I live in the usa and i decided i want to start following the preimership but i am a bit confused...i know the league champ is decided through the most points, but what is with all the cups? I've heard that they play in a leauge cup, england cup, fa cup, uefa cup, uefa champions cup, etc. How the hell does english soccer work?! I want to know what the hell i'm getting into!!!
2006-08-10 11:02:38 · 6 answers · asked by robbyj81xl 2 in Sports ➔ Football ➔ English Football
Football, also known as soccer, is played by clubs from towns and cities based on their locality; these are affiliated with the FA (Football Association). The longest running competition (126 years old) is the FA Cup: this is very prestigious and is open to any club in the whole of England, plus a few teams in Wales and Scotland for historical reasons. This means that the lowliest team can have dreams of being drawn against Manchester United, but they have to win several matches against progressively tougher opposition. Teams are drawn randomly against one another in each round; the winner of each round progresses to the next round and the overall winner gets to lift the cup. This is the basic structure of cup football or "knockout rounds."
Premier League teams enter the FA Cup enter at the Third Round, played in early January. The draw for the Third Round, held in mid December, is often the most exciting day in the season, to see which tiny club, or "minnow", will play the big names from the Premier League.
Most games played are league matches: this is the "bread and butter" of football. There are different tiers of the league depending on the quality. Originally, there was one league, called The Football League. This had four divisions. The top division became self-governing and was called The Premier League in 1990, the remaining 3 divisions (lower down the quality scale) are referred to as The Football League. The top division of these three is known as The Championship, the second division League One and the third division League Two. Any team playing outside these four divisions is known as "non-league", but this is a misnomer as they do play league football, just in leagues outside The Premier League and The Football League. All the leagues in the England operate a pyramid system, so the best teams from each league get promoted to the next league (perhaps the Football League or Premier League) or relegated to the lower league (perhaps out of the Football League: the next division down is known as the Conference.)
The top teams in the country compete with other top teams from Europe in European Cup competitions. The latter rounds of these are knock-out competitions but they have small group stages of mini-leagues to determine who gets to the knock out stages.
The most prestigious European club competition is the Champions' League: again, this is a misnomer because it is not only Champions who play in it. From England, the top two teams in the Premier League qualify and third and fourth place get to a qualification round to play similarly placed teams from other European countries to determine who gets to the Champions League. The losing team gets a place in the UEFA cup.
The UEFA cup is another European Cup competition, less prestigious than the Champions' League. Qualification in England is the 5th and 6th place in the Premier League, the winners of the FA Cup and the winners of the League Cup; although the rules for qualification vary from year to year.
The Intertoto Cup is another European Cup competition, held in the summer, that acts as a "backdoor" to entry to UEFA cup. If a team in the Premier League doesn't qualify for the UEFA Cup, it can apply to play in the Intertoto Cup with similar teams from Europe, the prize is entry to the UEFA Cup. Newcastle United have qualified for the UEFA Cup this season in this manner.
Apart from FA Cup, League, and Europe; clubs also compete in various cup competitions that are less prestigious than the FA Cup, and not all teams are eligible. The biggest of these is the League Cup (often called by its sponsor's name: currently Carling Cup): this is open to all teams from the Football League and Premier League. The winner gains entry to the UEFA cup.
Any other cup competition is just an excuse for the supporters to go to Wembley (or Cardiff before they ever manage to finish building the new national stadium.)
Hope you enjoy English football, I do. I suggest you support Newcastle United as they are great. Their nickname is the Magpies due to their black-and -white shirts.
2006-08-12 13:35:21 · answer #1 · answered by Leo 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
in each country there is a league..in england there is the premire league,in italy the serie a,the la liga in spain etc...along with this the will be side tournaments like the fa cup and league cup in england,spanish cup in spain,the italian cup in italy etc...at the end of the season the top placed teams in all the leagues in europe qualify for next years champions league or the uefa cup.....champions league being the ultimate victory for any club..
2006-08-10 21:55:07 · answer #2 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its a confusing system but their are a lot of different leagues in England so their are a bunch of different cups. If you are going to follow it you probably need to get some type of soccer channel because i live in the US and they show practically no European soccer. Once you start watching it / following it you will probably start to get the hang of it.
2006-08-10 11:16:13 · answer #3 · answered by nybigblue1 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Written for Americans on CNNSI.com:
"European football 101:
Follow basics and you'll love the sport as much as I do"
by Arash Markazi
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/arash_markazi/04/14/hot.read/index.html
"Are you the ultimate fan?
Tips for being a footie nut, and some rankings too"
by Jonah Freedman
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/jonah_freedman/08/10/rankings/index.html
2006-08-10 15:07:18 · answer #4 · answered by Steve W 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ohhh, you're talking about THAT football.
well, first of all, in America, we call that soccer. Football is the gridiron. I don't know anything about soccer.
2006-08-10 11:08:19 · answer #5 · answered by pooh8402 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Go here http://www.armchairgm.com/mwiki/index.php?title=Forget_Bill_Simmons_-_Here%27s_PatrickBurke1980%27s_Guide_to_the_EPL
2006-08-10 11:08:14 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋