I love soccer. And I think it’s cool the way the European leagues work with all the different competitions. Gives the fans more to cheer for.
Just take the English leagues as an example...
You can win your league’s regular season title by finishing with the best record (most points). Huge deal.
You can win the league cup (For the English Premier League, it’s called the Carling Cup), which is a tournament played in the early part of their season. This is considered more of a minor competition, I think because it’s played early in the year. The top teams don’t necessarily put all their energy into this competition. As a result, the lower tier teams have a better shot to take this title.
The FA cup is huge in England. It’s a tournament including all the professional clubs in England in all divisions. Even the tiny clubs get a chance to steal some glory. It’s common for lower league teams to make a run and sometimes get a huge upset. It’s a little like the English soccer version of our March Madness, except that it is spread out over the course of the season. The FA final is another huge prize, usually taken by one of the top 4 or 5 teams in the Premier League.
Champions league. The top 4 English teams qualify for this. Some other countries only get one or two berths, based on the relative strength of their league. The CL title is arguably the top prize in all pro soccer.
The UEFA cup. This is basically a second tier Champions League. I think it’s the 5th and 6th best English Premier League teams that qualify. They play the “second best” of the teams in the other European pro leagues. Basically, kind of the NIT to the NCAA tourney.
Of course there is also the idea of "relegation," where if you finish at the bottom of your league, you get bumped down to the next level. And if you are in a minor league and you win it, you get to move and play with the big boys the following year.
It all works to make the whole big mess full of drama and interesting for all the teams. Basically, everybody always has something meaningful to play for pretty much all the time.