The 1986–87 season was the 88th completed season of The Football League.
Play-offs to determine promotion places were introduced in 1987 so that more clubs remained eligible for promotion closer to the end of the season, and at the same time to aid in the reduction over two years of the number of clubs in the First Division from 22 to 20.
At the same time, automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the Football Conference was introduced for one club, replacing the annual application for re-election to the League of the bottom four clubs and linking the League to the developing National League System pyramid.
Final league tables and results
The tables and results below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website.
As of this season, there were no more re-election procedures, but instead, the club finishing last in the Fourth Division was demoted to Conference. The first casualty of this new practice were Lincoln City.
First Division
The First Division championship went to Everton in their final season under the management of Howard Kendall before his departure to Athletic Bilbao. This remains Everton's last league title. His side overcame a spate of injuries to fight off competition from runners-up Liverpool and third-placed Tottenham Hotspur. Fourth place went to George Graham's emerging young Arsenal side who also won the League Cup in his first season in charge. Fifth place went to newly-promoted Norwich City, whose manager Ken Brown built a strong squad on a limited budget to achieve a finish which would have been enough to qualify for the UEFA Cup had it not been for the ongoing ban on English clubs in European competitions.
Wimbledon finished sixth in the First Division in only their tenth season as a Football League club. Dave Bassett's men had led the league for the first two weeks of September, but sixth place was still much higher than most pundits had predicted at the start of the season. Luton Town enjoyed their highest league position by finishing seventh.
Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson had been under pressure for months, after his side had finished fourth in the league in 1985–86, 12 points behind the champions, Liverpool. The United board had initially decided to stick with Atkinson as manager for the 1986–87 season, but finally sacked him in November with United fourth from bottom in the league and having suffered a League Cup exit to Southampton. Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson took over, and results began to improve despite no immediate new signings being made, with United finally finishing 11th.
West Ham United, who had come close to winning the title the previous season, slipped to 15th place in 1986–87.
Aston Villa were relegated to the Second Division just five years after they won the European Cup. Chairman Doug Ellis had sensed from the start that 1986-87 would be a tough season for the club, so he axed manager Graham Turner in September and replaced him with Manchester City's Billy McNeill. But McNeill was unable to stop the rot and Villa went down in bottom place. McNeill was subsequently sacked and replaced by Watford's Graham Taylor.
Villa were joined on the way down by Manchester City and Leicester City. In the first season of the relegation/promotion play-offs, Charlton Athletic beat Second Division Leeds United to retain their top flight status.
No European qualification took place due to UEFA voting to ban English clubs from European competitions for a third season following the Heysel disaster in 1985.
Final table
First Division results
Managerial changes
First Division maps
Second Division
There were just two guaranteed promotion places in the Second Division this season due to the introduction of the playoffs and the phased reorganization of the league. Derby County finished top of the Second Division to clinch a second successive promotion and reclaim the First Division place they had last held in 1980. Portsmouth, absent from the First Division for nearly 30 years and who had missed promotion by a single place in the previous two seasons, finally achieved promotion by finishing second. Oldham Athletic and Ipswich Town failed to progress beyond the semi-finals of the new playoffs, leaving Leeds United to take on Charlton Athletic in a two-legged contest for a First Division place. Charlton won the replay to keep their First Division status and condemn Leeds to a sixth successive season in the Second Division.