The FA have released the details of how promotion and relegation will work at the end of the forthcoming season. It's not particularly straight forward!

The full details can be found on the Southern League website but here is an attempt to detail what will happen at our level of the game.

We currently play at Step 3, and the champions of each of the four Step 3 divisions at the end of the season will be promoted to Step 2, together with two teams from the play-offs.

The play-offs will work as follows. Within each division, the team finishing 2nd will play the team finishing 5th and the team finishing 3rd will play the team finishing 4th, with the winners playing each other. All ties will be played at the ground of the team finishing highest.

However, this still leaves 4 teams (one from each of the Step 3 divisions) looking to fill 2 promotion spots. The Non League System committee will then draw the final play-off games based on the most suitable geographical basis. The two winners from those final two games will take up the two play off promotion spots.

Should any team finishing in the top five not be eligible for promotion, the next team down will take their place. However, clubs finishing lower than 7th will not be able to take part in the play-offs under any circumstances.

Relegation is far simpler - the bottom three are relegated to Step 4