The National League, English football’s fifth tier, will delay all fixture kick-off times by three minutes on 15 November as part of a campaign to increase the number of promotion places in the division.
Currently, two clubs are granted promotion to the English Football League (EFL), with one place given to the league’s champions and one to the team that triumphs in the play-offs.
However, the National League, with backing from the teams in the National League North and South, is now pushing for an additional spot to be granted – something the EFL has so far resisted – and will, as a symbolic protest, push back the start times of all 12 fixtures on 15 November to 3.03pm.
National League chair Jack Pearce said the club’s “won’t accept the current circumstances blocking them from parity and fairness” and claimed a number of EFL clubs have privately supported the campaign, called 3UP, which began in February 2025.
Pearce said: “Our 72 clubs, the majority of whom are over a century old and household names, simply won’t accept the current circumstances blocking them from parity and fairness with all the other professional teams in England.
“Since launching 3UP, we have been contacted by a remarkable number of EFL clubs who are privately supportive of the change but haven’t even been given the chance as a group of clubs to formally discuss it.
“EFL chair Rick Parry stated nearly two years’ ago that the EFL ‘needs to look downwards as well as upwards’ and that 3UP is a ‘perfectly logical argument’. We remain grateful for this broad outlook, but unfortunately no meaningful action has been forthcoming from the league since then.”
Any change in the promotion and relegation structure between the National League and League Two, the EFL said, would need to be part of a broader package of reforms across all levels of the game.
The regulation change would require a majority of the 72 EFL clubs to vote in favour, plus a majority among Championship clubs.
However, reaction to the 3UP campaign appears to be largely positive among football fans. A recent poll commissioned by the Football Supporters’ Association found that 93% of fans surveyed across all divisions backed the push for an extra promotion place, with 83% of fans who follow EFL clubs supportive.
The affected fixtures on 15 November are:
Altrincham v Brackley Town
Boreham Wood v Tamworth
Braintree Town v Truro
Carlisle United v Eastleigh
Forest Green Rovers v Gateshead
Hartlepool United v Wealdstone
Rochdale v Aldershot Town
Solihull Moors v Scunthorpe United
Sutton United v FC Halifax Town
Woking v Boston United
Yeovil Town v Southend United
York City v Morecambe
