Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How many professional football leagues are there in the U.K.?
The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with six teams from Wales and one from Guernsey also competing. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system, although in practice it would take a team at the bottom levels at least two decades of consistently finishing at or near the top of each successive league to reach the top level, and even then additional restrictions, particularly in regard to stadium facilities, would then come into effect at the highest levels that could prevent a club from being allowed access to the top levels. There are more than 140 individual leagues, containing more than 480 divisions.[1]
The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor Football League (five former SIFL teams and one expansion team in total). Despite the name, this PIFL had no connections to the original Professional Indoor Football League. 
After the introduction of football from the UK navy in the late 19th century, football experienced a boom in Korea and many football clubs and school teams were formed in the 1910s. There were also many corporate football clubs especially in Seoul and Pyongyang, two big cities in Korea. The corporate club division was made in All Korea Football Tournament in Pyongyang in 1930, and Seoul Semi-Professional Football League was founded in 1939, but both were stopped because of the Japanese government's policy during World War II. Seoul Semi-Professional Football League was reopened in 1949, but it was stopped again during the Korean War.
Garry William Howe Jr. (born June 20, 1968) is a former American professional football player who was a defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) and the World League of American Football (WLAF). He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts of the NFL, and the Frankfurt Galaxy and Amsterdam Admirals of the WLAF. He also played fullback for the Iowa Barnstormers as well as defensive lineman from 1995 to 2000. Howe played collegiately at Drake University and the University of Colorado.
The NFL also adapted how the AFL used the growing power of televised football games, which were bolstered with the help of major network contracts (first with ABC and later with NBC[49]). With that first contract with ABC, the AFL adopted the first-ever cooperative television plan for professional football, in which the proceeds were divided equally among member clubs. It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American Football League championship game between the Dallas Texans and the defending champion Houston Oilers. At the time it was the longest professional football championship game ever played. The AFL also appealed to fans by offering a flashier style of play (just like the ABA in basketball), compared to the more conservative game of the NFL. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as John Hadl, Daryle Lamonica and Len Dawson.
The 2014–15 Professional Football League is the third highest division in Russian football. The Professional Football League is geographically divided into 5 zones.
The winners of each zone are automatically promoted into the National Football League. The bottom finishers of each zone lose professional status and are relegated into the Amateur Football League.
Bobby Howe (born 6 November 1973) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played junior football for Cramlington Juniors FC before he joined Nottingham Forest playing from 1990 to 1998 but making just 14 league appearances in that time. He later joined Swindon Town for a £30,000 fee, where he made his last league appearance in 2002. He later played non league football for Havant & Waterlooville and Farnborough Town.
Arthur Howes (1876 – after 1908) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League for Leicester Fosse and in the Scottish League for Dundee.
The 2019 Nigeria Professional Football League is the 29th season of the Nigeria Professional Football League, the top-tier football league in Nigeria, since the rebranding of the league as the "Professional League", and the 48th season of top-division football in Nigeria since its establishment in 1972. The season started on 13 January 2019.
1,398 people played in the American Football League at one time or another. Out of those 1,398, this is how many played for X number of yearsOut of the 1,398 people who played in the AFL, this is how many played for X number of teams
Los Angeles Bulldogs. While an independent team, the Bulldogs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in 1936. After being turned down for the NFL for the 1937 season, the Bulldogs joined the AFL and became the first professional football team to play its home games on the West Coast. Averaging 14,000 in attendance for its home games in Gilmore Stadium, the Bulldogs were drawing twice as many fans per game as the rest of the league. Los Angeles did not lose or tie a game in its one season with the AFL, the first professional football team to win its league title with a perfect record. When the league folded at the end of the season, the Gus Henderson-led Bulldogs continued on as an independent team before joining the minor league American Professional Football Association in 1939 and becoming a charter member of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League the following year.
D. J. Mbenga, professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers in the US National Basketball Association Emmanuel Mudiay, professional basketball player of the New York Knicks in the US National Basketball Association Christian Eyenga, professional basketball player and 2009 first round draft choice for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the US National Basketball Association Dikembe Mutombo, retired professional basketball player Christian M'Pumbu, professional mixed martial arts fighter and Bellator Fighting Championships World Champion Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu, former Sheffield Wednesday football player Jeremy Bokila, professional football player, son of Ndingi Bokila Mandjombolo Claude Makelele, professional football player and current manager Steve Mandanda, professional footballer who plays for Crystal Palace and the France national football team Ariza Makukula, naturalised Portuguese retired professional football player José Bosingwa, naturalised Portuguese football player Leroy Lita, professional football player Fabrice Muamba, former professional footballer who played for Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League Tim Biakabutuka, former professional American football player Kazenga LuaLua, professional football player for Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. Lomana LuaLua, professional football player for Al-Arabi in Qatar Mwamba Kazadi, former professional football player who won the 1973 "African Footballer of the Year" award Péguy Luyindula, professional football player for Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 Hérita Ilunga, professional football player Gary Kikaya, retired Olympic 400-metre runner Patrick Kabongo, professional football player for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League Youssouf Mulumbu, professional footballer for Norwich City Danny Mwanga, professional footballer for the Philadelphia Union Blaise Nkufo, professional footballer for Switzerland Gabriel Zakuani, professional football player for Peterborough United of League One in England Steve Zakuani, professional football player for the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer in the United States Occupé Bayenga, professional football player who currently plays in Universidad de Concepción, Chilean Primera División Christian Benteke, professional football player for Crystal Palace F.C. of the Premier League and the Belgium national football team Jody Lukoki, professional football player for Ludogorets Razgrad in the Bulgarian First League and the DR Congo national football team Toto Nsiala, professional football player for Ipswich Town
When the Japan Football Association decided to found a professional football league, the Japan Soccer League (JSL), the top-flight league until the 1991/92 season, was reorganised into two newly formed leagues. One was the Japan Professional Football League as known as J. League, the first-ever professional football league in Japan. The other was the former Japan Football League.
National Semi-Professional Football League was founded in 1964, which was the only football division in South Korea until 1982. It was held twice in a year as the spring league and the autumn league except the season 1982, 1983 and 1984 when it was held as full-season. The match places were mostly in Seoul because many headquarters of corporation in Korea were in Seoul.
The 2017–18 Professional Football League is the third highest division in Russian football. The Professional Football League is geographically divided into 5 zones.
The winners of each zone are automatically promoted into the National Football League. The bottom finishers of each zone lose professional status and are relegated into the Amateur Football League.
Football in Australia refers to football codes played in the country including Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football , American football and Gaelic football. Professional football is played in Australia for four of these codes, with the leagues involved including the Australian Football League (Aussie rules), the National Rugby League (Rugby League), Super Rugby (rugby union), and the A-League (soccer). Professional football has been televised for many years, with Australian rules football and rugby league being the most popular codes on television. Australia has a number of national football teams encompassing several football codes including Australian rules, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, Gaelic and gridiron. Australian football is the most popular sport in Australia, followed by cricket, association football and rugby league.
The Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) is the highest level of the Nigerian football league system, for the Nigerian Club-football Championships. 
But the Nigerian top-division had experienced many dwindling fortunes, since the late 2000s.
Bob Howes (born January 4, 1943) is a former professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played fourteen seasons in the Canadian Football League, mainly for the Edmonton Eskimos. He was a part of five Grey Cup championship teams with the Eskimos. Howes played college football and basketball at Queen's University, and has coached the Queen's Golden Gaels football team for many years, both as an assistant and as head coach. His son Beau Howes played quarterback for the Gaels during the 1990s.
There are several hundred semi-professional football teams at non-League level. The bottom division of The Football League (the fourth tier of the English football league system) has traditionally been the cut-off point between professional ("full-time") and semi-professional ("part-time") in English football. However, many teams in the top non-League competition, the National League have become "full-time" professional clubs in an effort to achieve League status.
Jeremy Howe (born 29 June 1990) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Melbourne Football Club from 2011 to 2015.
Frederick Howe was an English professional football wing half who played in the Football League for Coventry City and Brentford.
The 2015–16 Professional Football League is the third highest division in Russian football. The Professional Football League is geographically divided into 5 zones.
The winners of each zone are automatically promoted into the National Football League. The bottom finishers of each zone lose professional status and are relegated into the Amateur Football League.
Marvin Clement Bartley (born 4 July 1986) is an English professional footballer, who plays for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian as a midfielder. Early in his career, Bartley played for English non-league clubs Burnham, Hayes, Didcot Town and Hampton & Richmond Borough. He broke into the professional leagues in 2007 with Bournemouth, where he made over 100 Football League appearances. Soon after Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe moved to Burnley in 2011, Bartley followed Howe to Turf Moor. 
The Midland Football League was a semi-professional football league in England. It acted as a feeder league to the Football League for many years before merging with the Yorkshire League in 1982 to form the Northern Counties East League.
On November 12, 1998, The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) and the Arena Football League reached a settlement agreement in the lawsuit brought by the Arena Football League against the PIFL for patent infringement. As part of the settlement, all present and future PIFL teams have agreed to honor the patents, trademarks, copyrights and net structure of the Arena Football League, and in return the Arena Football League has withdrawn its motion to seek a restraining order to prevent the PIFL from playing its games. Additionally, the PIFL has agreed to use the following disclaimer, "PIFL and its teams are not affiliated, sponsored or associated with the Arena Football League or any of its member teams", on all official publications. Professional Indoor Football League Commissioner Mike Storen stated, "The Professional Indoor Football League is happy to acknowledge the uniqueness of the Arena Football League's patented net system and method of play on the basis that this settlement will allow the Professional Indoor Football League to expand in an orderly fashion."