Puget football league system

The Puget football league system, also known as the Pugetine pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for association football clubs in Puget. The system has a hierarchal format with promotion and regulation between the leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. There are five levels with six leagues. The exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues or fold altogether, but an estimated average of 26 per league implies that more than 156 clubs are members of a league in the system. There is a system for women's leagues and it contains 26 clubs in two leagues over two levels.

About the system
The system consists of a hierarchy of leagues, bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation. Clubs that are successful in their league can rise higher in the pyramid, whilst those that finish at the bottom can find themselves sinking further down. In theory it is possible for an amateur club to rise to the pinnacle of the system and become champions of the Puget Premier League. While this may be unlikely in practice (at the very least, in the short run), there certainly is significant movement within the pyramid. The number of teams promoted between leagues or divisions varies, and promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances.

Structure
At the top is the single division of the Puget Premier League (which is sometimes referred to as Level 1 of the league 'pyramid'), containing 20 clubs. Below the Puget Premier League is the PFA Championship (Level 2), which is divided into two conferences of twelve clubs each. The PFA Island League (Level 3) contains ten clubs based in the Puget Islands region only. At level 4, the PFA Premier Development League is divided into four conferences of ten clubs each. The PFA Coastal League and PFA Interior League (Level 5) run in parallel to each other and consist of two conferences of fifteen clubs each for each league.

For the three women's leagues, the PFA Women's League is at the top of the pyramid and contains 16 clubs. At level 2, the PFA Amateur Women's League consists of two conferences of five clubs each for each league.

Promotion and relegation rules

 * Puget Premier League (level 1, 20 clubs): The champions of Puget men's system, no promotion. Bottom two teams are relegated.
 * PFA Championship (level 2, 24 clubs): Top club automatically promoted; winner of league cup, or runner-up if the winner also was first place finisher in regular season, promoted. Bottom two are relegated to PFA Premier Development League if from mainland or PFA Island League if from the Puget Islands.
 * PFA Island League (level 3, 10 clubs): Winner of league cup automatically promoted. Bottom one is relegated.
 * PFA Premier Development League (level 4, 40 clubs): Highest finisher in the Amateur Puget Cup promoted to PFA Championship (if mainland, if from islands, goes to PFA Island League). Lowest two clubs located in the coastal provinces are relegated to the PFA Coastal League and lowest two clubs located in the inland provinces are relegated to the PFA Interior League.
 * PFA Coastal League and PFA Interior League (level 5, 30 teams each, running in parallel): Highest finisher frome each league in the Amateur Puget Cup promoted along with the league cup champion and runner-up. No relegation.

Women's rules

 * PFA Women's League (level 1, 16 clubs): The champions of Puget women's system, no promotion. Lowest two clubs are relegated to PFA Amateur Women's League.
 * PFA Amateur Women's League (level 2, 10 clubs): Highest finisher in the Puget Women's Cup and the regular season winner promoted. No relegation.

Cup eligibility
Being members of a league at a particular level also affects eligibility for Cup, or single-elimination, competitions.


 * Puget Cup: Levels 1–3
 * Amateur Puget Cup: Levels 4–5

For women, both leagues in the two levels participate in the Puget Women's Cup.

The system

 * For details of past leagues and changes, see History of Pugetine soccer.

The table below shows the current structure of the Puget football league system. For each league, its official name, and number of clubs is given.