World Soccer & How It Is Set Up (Explanation Please)

[MylesKnight]

Over the course of the past few months, I've become more and more interested in the sport of soccer and how it is ran in individual countries (thanks to the MLS and specifically the Chicago Fire).

My question is, just how does all of this work? Let's take Europe for example, as this is considered the ultimate area for the sport, professionally speaking. Are the League setups in each country similar? That is, the way England works (Premiership, on down...), is this similar to the setup in say Italy, Germany, etc.?

Also, how do these different leagues/tournaments such as the Champions League, or UEFA Cup, work? What are the qualifcation methods, etc.? And, do most countries have their own version of England's FA Cup? The US Cup has been around for a decent amount of time now, and I believe that it is fairly similar to England's FA, correct me if I'm wrong here.

Basically, just requesting a brief summary of how all of this works, as it is much different than the big sports in America (Football, Basketball, Baseball).

Thank ya much!

[DaddyTorgo]

Let me see if I can't do your questions justice. The main difference between say MLS and the major European leagues is that in MLS the teams are all centrally owned, whereas in Europe and other countries the teams are privately owned (some are floated on their respective stock markets, but most are privately owned). MLS also features many many more player-for-player trades, in European and other leagues players are generally bought and sold for cash. If you know the setup of the English league, that is generally the setup of the other leagues in the world, some system of promotion/relegation, a "league cup" and qualification for the major European competitions. The way that works is based on a "points system," leagues are awarded a certain number of spots in the various European competitions based on how well their teams have done in that competition over the past few years.

Anything I forgot?

[ISiddiqui]

Most big time European leagues are set up the same. 18-20 teams in the top division, with the top 4 going to play in the European Champions League (a tournament rather than an actual league) and 3 below that playing in the UEFA Cup. The bottom three get relegated to the 2nd division and the top 3 from that division come up to the top division.

Champions League is Top 4 teams for the big leagues. Though there may be some changes if one of the teams win the CL and is not in the top 4. They may just have them take the spot of the 4th team or add another spot. The smaller leagues get less representation. Portugal, IIRC, gets only 2 teams in the CL.

UEFA is the next step down. For England and other big leagues, they get 3 spots. If the team that wins the national cup isn't in the top 4, they go to the UEFA Cup. The other spots are for the next highest in standing who didn't get to go to the CL.

I think most countries do have a similar tourney to the FA Cup, but I'm not sure.

I'm sure others can fill you in in greater depth. Though not every country around the world has similar league structures. Some in South America and Asia have very wacky league formats (like dividing the season in two and having the 1st place from the 1st half of the season play the 1st place for the 2nd half of the season show down for the top prize).

[cartman]

Yes, each country has their own league, with a few exceptions. Usually the league is broken down into at least 3 levels, kind of like Major League Baseball, AAA, AA, and Single A. Each season, the bottom teams drop a level, and the top teams go up a level. Each league has their ways of determining the way of going up or down, so it varies widely. But the general idea is to reward good teams, penalize bad teams, and try to even out the competition as much as possible.

The Champions League and UEFA Cup are Europe-wide competitions. The Champions League is made up of the League Winners and usually runners up. Each country gets a certain number of slots, based on a complicated co-efficient, so for example, England usually gets 4 or 5 slots, but Israel might only get one slot for their league winner. The UEFA Cup is for the next level teams that were good, but didn't qualify for the CL. Slots are determined much the same way as the CL.

And yes, most countries have a similar competition as the FA Cup or US Cup. You might hear the term "treble" thrown around. This usually refers to a team winning their league, as well as the Champions League trophy, and their country's cup competition.

[sabotai]

Check this out to see exactly how deep the English football (soccer) leagues go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English..._league_system

[Mr. Wednesday]

Originally Posted by MylesKnight

Over the course of the past few months, I've become more and more interested in the sport of soccer and how it is ran in individual countries (thanks to the MLS and specifically the Chicago Fire).

My question is, just how does all of this work? Let's take Europe for example, as this is considered the ultimate area for the sport, professionally speaking. Are the League setups in each country similar? That is, the way England works (Premiership, on down...), is this similar to the setup in say Italy, Germany, etc.?

As far as I know, all of the major European leagues use the club system with promotion and relegation, so yes, the setup is substantially similar.

The club system is quite different from the American franchise system, as you no doubt have surmised. As near as I can tell, it has its roots in local clubs that banded together and started playing leagues, rather than the American system where the professional leagues formed first and created franchises. The result of this is that no team is guaranteed a place in any particular level, with promotion and relegation providing turnover between levels. It would be like the Houston Aeros winning the AHL and then playing in the NHL the following season, with, say, the Pittsburgh Penguins demoting into the AHL (to pick a totally random example).

MLS is an odd duck even by American professional standards -- their idea was that to help the league get off the ground and make it easier to impose salary restrictions, they would form as a single entity, where the league owned all of the teams. All player contracts are with the league, and there's not really free agency as such as a result of that. The initial labor approach of the players was to fight single entity, when that failed they unionized and now have a negotiated CBA with the league.

Also, how do these different leagues/tournaments such as the Champions League, or UEFA Cup, work? What are the qualifcation methods, etc.? And, do most countries have their own version of England's FA Cup? The US Cup has been around for a decent amount of time now, and I believe that it is fairly similar to England's FA, correct me if I'm wrong here.

The U.S. Open Cup is run very similarly to England's FA Cup, with the main difference being that the U.S. Open Cup is somewhat seeded, moreso than the FA Cup. The FA Cup does hold higher-level squads out until later rounds, but AFAIK once they are introduced, the draw is completely random. The U.S. Open Cup is partly random draw, but they try to minimize the occurrence of clubs at the same level playing each other at the point where those clubs enter the tournament. e.g. when MLS clubs enter the tournament, the draw will be such that most of them will be playing A-League or PDL teams.

The Champions League is a system for playing off the top n teams in the leagues of Europe, where n varies according to the "strength" of the league, with teams from weaker leagues, or the last entries from stronger leagues, have to do playoffs to enter the league system. CONCACAF has something similar, except that we don't have the league part of the competition, only the playoff bracket. But the U.S. does get multiple entries into the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

The UEFA Cup is a sort of a consolation cup for teams that are good but don't qualify for the Champions League. It takes teams the next n teams from league standings after the ones that qualify for the Champions League. There's also some kind of "fair play" entry, and teams that fall out of the Champions League early enough will be entered into the UEFA Cup.