, within the next few weeks we'll know who out of Reading, Burnley, Sheffield United, and Preston North End will be playing top flight footbal come August.

Wembley, the venue for Monday's Championship play off final.

Well the epic survival Sunday is now over and it included tears flooding in Newcastle and Middlesbrough - not to mention Fulham qualifying for Europe and Ricky Sbragia quitting as manager of Sunderland.

We now turn our attention to the Championship final tomorrow at Wembley between Sheffield United and Burnley, contesting for that precious final place in the Premier League.

Going into the Promotion semi-final second leg, all 4 teams had a chance to advance. Empoli and Brescia played to a 1-1 draw in the first leg and had all to play for in the second. Grosseto upset Livorno 2-0 away, and they liked their chances of finishing the job at home but you couldn't count out a Livorno team with so many experienced players.

The 2009-10 English League Championship is just about to start as matches begin on Saturday Augusy 8, 2009. One of the biggest stories will be if Newcastle United can fight their way back to the Premier League. Other teams being relegated include Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion. Here's a preview of the upcoming season along with predictions (probably won't be right but who knows).

The English Championship, League One, and League Two divisions are all taking shape as they are well into their 2009-10 season. Here's a recap of all three divisions along with video highlights.

English Championship Video Recap

Its still very crowded at the top as Newcastle, West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City, and Leicester City are all within one point of each other.

One time English Premier League outfit Leicester City Football Club (also known as The Foxes) is an English professional football club based at the Walkers Stadium in the city of Leicester. On April 18 2009, Leicester City were crowned 2008-09 champions of this English Football League One and thus secured automatic promotion back to the [.

Kevin Nolan rightly beleives the number one priority for Newcastle this season has to the Championship and getting an automatic promotion not one via the playoffs it would be trying on the old nerves. A delighted Kevin Nolan after scoring Saturday And Kevin talked to the Newcastle Evening Chronicle today: "At this moment in time, although [.

It was something of a disappointment that there wasn't a big empty space in this morning's edition of the Guardian's sports section. It would have been the most fitting response to Ken Bates' decision to ban the newspaper from Elland Road as a result of reports written by David Conn about the increasingly murky issue of the ownership of Leeds United.

The English Championship is almost a third into the 2009-10 season. It remains very close at the top of the table and only four point separating the top nine teams. Newcastle United remains on top and looks the favorite to win an automatic promotion spot. West Bromwich Albion is also in the top four and another club that has to be a favorite to be promoted.

This was the first league win for the Bluebirds at West Brom since 1957. Goals by Chris Burke (18) and Peter Whittingham (85 pen) did the damage. The other talking point was the red card shown to West Brom goalkeeper/skipper Scott Carson in the second half, for a head butt on Michael Chopra.

This weekend the four teams who finished in the play-off positions in the Championship go head to head to play for the final place in the Premier League. The rewards on offer for the winner are phenomenal. Alongside the £30million+ they can expect to earn by playing in the Premier League they will also get the opportunity to face world class opposition week in, week out.

Hello and welcome to a 'special' edition of my guest blog, previewing this weekend's 1st leg play-off fixtures, and in particular looking at The Championship as four teams fight it out for that lucrative final promotion place, that will ultimately take them to the 'promise land' - The Premier League.

This evening's Championship play-off semi-final between Reading and Burnley was a battle between old and new. In the blue corner were Reading, snatched from the jaws of obscurity by John Madjeski, who dropped them into a brand new stadium and gave them the means to challenge for a place in the Premier League.

Steve Coppell resigned as manager of Reading on Tuesday night after his club's failure to reach the Coca-Cola Championship play-off final.
The Berkshire side were beaten 2-0 at the Madjeski Stadium by Burnley, 3-0 on aggregate, coming just a week after Reading failed to gain the home victory over Birmingham City that would have given them automatic promotion to the Premier League.

El show debe continuar (The show must go on)
So the season has ended has it!? Has it 'eck as like. We are committed to squeezing every last sinew out of this season here at European Football Weekends. Hence we are off to Spain this weekend in preparation for the Alicante v Hercules derby match on either June 6th or 7th.

Date: Saturday 25th April 2009 2.30pm Ground: Bracken Moor / Look Local Stadium Match: Stocksbridge Park Steels 1 Retford 0 HT: 0-0 ATT: 385
Comp: Unibond One South
Additional: Entrance £6.00 Tea/Coffee £1 Bracken Moor in pictures This was the last day of matches in the Unibond One South division.

They seemed as if they'd thrown it all away, but they pulled themselves together on the last match of the season to gain automatic promotion. Birmingham City always seem to do things the hard way and they just about squeezed over the line. The fact of the matter is that they should have never been relegated from the Premiership, but the board have continually refused to accept the blame for the Carson Yeung fiasco.

Six decades ago, this would have been one of the matches of the season. The Blackpool side of Matthews, Mortenson and Perry against the Newcastle United of Jackie Milburn was two clubs in their pomp. Two clubs which, to paraphrase one Harold MacMillan, would never have it so good again. Skip forward six decades, and they find themselves in the same division for the first time since 1970/71, but with broadly different expectations for the new season.

This game tomorrow is a must-win game for Newcastle, so the club can stay on track, following our surprise defeat at Blackpool during the week. We just have to keep up with the pace for an automatic promotion place this season. And with all the focus on building our squad, we've been very lucky so far with [.

Hughton has reminded supporters that even though we have just 2 points from 12 we are still in an automatic promotion spot. Chris Hughton still second top Chris talked about our bad spell over the last 4 games: "We are disappointed, but that is the league we are in." "It is not only us who has gone [.

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Like Marmite, the Football League Play-Offs have always divided public opinion. There are those who revel in the unmatched drama and tension that the three-game, post-season soirée, whilst its detractors point to an injustice that a side that missed out on automatic promotion by a single victory (Sheffield United) should be forced into a two-legged fixture with one who scraped into the top six thanks to a missed penalty (Preston North End).

Gillingham v Shrewsbury
It's the Gills vs the Shrews in the League Two playoff final. The winner will join the three clubs that achieved automatic promotion - Brentford, Exeter, and Wycombe - in League One next season. Shrewsbury finished the season in 7th place with 69 points, and just qualified for the playoffs, a point ahead of Dagenham and Redbridge.

Livorno ended their one year stay in Serie B on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Brescia in the promotion play-off final second leg (first leg was 2-2). The Amaranto got two goals from their two star players Francesco Tavano and Alessandro Diamanti before Martin Bergvold added a third. The promotion is a great joy for Livorno, who were expected to be a force in Serie B this season and grab an automatic promotion place.

The downward route from the Premier League is littered with the names of clubs that thought they could bounce straight back. They thought it would be easy, assuming the clubs below the Premier League to be stuffed full of wheezing pseudo-athletes and watched by philistines who don't understand the sophisticated ways of the newly-relegated.

Can it be only two weeks since West Brom's stunning 5-0 win at co-promotion favourites Middlesbrough?For since that game, which left many pundits regarding Albion as automatic promotion shoe-ins, an autumnal chill has descended on the Hawthorns, blowing away the sunny late-summer optimism.First, there was the League Cup elimination against the Wenger boys.