English Soccer Questions

[IlliniRacer]

In the time that I was unemployed I found a liking to English Premiership Football. However, I'm a little confused. I understand the Premiership and the League of Champions, but how in the heck does the FA Cup work? Why is Man U playing a Division 1 team (Millwal) ?

Also, how many teams get dropped each year? I think this is such a cool concept.

[Chaos]

In the time that I was unemployed I found a liking to English Premiership Football. However, I'm a little confused. I understand the Premiership and the League of Champions, but how in the heck does the FA Cup work? Why is Man U playing a Division 1 team (Millwal) ?

Also, how many teams get dropped each year? I think this is such a cool concept.

FA is Football Association. They essentially the sanctioning body of all soccer played in England.

English Premier League is the top level soccer played in England. You'll find teams like ManU, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Newcastle there. This is where the teams generally play their 'regular season' games. There is also 1st division, 2nd division and on... You are correct. At the end of each season, teams are promoted and demoted based on their finish of the previous season. I believe it is 3 teams that get demoted from the Premiership to 1st division, and vice versa. This process also happens between 1st and 2nd, 2nd and 3rd etc.

The FA cup is a England-wide tournament where essentially any team can participate. This includes both amateur and professional sides. As such, there is the possibility a Premiership club will play a 1st division club. This year, Manchester play Northhampton, which was a 2nd or 3rd division club. The reason you see a lot of 1st and 2nd division clubs in the latter stages of the tournament is because the big teams are focusing on the premiership title. This is important because up to 4 clubs in England gain a berth in the Champions League Tournament. Also, Some teams are in the Champions League. Others are in the UEFA Cup. So they tend to give more importance to those games. As a result, they will play their 'B' squad in the FA cup.

Champions League is a Europe-wide tournament. It consists of the league winners of all the major european countries (ie Italy, Spain, France, etc.), and other top finishers in those major countries. THe number of spots allocated to each country is determined by historical performance. This is why countries like Spain, Italy, England will have 4 clubs in the tournament, while Belgium will have 1 or 2.

I think I covered everything...hope this helps :)

[Chaos]

Here are some helpful links:

http://www.uefa.com/
http://www.thefa.com/
http://www.premierleague.com/
http://www.fifa.com/

Also, the European Cup is happening this summer. It's typically the 2nd most pretigious National Side competition (2nd to the World Cup of course)

http://www.euro2004.com/index.html

I'm cheering for Italy.