European football: Someone please break all the leagues down for me

[Bloodshot Scott]

Seems there are like 27 leagues over there (EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, etc).

SO...which one is the best? Which one is the most important? Do they ever have cross-league games?

I need someone to break it down for me because it confuses the hell out of me. :dunno:

 

[Patrick_S]

There´s far more than 27 leagues in europe. There´s as many leagues as there are countries as all leagues are national. Then there´s the Champions League where the best teams from the national leagues qualify. There´s also Europa League (this used to be called the UEFA Cup) where the teams that finish high in their national leagues (but not high enough to qualify for Champions League) play. La Liga (Spanish league), The Premier League (English league), Serie A (Italian league) and Bundesliga (German league) are probably the best leagues. Personally i think the Spanish league have the most entertaining football.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Christ. this is all too sophisticated for me.

 

[Henrik Larsson]

There´s far more than 27 leagues in europe. There´s as many leagues as there are countries as all leagues are national. Then there´s the Champions League where the best teams from the national leagues qualify. There´s also Europa League (this used to be called the UEFA Cup) where the teams that finish high in their national leagues (but not high enough to qualify for Champions League) play. La Liga (Spanish league), The Premier League (English league), Serie A (Italian league) and Bundesliga (German league) are probably the best leagues. Personally i think the Spanish league have the most entertaining football.

Basically this.

Pretty much every country plays football in Europe. Then each country has several divisions(E.G England has the Premier league, then the championship, then league 1, then league 2. There is also the blue square). This is where promotion and relegation comes in. Generally the bottom 3 teams in the higher league go down, then the top 3 from the league below go up to replace them

Then comes European foootball(The Champions league and the Europa league), which one you play in depends on the countries coefficient
Which you see here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient#Current_ranking

As you can see from the link, the higher the counties coefficient, the more Champions and Europ league places you get. The coefficient will go up or down depending on how the teams from that country do. If say Machester United do well in the Champions league, the coefficient will stay high(giving England more European places), if a big team does badly, it could affect the amount of places that they have for next season.

The EPL tends to be the best League but I like watching the Spanish league(LA Liga), as the football is better but the Serie A and the Bundesliga are also good.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Messi is in Barcelona. He is the best player in the world.


You guys are confusing me with all this shit.

 

[D-rock]

Besides things like the World Cup and the Olympics and events related to them such as qualifying for those two things are any of the international games ever played by just nationals from one country against another or is everything always individually team based against other individual teams? Also, are there ever any games that pit the best players from one league against another league, sort of similar to what an all-star game might be for us?

I know there is probably a lot of crossover between players due to players going somewhere else due to transfers and being lost to free agency, but it seems like it would be really hard to judge the quality of one league against the other in an accurate analytically objective manner.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Besides things like the World Cup and the Olympics and events related to them such as qualifying for those two things are any of the international games ever played by just nationals from one country against another or is everything always individually team based against other individual teams? Also, are there ever any games that pit the best players from one league against another league, sort of similar to what an all-star game might be for us?

I know there is probably a lot of crossover between players due to players going somewhere else due to transfers and being lost to free agency, but it seems like it would be really hard to judge the quality of one league against the other in an accurate analytically objective manner.

It's a clusterfuck really, if you ask me, but I kind of understand (Patrick_S' post made more sense after I re-read it).

 

[Patrick_S]

Besides things like the World Cup and the Olympics and events related to them such as qualifying for those two things are any of the international games ever played by just nationals from one country against another or is everything always individually team based against other individual teams? Also, are there ever any games that pit the best players from one league against another league, sort of similar to what an all-star game might be for us?

I know there is probably a lot of crossover between players due to players going somewhere else due to transfers and being lost to free agency, but it seems like it would be really hard to judge the quality of one league against the other in an accurate analytically objective manner.

There are "friendly" international matches, where national teams play each other. These matches are often played right before a championship, and the teams usually try to play a team that plays a similar type of football as a team they´re gonna meet in the championship.

There are no all-star type of games, simply because noone would be interested in those matches. If you´re from Turkey, for example, then what you care about is how your local teams does in the Turkish league, not how good the Turkish league is compared to the Croatian, Austrian, or any other league.

 

[nightwanker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient#Current_ranking

This is the link I just wanted to recommend.
It's the closest you get ranking national leagues. Although it only sums up performances of qualified teams, but not the strength and depth of a league as a whole.
I could imagine the middle of the field of Bundesliga might be stronger than of La Liga. There are more teams that keep up with the top teams. Top positions vary every season. You could either call this inconsistence of Bundesliga or balance of strenght.

Besides things like the World Cup and the Olympics

The other great thing are Continental Championships like Euro 2012 or Copa América - being the most popular two and of higher recognition than the Olympic matches. Further Africa Cup of Nations, Asian Cup and Gold Cup.

And talking about Euro 2012, here's some babes
http://board.freeones.com/showthrea...-2012-Polls!&p=6593952&viewfull=1#post6593952

 

[Straight Shooter]

Seems there are like 27 leagues over there (EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, etc).

SO...which one is the best? Which one is the most important? Do they ever have cross-league games?

I need someone to break it down for me because it confuses the hell out of me. :dunno:

The only one's you should care about are the EPL(England), La Liga(Spain) and Serie A(Italy). Maybe you could throw in the Budesliga as well. In my opinion the EPL is the best but each league has a different style of soccer. In the EPL it's more power football while in La Liga they like to play with more flair, you'll see alot of slick dribbling and whatnot. The only time teams from the different leagues in Europe play each other is in the Champions League, a tournament where the top teams in Europe compete against each other. You have other one's like the Europa League but the Champions League is the most prestigious

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

The only one's you should care about are the EPL(England), La Liga(Spain) and Serie A(Italy). Maybe you could throw in the Budesliga as well. In my opinion the EPL is the best but each league has a different style of soccer. In the EPL it's more power football while in La Liga they like to play with more flair, you'll see alot of slick dribbling and whatnot. The only time teams from the different leagues in Europe play each other is in the Champions League, a tournament where the top teams in Europe compete against each other. You have other one's like the Europa League but the Champions League is the most prestigious

That's funny because EPL is the only one ESPN plays (Saturday mornings) here. I've seen some damn good ball though the times I've watched. Also some duds but eh...

 

[wigster]

ENGLAND = PREMIERSHIP
SPAIN = LA LIGA
ITALY = SERIA A
GERMANY = BUDESLIGA
FRANCE = LIGUE1

Every country then has a domestic cup competition for all clubs in there country. For example in England they have they FA cup, where not only the premiership teams can play but also teams from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th league can play as well. Each country has there own version of this.

Then there are 2 European Cups. The Champions League ( the most important one ), then the UEFA Cup. These 2 Cups have to be qualified for. How it works is the top 4/5/6 teams in each of the top leagues in each country qualify. normally top 4 qualify for Champions League, and then the 5th and 6th qualify for the UEFA Cup.

An example would be as follows, in the premiership:
Man Utd finish 1st, Arsenal finish 2nd, Chelsea 3rd, and Liverpool 4th. They will all qualify for Champions League.
Spurs finish 5th, Newcastle finish 6th. They will qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Hope that all makes sense.

 

[D-rock]

I don't think I could stand all those leagues myself. I like the way sports are over here. There's one league and the best of the best play in it. (Not to mention besides baseball the leagues over have a salary cap and revenue sharing so the same teams don't win over and over by virtue of just paying for the wins.) There it seems like all the best players in the world are scattered to the wind and there is a bunch of mediocre players playing each other with the exception of a few of the best teams.

 

[Bloodshot Scott]

Yeah it's pretty crazy. To be fair we have college teams, minor teams (AHL and ECHL in example of hockey, AAA and so on for baseball), but the European football just seems way too sophisticated.

Then agains that's really the only sport other than rugby they really care about (I think) a great deal and their history of playing football (European) is probably lengthy as all shit. So they have a long background in it.

 

[Johan]

What you guys (I mean, Americans) don't get is that Europe is not a country of its own. It a continent, made of many countries.
Each country has its own soccer league + 1 or 2 cup (A "cup" is a competition running a the sale time than the championship but it use the play-off system for the whole competition. But the cup allows teams from lower divisions to compete against top division teams).
We also have two Europeans competitions with teams from all over Europe : The Champion's League wich host the greatest teams from all over Europe and the Liga Europa wich host good teams from all over Europe. Champion's League is highly watched by nearly all europeans soccer fans 'cause it shows the best teams playing against each other (Tonight, Chelsea will face Barcelona and tomorrow Bayern Munchen will face Real Madrid, these are the semi-final). Liga Europa is much less watched...

But, we, europeans don't watch every league and every cup from every country.
Most of us follow the league and cup of its country and have a look on the leagues from Germany, Spain, Italy and England and the Champion's League

Then agains that's really the only sport other than rugby they really care about (I think) a great deal and their history of playing football (European) is probably lengthy as all shit. So they have a long background in it.

Soccer and Rugby actually are the only team-sport europeans do care (and even Rugby is a minor sport outside from UK, France and Italy).
But, europeans are also big fans of Tennis, Athletics, Formula 1, Cycling...

 

[wigster]

As Johan says it's because we only have 1 sport in Europe which is football. But in America you have 4. Imagine if every single city in America had a football team, imagine how many teams you would have.

That's why we have divisions in England. It goes Premiership ( the best teams in England ) the championship ( the 2nd best teams ) the 1st division ( the 3rd best ) the 2nd division ( the 4th best ).

Because every city in England has a football team, playing in 1 division would be impossible. So there divided into different divisions. Just like in American football were you have teams divided into the AFC and the NFC, rather then just having 1 big division.

 

[nightwanker]

The league system isn't complicated at all. It's really easy.
You only have to consider that there are different countries (with different languages etc).
La Liga is "National Soccer League" of Spain. Just like NFL is for football in the US.
Premier League is "Major League Soccer" of England. Just like MLB is for baseball in the US.
Bundesliga is "National Soccer Association" of Germany. Just like NBA is for basketball in the US.
To cut a long story short: National championships are the thing in Europe as in the USA.
If Canada, Mexico, Cuba or who ever had leagues similar strong to the ones in the US, they possibly would stage an "North American Champion" afterwards, too.

In European sports teams are based on clubs, not on franchises etc.
Every team in a country takes part in a bottom-up league system. Every team has the chance to promote to a higher league and the risk to relegate to a lower league.
If you win the national championship, you are top of all these teams, because they all have their chances.
It's all based on qualification via promotion and relegation. It's not just the best because of money (although that of course is a factor) and maybe a name like "World series", but because everyone is taking part. Every team could reach top level. That is the spirit.

In US sports systems there are many leagues too, but they are not connected to each other. A player can promote to top level, but not a team.

 

[The~Lone~Ranger]

It has already been described well enough, but I'll chip in anyway.

Each regular season of their own country's league, the teams try to finish in a qualifying slot for champions league or europa league. The next season they will play in their own regular league and the Euro competion they qualified for.
It continues every year trying to achieve Euro Tournament qualification for the following season.

Qualifying slots for this season:

Big 4

Serie A Italy
Champions League: 1st , 2nd
Champions League qualifying: 3rd
Europa League: 4th , 5th

English Premier
Champions League: 1st , 2nd , 3rd
Champions League qualifying: 4th
Europa League: 5th

Spain La Liga
Champions League: 1st , 2nd , 3rd
Champions League qualifying: 4th
Europa League: 5th , 6th

German Bundesliga
Champions League: 1st , 2nd , 3rd
Champions League qualifying: 4th
Europa League: 5th , 6th

Then maybe

French Ligue 1
Champions League: 1st , 2nd
Champions League qualifying: 3rd
Europa League: 4th

Dutch Eredivisie
Champions League: 1st
Champions League qualifying: 2nd
Europa League: 3rd , 4th
Europa League play-offs: 5th , 6th , 7th , 8th

Portuguese Liga
Champions League: 1st , 2nd
Champions League qualifying: 3rd
Europa League: 4th , 5th

Scottish Premier
Champions League qualifying: 1st , 2nd
Europa League: 3rd , 4th

Some more

Belgian Jupiler League
Champions League qualifying: 1st , 2nd
Europa League: 3rd , 4th

Danish SAS-Ligaen
Champions League qualifying: 1st
Europa League: 2nd , 3rd

Greek Super League
Champions League: 1st
Champions League qualifying: 2nd
Europa League: 3rd , 4th

Tippeligaen Norway
Champions League qualifying: 1st
Europa League: 2nd , 3rd


Those are some of many Euro Countries leagues. As you can see there is a heavy bias, in qualifying slots for the money spinning 'coefficient' clubs. Champions of Norway don't even get an outright place, yet 3rd from one of the main leagues automatically qualifies.

For me 'Champions League' should only contain the champions, to give the lesser Euro countries a chance to participate. Europa League would be sufficient for the 2nd and 3rd spots. IMO It's crazy that 4th place in the English, German, Spanish leagues could win the 'Champions' league the following season.

 

[pearl10]

"If Canada, Mexico, Cuba or who ever had leagues similar strong to the ones in the US, they possibly would stage an "North American Champion" afterwards, too."

We actually do have such a football (soccer) tournament these days - it's called the CONCACAF Champions League (CONCACAF being the north and central American Region's governing body like UEFA is in Europe). The champion plays every year in the Club World Cup against the winner of the UEFA Champions League and the champions of the other regions. I think the current format of the tournament started 3 or 4 years ago. Mexican teams have dominated the competition but in the last couple of years MLS teams are starting to make some noise. Here is the Wikipedia link if you want to know more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONCACAF_Champions_League

It still has a long way to go but we have to start somewhere. I honestly believe that MLS is a better league then the rest of world thinks it is. Obviously, the quality of play is very hit and miss and there are some players that do not belong anywhere near a professional pitch but overall the product is getting better and is drawing more and more fans every year. People have to remember that the league is only about 16 years old so they have a long way to go before being in the same class as the EPL or La Liga or even Mexico's Primera Division that have been around for the better part of the last 100 years.

 

[nightwanker]

"If Canada, Mexico, Cuba or who ever had leagues similar strong to the ones in the US, they possibly would stage an "North American Champion" afterwards, too."

We actually do have such a football (soccer) tournament these days - it's called the CONCACAF Champions League

Of course. - I was describing it for readers, who I believe don't know of "Champions Leagues", neither UEFA nor CONCACAF. With "If Canada, Mexico, Cuba..." I meant in basketball, baseball, (American) football.