European Football

         STRUCTURE OF EUROPEAN FOOTBALL

 

Source - Football Academy

Football is the world’s sport. It is without any doubt, the most loved sport on the planet. It is played in almost every country of the world. In many countries, becoming a professional football player is considered more prestigious than becoming a genius in any field of science or business.

Modern football originated in Britain in the 19^th century but most experts agree that the original sport was invented sometime around 476 BC in China where it was known as Cuju. There are more than 265 million players in the world and an estimated 4 billion people are actively watching the sport from time to time, but most of these viewers find it hard to understand the significance of various fixtures and fail to understand how a team plays various tournaments at the same time. If that is the case with you as well, then no need to worry. We’ve got you covered.

Football may seem to be very complicated to new fans and followers but this blog contains everything you need to know about the functioning of football in European countries.

 

We have the following steps to understand European football competitions

 

Every Country has its own League:-

All European countries have their leagues which are divided into multiple divisions to fit all the teams from that country. For Example – The English League consists of The Premier League, EFL Championship, EFL One, etc. Relegation and Promotion take place every season to keep the league functioning. Through promotions, teams from the lower divisions make their way up to the top.

Source- The Football Lovers

In a League, each team plays against every other team in their division twice, i.e., one home game and one away game.3 points are given to the winner of each game and the losing team gets 0 points. In case of a draw, both teams are awarded 1 point each. In most of the leagues, the season starts in August and runs till May with league matches taking place mostly on Saturdays and Sundays. At the end of the season, the team that has the maximum number of points wins the league. Most of the leagues function like this only while some like the Irish League start in January.

League is the best form of the tournament as always the deserving team wins and a team could learn from their defeats and improve as the season progresses. The national team scouts also get good enough time to identify various talented players throughout the league and develop them for national duty. They are the best way of obtaining new talented players from the country and for improving their existing players and squad. League tournaments are also a way of qualification of teams for Inter-continental tournaments which we’ll study ahead.

 

Every Country has its Cup and Supercup:-

Along with the league, each country has its cup and Supercup as well. In these cup competitions, teams from various divisions are invited to play against each other. Even some amateur clubs are invited to play. The teams from the upper divisions are seeded in the later stages of the competition.

These matches are usually scheduled midweek and run along with the leagues. These games are knock-out matches and direct elimination is given on a defeat. This gives a good chance to lower division teams to shock everyone and make a dream run to the tournament’s final stages. This is why sometimes the strongest teams fail to win the tournament and a surprise winner is obtained.

The priority of the bigger clubs is to win the league rather than the cup so to keep their star players fresh, most big clubs use their rotation players and youngsters to play the cup games. This is also one of the reasons why big teams end up losing these cup games. But these matches allow clubs to use their young players and identify their potential.

The Supercup is usually a single match played between the league winner and the cup winner. If a team wins both the league and cup, then the league runner-ups are the other team that plays in the Supercup.

These cup games also play a role in qualification for various Inter-continental competitions.

 

Inter-continental Tournaments:-

European football is not only limited to national leagues and national cups. Tournaments featuring some of the best clubs in Europe also take place. Teams from almost every European country have a chance at qualifying for these tournaments. A club’s performance in its respective league and cup plays a big role in qualifying for these tournaments.

These tournaments are the best as the strongest clubs from the entire continent face each other and since the stakes are so high, each team gives their best, making these fixtures the most entertaining and emotional.

Source- maltafootball.com

 

We will talk about all these leagues, cups, and inter-continental championships in detail in our upcoming blogs so stay tuned

In the next blog, we will get to know all about “ Football in England "