Haleon said:
Yes, I basically want to know all about the big clubs, the leagues they're in, and all the stuff that goes along with it. Like this premiership and FA Cup (which sounds cool with the amateur stuff), is there a playoff system, and if so, how does it work? Sounds like the premiership might be point-based from Gary Whitta's description (thanks for that!).
Well let's start at the top and work our way down.
The world governing body of soccer (from now on reffered to as Football so as I can keep my sanity) is called FIFA. They're the top dog so to speak, but they are mostly in charge of the international matches that are played such as friendlies or qualifying matches for the World Cup (more about that a bit later).
Each continent has their own governing body too. For North America it's CONCACAF, for Europe it's UEFA. Basically they oversee all the football in their respective zones to make sure everything is legit. They're also in charge of continental club and international competitions (For instance UEFA oversee the Champions League which is club based, and the European Championship where international teams compete).
Each nation also has their own governing body (starting to see all the red tape here yet are we?), England has the FA. Italy the FIGC and so on. These run all domestic competions the leagues and cups and so forth.
Ok hopefully you're still with me at this point (most of my future information will be based upon English and European football because that's what I know and love
)
English football is seperated into a many, many leagues, with the Premiership being the highest league in the land. Traditionally the league runs between August of one year until April/May of the next (Clubs don't play during the summer due to international team commitments. Also for holidaying with their WAGs), and this is the same for most continental teams, I don't think they do it quite like this in Scandinavia, because it's cold up there and dark too. Good thing they have volvos.
The Premiership consists of 20 teams. Each team plays the other at home and also away during the calendar. Matches traditionally take place on a Saturday, but due to a media coverage boom in the last decade or so, we are now seeing more and more matches spread out to Sundays, Mondays and wouldn't you know it the rest of the week too (never Fridays though. Too much disco to do).
Aswell as competing in the league there are also two Domestic Cup competitions to compete for. The FA Cup and the League Cup. These competitions are done in a simple knockout formout; if you win, you're through to the next round. The League Cup is generally considered commercial fodder. It's not nearly as prestigious as the FA Cup, which is the oldest football competition in the world, and in England is traditionally the last game played at the end of the playing season in May. The FA Cup is great because you often get low ranking, local sides drawn again behemoth teams like the
mighty Aston Villa.
Back to the league, the top 4 clubs at the end of a Premiership season (the number of clubs differs for different countries. For instance Greece only has 1 or 2 clubs eligible) enter next year's Champions League. In the past few years these clubs have been the big four; Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and ... oh yes, Arsenal.
They are drawn into groups with the other "league winners" from around the continent into groups of 4. They play this like a mini league with the top two going through to the next stage where it becomes like the FA Cup, a knockout tournament. Rinse and repeat until you are down to two clubs who take part in the Final.
If you're lucky your club will win it and you'll see scenes like this:
If you lose more like this:
LOL Liverpool you do make me laugh sometimes..
