another bloody yank

From here on I'll call it football because my question is about the game outside of the US.

Can anyone explain (or point me to a website that does) how the various British/English/European/ leagues are set up? Which teams play each other? Do British teams play Spanish teams on a club level or just in national tournaments? I find the whole thing kind of confusing.

I watched a couple games over the weekend at my Inlaws (They have some kind of dish tv setup) and got to wondering about it.


And I didn't put this in the sports forum because it's way too ignorant.

nicola9

Hey there, this sounds like me trying to figure out the whole American Football thing so....

You could try going to the BBC Sport website and on there is a whole section for football, from there you can see fixtures, results, league tables etc that would give you a good idea of what teams play in what league.

There is also the UEFA Champions league and the UEFA Europa league where teams within Europe play against each other, which is where you might see British club teams playing against Spanish club teams.

Hope this helps I'm sure someone with much more knowledge will be along shortly!

another bloody yank

Thanks!

nethead

UEFA is the body that controls football within Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA

Found this that shows the league fixtures/stats in each country but not sure if it explains it.
http://www.soccerstats.com/

Ginblossom

For England:

http://www.premierleague.com/page/Home/0,,12306,00.html

HoosierDaddy

You've basically got :

- Domestic (Premier League, League 1, League 2, etc)
- European (Champions League, Europa Cup or whatever it is)
- International (Country vs Country)

Bread & butter is domestic League (examples of each):

- English Premier League (Arsenal vs Spurs)
- French League Un (Marseille vs Lyon)
- German Bundesliga (Bayern Munich vs Hamburg)
- Spanish La Liga (Real Madrid vs Barcelona)
- Dutch Eredivisie (PSV Endhoven vs Ajax)

Then you have:

- Domestic Cups (Clubs progressing in a knock-out format until a Final)
- European Cups (Top Clubs based on the previous years' domestic standings playing in a mini-League set up, ending up in a Final)

International matches can be friendly non-competitive games or in competition:

- European Championship Qualifying
- European Championship (every 4 years: 00/04/08/12/)
- World Cup Qualifying
- World Cup (every 4 years: 02/06/10/14)

All you need to know is that Scotland haven't qualified for anything since France '98 and the EPL only seems to have 4 teams max who can win the bloody thing

another bloody yank

Thanks, it's beginning to clear up for me.


One of the games I watched was Barcelona vs. a Mexican team, I believe it said it was Fifa world cup. I didn't think the WC started until this summer?

Elvira

It's the Fifa CLUB World Cup - ie winners of respective continental competitions (eg European Champions League). As opposed to Fifa Countries World Cup, ie the "real" World Cup

Soccer Ref

I'm here for any Refereeing advice !!

Dogbyte

Can I politely give you some advice then, instead... If a Referee decides to caution a player for what he perceives to be a cautionable offence DONT walk after the player, get HIM to come to you, if he doesnt and shows a complete lack of respect for YOUR authority SEND HIM OFF with a RED.I hate to see a ref walking after a player who knows he is going to get a yellow card but just turns his back and the ref has to go after him to show the card to his face.
Not only lack of respect but a lack of sportsmanship which seems to be dead in sports knowadays. Rant over !

Dogbyte

And whatever you do, ABY dont ask someone about the offside rule !!

Bob

Italian league over the Dutch I'd have thought.

Anyway, English teams generally don't play against the Scottish or Irish teams unless it's a cup...Welsh are a bit to pants and have a few rubbish clubs pretending to play in the rubbishier English leagues.

The whole promotion/relegation thing is something that is missing in the US sports where it doesn't matter if your shit as there aren't any consequences, be far more interesting if there was a fight at both ends of the table, to see the Bills get knocked down into a shit league for instance.

HoosierDaddy

There is a consequence in the NFL. You get a high draft pick and you have to give some no mark who was good in College $20 million guaranteed, not knowing if they'll be any good. Yes, JaMarcus Russell, I'm looking at you

Bob

naaa...because they trade those draft picks for guaranteed players from other teams and being shit shouldn't be rewarded by picking the cream of the potential crop.

And what's wrong with a youth training system and bringing folk up from school system or giving hope to sunday league type players...just doesn't happen, well apart from the odd occastion that makes it into a movie.

sambapink

The main thing you must always remember ABY.. ALWAYS remember - is that there is really only one team in Europe. Arsenal.

My work here is done