National Leagues

Nearly every country has some sort of league and is involved with UEFA, the governing body of European soccer. Some of the larger countries have multiple leagues that can change through relegation and promotion. Top tier leagues will send their champions to either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup depending on the status of the league. Most leagues in Europe start in August and run through May.

National Cups

In addition to leagues, most counties also have a country-wide tournament each year. For some of the top countries, their cup champion automatically qualifies for competition in Europe either in the Champions League or UEFA Cup.

Champions League

The Champions League is a tournament taking the best of the club teams in Europe and pitting them against each other to find out the champion of all of Europe. It involves both a qualifying round and then the actual tournament. The major leagues will submit multiple teams to the Champions League while other countries may send one or none. This depends on the overall status of the league at the end of each season based on the UEFA coefficient. The Champions League is not only a showcase for the top clubs in Europe, but also a place where leagues can see how they stand up against other leagues. Both Champions League and UEFA Cup matches are played in addition to the clubs normal league schedule and are played throughout the normal season.

• Champions League Wikipedia Article
• UEFA Coefficient Wikipedia Article

UEFA Cup

The UEFA Cup is the second level tournament for European teams. This is a place for champions of some of the smaller country's leagues can play against some of the second level teams in the major leagues. While it may not have the big name clubs playing each season, it is still seen as a reward for clubs who get to play against other European teams and more importantly, make more money for their clubs. At the beginning of each season, the previous years champions for the UEFA Cup and Champions League play each other in the UEFA Super Cup.

• UEFA Cup Wikipedia Article

Relegation & Promotion

In countries that have more than one league, teams can move leagues through promotion and relegation. The bottom team or teams in a league will move down to the next division and teams are then moved up to replace them. This adds an additional level of excitement at the end of each season, not only to see who a league champ will be, but who will avoid getting relegated.

• Relegation & Promotion Wikipedia Article

Transfers

Instead of trading players between teams, players are actually purchased for cash instead. In addition, transfers can happen across leagues, so a player on an English club can be transferred to a Spanish club. Transfers are only allowed during specific periods in the year.

England

England has the largest collection of professional leagues in Europe with 4 levels governed by the FA (The Football Association). They consist of the Premier League, aka the Premiership or EPL, and the three levels of the Football League, the Championship, League One and League Two. The Premier League is arguably the most well known league world wide and contains such teams as Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Relegation and promotion works between each of the divisions meaning that a League Two club could move up through the leagues to the Premiership, happening at the end of each season.

England also hosts one of the most entertaining tournaments in all of sports each year, the FA Cup. All of the teams in all four levels participate in the tournament in addition to pretty much any organized club throughout England. The Carling Cup, aka League Cup, is similar to the FA Cup but only allows teams in the top 4 levels for a total of 92 teams. The FA Cup had 731 teams participate in the 2007-08 tournament.

• FA Wikipedia Article
• FA Cup Wikipedia Article
• Carling Cup Wikipedia Article
• Premier League Wikipedia Article
• Football League Wikipedia Article

Germany

Germany's soccer leagues are known as the Bundesliga with two levels of competition. Starting in 2008, a third division will be added with relegation and promotion between the three leagues. Bayern Munich is the most well known German club with other popular clubs being Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04.

Germany's annual cup competition is DFB-Pokal and consists of the 36 professional teams, the last 4 relegated teams out of the Bundesliga and then 24 semi-pro and amatuer teams that compete in touraments to get their bid.

• Bundesliga Wikipedia Article
• DFB-Pokal Wikipedia Article

Spain

Spanish soccer consists of two levels of professional clubs, La Liga and Segunda Division. Spanish soccer is seen as some of the best in the world and clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid are well known throughout the world.

The Spanish cup competition is the Copa del Ray. Only club teams from the professional divisions are allowed in the tournament each year.

• La Liga Wikipedia Article
• Copa del Ray Wikipedia Article

France

France has two professional divisions, Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 with relegation and promotion between the two leagues for three clubs each season. Recently the most popular and successful club in France has been Olympique Lyonnais or just Lyon.

The French cup competition is the Coupe de France. This competition is open to any professional or non-professional team in France and is always played at the lower ranked team's stadium, giving the underdog home field advantage.

• Ligue 1 Wikipedia Article
• Coupe de France Wikipedia Article

Italy

Italy has 4 levels of professional soccer, Serie A, Serie B, Serie C1 and Serie C2. The top teams in Italy are also well known through the world, including AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus.

The Italian cup is the Coppa Italia and includes 42 professional teams seeded based on the previous year's finish.

• Serie A Wikipedia Article
• Coppa Italia Wikipedia Article

Scotland

The Scottish Premier League consists of 12 teams and has two of the more popular clubs in the world, Celtic and the Rangers. There is a well known and fierce rivalry between the two clubs which helps make the league standout overall.

The cup championship is known as the Scottish Cup and includes professional and junior teams.

• Scottish Premier League Wikipedia Article
• Scottish Cup Wikipedia Article

Others

As mentioned at the top of the article, there are many other leagues throughout Europe.  If you are curious about more of them, I would recommend going to the Current UEFA Coefficient rankings and checking out some of the other country's league sites.

World Cup

Even the most casual sports person is probably aware of the World Cup.  The World Cup is held every 4 years with the winner being crowned the top national team in the world with the last champion being Italy in 2006.  National teams are comprised only of players from that nation, much like an Olympic team.  Also like the Olympics, the location moves throughout the world.  The 2010 World Cup will be hosted in South Africa.

What some people may not know is that the World Cup tournament, or final, is preceded by World Cup qualifying.  The qualifying starts about 2 and a half years before the final and is broken into the different regions of the world, Europe, Africa, Asia & Oceania, South America and North, Central America & the Caribbean.  Each region has a different number of teams able to qualify.  Each region also uses different processes to qualify for the final tournament.

Regional Tournaments

In addition to the World Cup, each region also hosts tournaments for national teams.  An example of this is the UEFA European Football Championships, also known as the EURO.  Each region decides the frequency of their tournaments separately.

Wikipedia Links

• World Cup
• World Cup Qualifying
• Regions
  • UEFA - Europe
  • CONMEBOL - South America
  • CONCACAF - North America
  • CAF - Africa
  • AFC - Asia
  • OFC - Oceania

South America

A hot bed of world renouned players, South American leagues are surprising sub par when compared to European leagues.  The two top leagues are from Argentina and Brazil.

Primera División Argentina

This league has traditionally been top heavy with River Plate and Boca Juniors being the well known and top teams.  Lately the league has become more competitive.

• Primera División Argentina Wikipedia Article

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A

Similar to Argentina, Brazil's top league is also top heavy with São Paulo and Corinthians being the top two teams.  This league does use relegation to Serie B with 4 teams swapping leagues.

• Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Wikipedia Article

Asia

J-League

The top Japanese league was started in 1992 and continues to grow.  While not a huge league, it is influential in Japanese sports.  It continues to grow at about the same rate as the MLS, however it does have multiple divisions for relegation.  This allows teams to grow at a lower division and gain in popularity before being thrown in the top league.

• J-League Wikipedia Article

K-League

The K-League is the top level of Korean soccer.  It is a well established league being sponsored by a number of Korean corporations.  It consists of 14 teams and does not have a system of relegation.

• K-League Wikipedia Article

A-League

The A-League is a relatively new soccer league in Australia.  It consists of 8 teams and does not have a relegation system.  For being a new league, it has gained in popularity quickly and looks to expand the number of teams in the near future.

• A-League Wikipedia Article

Catching soccer in the US can be tough if you don't know where to look.  This will hopefully help you out in trying to find it.

Fox Soccer Channel

Formerly Fox Sports World, FSC is home to the Premier League, Serie A, MLS, and Argentinan soccer to varying degrees.  It will also show national team coverage and occasionally UEFA Cup matches.  In addition to matches, there are a variety of news programs covering general soccer news to some of the Asian leagues.  This is the place to start to catch soccer in the States.

• Fox Soccer Channel Wikipedia Article

GolTV

While not on as many cable systems, GolTV is a close second to FSC in the amount of soccer shown.  It carries both La Liga and Bundesliga matches as well as the Columbian and Guatamalan leagues.  Like FSC, it also carries news programs covering the world of soccer.

• GolTV Wikipedia Article

ESPN Family

While not exclusively soccer channels, ESPN does cover it's fair share of matches.  It will be covering the 2008 EURO and has covered the Champions League final rounds live.  You have to be a little more aware to catch soccer on ESPN, but most of the time it will be important matches.

• ESPN Wikipedia Article

North America's top two leagues are the US and Mexican leagues.  While not in direct competition with each other, there has evolved a rivalry between the top teams in each league.

MLS

Major League Soccer is the US top division.  It does not have any relegation but continues to grow as expansion teams have been added over the last few years and two more teams will join in the next two seasons.

MLS saw a growth of publicity with the addition of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy in 2007.  Previous to this, MLS had a strict salary cap to prevent over spending by a couple of teams to the detriment of the rest of the league.

As the league has grown, so has the number of soccer only facilities for MLS teams.  Attendance is on par with Championship level teams in England.  With the success the league has had, it is still seen as a feeder league to European top level leagues.  Retaining top players will remain the toughest problem for the league as Europe's money and competition beckon.

• MLS Wikipedia Article

La Primera División

La Primera División is the top league in Mexican soccer.  Popular teams include Guadalajara (aka Chivas), América and Cruz Azul.  Champions are decided by a playoff at the end of the season with seeds being set by where the teams finished in the regular season.  The lowest rated team is relegated to Primera División A.

• La Primera División Wikipedia Article

CONCACAF Champions League/Cup

In an effort to emulate the popularity of the Champions League in Europe, CONCACAF is changing their previous compeition, a tournament called the Champions Cup, to a new Champions League.  The cup was played every year with 8 different teams making up the tournament.  The Champions League will consist of 24 teams with more representation from non-MLS and Mexican teams.  Like the cup, the winner will represent CONCACAF in the FIFA Club World Cup.

• CONCACAF Champions League Wikipedia Article