The Football League is to be re-named the English Football League as part of a comprehensive corporate and competition re-branding.
The new title, which will come into use at the conclusion of the current season and ahead of the 2016/17 campaign, will be shortened to EFL for everyday use across the game.
The EFL name will be accompanied by a stunning new visual identity featuring a dynamic circular arrangement of 72 balls in three swathes of 24, representing each of the League’s member clubs and the respective divisions they play in.
The new logo is just the fourth in the 127 year history of the world’s original league football competition and, for the first time, each club will be presented with its own bespoke version in its individual playing colours, ahead of the new season, for it to retain in perpetuity.
The Football League’s Chief Executive, Shaun Harvey said: "The new EFL name rightly emphasises the central role our clubs play at the heart of English professional football.
"In an increasingly challenging global sports market, it is absolutely essential that sports properties can project a modern identity that not only resonates with their regular audience but is also easily recognisable to a broader audience of potential fans, viewers and commercial partners.
"We believe the EFL name and brand will give our competitions an identity that is new and distinct, while at the same time retaining our unique heritage. As such, it will be something that all fans can identify with - whether they be young or old, at home or abroad.
Harvey also confirmed that the League would be retaining the three existing divisional titles, “The Championship, League One and League Two divisional titles have proven popular with fans since their introduction in 2004 and have since been used by leagues in other countries and in other sports. It is therefore our intention to incorporate them into the new EFL brand,” he said.
The introduction of the EFL name follows a thorough process of consultation that included detailed surveys, interviews and focus groups with clubs, stakeholders, commercial partners and more than 18,000 football supporters. Consultees included the Football Association, the Premier League, the Professional Footballers Association, the Football Supporters Federation, the League’s competition sponsors (Sky Bet, Capital One and Johnstone’s Paint), its broadcast partners (Sky Sports, Channel 5 and Pitch International) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.