Soccer question

[ajzepp]

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.

 

Fantastic job with the synopsis! I love the idea of relegation...I think it would be great to have a lower tier professional league for the NFL instead of expansion. Go through a process of retraction and re-set the NFL 1st division to 24 clubs, and then send 8 of them down to a second division. It'll never happen, of course, but the whole idea of facing relegation really appeals to me.

 

And I agree about the Champs league, as I'm sure most do. It's the premier club level tourney in the world and I geek out to the final every year. I like how the use the aggregate during the different rounds, and then use a neutral site (still have visions of Moscow at night...so beautiful!) for the final.

 

Good times

[meazza]

These things really keep me from getting into soccer any more than rabidly watching the World Cup.

 

The problem with the international tournaments is that these players don't know each other that well so there is often not the chemistry seen when you watch league games.

 

When you've got like 10 "championship" games a season, what the hell does it mean? What is the importance? Why call things "championships" when it's not the end game?

 

Soccer is a pure capitalist sport. Very rarely will a team that isn't super wealthy win any important trophies. The goal is to effectively build up your team by winning these lower level championships, sell the players and try to climb up the ladder. Sometimes, a Russian billionaire will come along with some extra cash in his back pocket to buy a team and make them a top contender.

 

That being said, winning your domestic league is prestigious but winning the European cup (champions league) is where the big prize money/prestige is.