Football in England
FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND
England is one of the world’s leading
footballing nations. They have the world’s largest league with the maximum
number of clubs and players. The first modern set of rules for the game was
established in England in 1863. The Governing Body for the sport in England is
called The Football Association ( FA ) and is the oldest football governing
body in the game's history. There are more than 40,000 clubs in the country.
These are divided into 600+ leagues with over 800,000 registered players.
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| The Football Association Source - Wikipedia |
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| The Wembley Stadium Source - Football Stadiums |
English football is known for its
direct football involving a lot of rough challenges and fouls which makes it
very tough for newer players to adapt to the English style of play. This style
drains a lot out of the players and incredible physical strength and stamina
along with exceptional skills are very important to be a world-class player in
England
Now, let’s have a look at the major
football competitions taking place in England:-
The English League System
The English League is the most competitive in Europe. Many experts believe it to be the best league in the world because of the immense amount of competition. Almost every team in the Premier League ( top division ) possesses exceptional quality; even the bottom-placed teams could come in and defeat the top-placed teams. Upsets in the English League are quite common.
The League in England is divided into 10 tiers. Out of these, only the top 4 tiers are considered professional, i.e.,
Tier 1 – Premier League
Tier 2 – EFL Championship
Tier 3 – EFL League One
Tier 4 – EFL League Two
Source - HowTheyPlay
The tiers lower than these are considered non-professional football ( as shown in the flow chart). The Premier League champions are called the Champions of England. Manchester City FC are the current holders as they won the title the previous season with an exceptional comeback on the last matchday. But with this season coming closer to its end, it looks like the defending champions are going to be unable to retain their title as Arsenal are 5 points clear at the top of the table with Manchester City being the only other team realistically competing for the title
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| Premier League Logo Source - ESPN |
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| Premier League Trophy Source- Staffordshire Live |
The Premier League consists of 20 teams while tiers 2, 3, and 4
consist of 24 teams each. This adds up to 92 professional teams from the
country. There are hundreds of leagues, thousands of clubs, and lakhs of
players in the non-professional tiers. Through these divisions, promotion and
relegation takes place every season so teams move up and down divisions. Due to
the immense amount of competition in the Premier League, the fight for avoiding
relegation is more interesting than the fight for the title. The bottom teams
from a division get relegated and are replaced by the top teams from the
division just below them. The number of relegated and promoted teams vary from
division to division. From the Premier League, the bottom 3 teams get relegated
and the top two teams from the EFL Championship achieve direct promotion and
the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th placed teams go through a playoff round
for the 3rd promotion spot. Similar promotion and relegation takes place in the
other professional tiers as well
Fun Fact - The playoff final for Premier League promotion between
the championship teams is played at The Wembley Stadium, England's National
Stadium, and it is called the richest football match in all of the world
football because the team that wins gets promoted to the Premier League and
gains an immense amount of tv money and Premier League taxes
The league season begins in August and runs till May, during this
time, each team plays every other team in their division twice, i.e., once at
their home stadium and once at the opponent’s stadium. 3 points are awarded to
the winner, 1 to each team in case of a draw, and 0 to the losing team. At the
end of the season, the team with the most points is crowned champions of the
division. If multiple teams have equal points at the top of the table, the team
with the best goal difference wins.
The top 4 teams of the Premier League qualify for the next
season’s Champions League. The 5th placed team gets qualification
for the Europa League and the teams placed lower than 5th up to 8th
go to the qualification rounds for the Europa League and the Conference League
respectively. We will talk about these European competitions in detail in our
upcoming blogs so stay tuned.
Cup
Competitions
England is one of the only countries that have 2 domestic Cup
competitions. These are- The FA Cup and The Carabao Cup. FA Cup is considered the
major cup competition.
The FA Cup is the oldest competition in football
history. It began in 1871 and has been running since. It is one of the most
entertaining competitions in the world. Teams from all 10 tiers get a chance to
participate in the tournament. The lower division teams have to go through
qualifying stages for the main tournament. All matches are direct knockouts.
Since the cup games run along with the league, many top clubs have to use their
substitutes and reserves for cup games for keeping their star players fit for
league matches as well as European competition games. This is a wonderful
tournament as reserve players of teams also get a chance to play and perform to
eventually get into the first team. Bigger clubs who have a chance at winning
the league prioritize the league over the cup while smaller clubs give their
best to win the cup. This ends up in pretty equally matched-up games in this
competition and many lower-division teams surprise the world by defeating top-level
clubs.
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| The FA Cup Trophy Source - Goal.com |
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| The FA Cup Logo Source - Logo-Designer.co |
When a small team knocks out a bigger club, it is known as giant-killing.
FA Cup is the competition where this happens the most. For example -
Middlesbrough, a Championship side made a magical run to the quarter-finals
after knocking out the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in 2022
The FA Cup preliminary rounds for lower division teams begin in August
and the main competition begins around January. The FA Cup games are usually
scheduled midweek and just like every other cup competition, this competition
also runs parallel to the league. The winner of the FA Cup gets direct
qualification for the Europa League group stages, this makes this competition
even more important for teams who fail to obtain qualification by placing high
in the league.
The final of the FA Cup takes place at the Wembley Stadium. Liverpool FC are the current holders of the cup after they defeated Chelsea FC on penalties in a thrilling encounter last season.
The Carabao Cup is the second cup competition in England. It
is also called the EFL Cup. Only the 92 professional teams from England are
allowed to participate. Just like the FA Cup, carabao cup games are also
straight knockouts. The matches begin in August and the final takes place in February
or March. The winner of this competition qualifies for the third qualifying
round of next season’s Europa League. This season's Carabao Cup campaign has already been concluded and Manchester United FC are the current champions after they got the better of Newcastle United in the final.
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| Carabao Cup Trophy Source - The Real EFL |
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| Carabao Cup Logo Source - Rotherham United |
The FA Community Shield, also referred to as the English Super-cup is a one-legged trophy game played between the Premier League winners and the FA Cup winners. In case a team completes a domestic double and wins both these trophies, the league runner-ups are the default opponents for the champions. This match is played just before the start of the next regular league season. Liverpool FC defeated Manchester City FC in this season's Community Shield match.
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| Community Shield Trophy Source - Wales Online |
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| Community Shield Logo Source - Wikipedia |
Other Cup Competitions
EFL Trophy is also called the Papa John’s Trophy and is played between the 48 teams involved in EFL League One and EFL League Two.
FA Trophy is played between the teams present in the 5th
to 8th tier of the league system.
FA Vase is played between 9th and 10th
tier teams.
This is all for “Football in England “, stay tuned for the next
blog if you want to learn all about…. “Football in Spain “
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