I think I could be a soccer fan

[Sleeping in EQ]

if I could ever make sense of the World Cup structure and all the leagues and teams with odd names.

Anybody care to explain them?

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

if I could ever make sense of the World Cup structure and all the leagues and teams with odd names.

Anybody care to explain them?

You're asking that someone explain foreigners?

This is the best I can do: http://www.fifa.com/en/index.html

[fuegote]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

if I could ever make sense of the World Cup structure and all the leagues and teams with odd names.

Anybody care to explain them?

World Cup is the main national competition. Let's look at the US. The world is broken down into 6 regions. The US is in CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association) with 39 other countries.

You start of in a group of about 7 or 8 teams. You play each team home and away. 3 points for a W, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss. The top two or three teams move on.

The US then does another home and away with each team in the next group. The hightest 3 point totals go to the world cup final.

So the world cup is comprised of 32 teams and broken down to 8 groups of 4. You play each team once and the top two teams from each group go into the knockout phase. From there, it's a "one and done" tournament.

Each region, like CONCACAF, has it's own tournament held in World Cup off years, like the gold cup.

Now, (this is where it gets fun) in Europe, each country has its own soccer federation. From here I'll focus on England but know it works similarly in each country.

England's top league is the English Premier League (EPL) and it has 20 teams playing in it. You play each team twice, home and away. the same point system works for league play.

The team with the most points wins the league.

The top 4 teams qualify to play in Champion's League. Champion's League takes the top 2-4 teams from each countries best league and they play a "World Cup Format" tournament during the regular season. (8 groups of 4, the top two teams move on to the knockout phase of 16 teams).

In England, the next two teams qualify for the UEFA cup which is similar to the NIT. This one is a knockout tournament.

Now the bottom 3 teams are relegated to the lower division while the top 3 teams of the lower division are promoted into the EPL. England's Football Association (FA) has over 74 teams in it.

During the season, the FA has a knockout tournament with all teams participating. So you can have a 3rd teir team playing one of the top clubs. You think a 15 over 2 NCAA game is amazing, you should see how fans of the lower teir teams react when they knockout one of the top clubs in England. (The US version of this is the US Open Cup).

There is also a couple other tournaments but those are the main ones.