American Soccer/European Football

[ShawnG]

Another thing that is completely unamerican in nature is to see a full, balls-out champagne celebration by a team who finished fourth from last in the division, and avoided relegation.

Originally Posted by Galbally

OK, I think that shawn has described it pretty well. You have the Football league, divided into 4 divisions, with the top being the Premiership, then the 1st division, then the 2nd division, and the 3rd, each having roughly 20-25 teams in each league. The season goes from ausgust to may, and the team from each league that collects the most points wins the league, simple as, its a points race.

The top 4 teams in the Premiership are then allowed to play in the European Champions League, which is a league of all the best teams in Europe (but you have to be at the top of your home league to qualify). This is the real action, and includes all the best European teams, if you win this, you are at the top of the heap for that year. Its played concurrently with the rest of the football, but on weeknights, not the weekend. The bottom 3 teams from each domestic english league are relegated to the next league lower down, its the equivalent of football death. The team at the bottom of division 3 are relegated from the leagues all together and have to go into the little silly leagues, and 3 come up, so you always have a chance for glory or abject failure.

Then at the same time there is the FA Cup which involves all of the teams from the 4 leagues playing each other in a knock out competition. (for example Chelsea drew 1-1 the other day with Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup, even though they play in different divsions). Then there is also the League Cup, which is like the FA cup, but less important for some reason. The winners of each tournament go on to play in the European Cup winners Cup, which is again, a knockout competition for those who have won domestic tournaments. This may all sound a bit complex, but in reality its very easy to follow, and its exciting as well as nail biting as your team can get relegated, and everyone knows that relelgation is the worst thing that can ever happen.

A lot of the posters here from britain are big soccer heads as most men are, and plenty of girls as well. For example.

Galbally-Aston Villa
Uncle Kram-Aston Villa
Arnoldlayne-Chelsea
Abbey-Man Utd
Hamster-Leeds United
Diretic-Arsenal (he is an aussie, but people from all over the world support premier league teams)

The worlds biggest current teams are Man Utd, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Axaj, PSV, Benfica, and quite a few others that are massive clubs but don't quite have the pedigree of these teams, or do but not the current sucess and fans. These teams have fans in every part of the world, eg, the most Famous Englishman in the world by far is not Tony Blair but David Beckham, and now its Wayne Rooney (who is not quite so photogenic) is the new superstar along with people like Ronaldinio, Zidane, Raul, etc etc.) These people are famous everywhere in the world from Bagdad to Bejing and back to London, its pretty mental when you think about it.

Duiretic supports Arsenal??? I'm shocked!! I'm gonna have to stop talking to him now!

Originally Posted by ShawnG

Another thing that is completely unamerican in nature is to see a full, balls-out champagne celebration by a team who finished fourth from last in the division, and avoided relegation.

Who do you support Shawn??

[ShawnG]

Originally Posted by Hamster

Duiretic supports Arsenal??? I'm shocked!! I'm gonna have to stop talking to him now!

I guess that would include me too, as an American Arsenal fan. I will also add that I became an Arsenal fan in the dreary, offside-trap years, and not the "winning everything with frenchmen" era.

[ShawnG]

For some bizarre reason, I also support Wolves somewhat too, I always find myself checking their website.

Originally Posted by ShawnG

I guess that would include me too, as an American Arsenal fan. I will also add that I became an Arsenal fan in the dreary, offside-trap years, and not the "winning everything with frenchmen" era.

That has to be one of the best posts ever!!

(we can still talk...as long as you don't tell Duiretic?)

[dubs]

Good explanations from Shawn and Dr G both, I'd also like to point out that there are severe financial penalties involved with dropping out of the top flight of English Football. In that instance, having top stars to sell on, can be a life saver, to the smaller club! Oh! Dr G, you forgot...
Jimbo..Tottenham Hotspur..
Dubs.. Tottenham Hotspur..

[K.Snyder]

I root for Fulham fc...

I've been a McBride fan since his days at Columbus...

but I will probably still root for Fulham after he retires, because they still have Bocanegra, and Dempsey.

[Galbally]

Originally Posted by Hamster

Duiretic supports Arsenal??? I'm shocked!! I'm gonna have to stop talking to him now!

God yeah, he is a big gunners fan. So are arsenal your pet hate? Birmingham City are mine, and I suppose United, dunno why, though I respect them as a team, Chelsea kinda give me the dropsy as well, and liverpool, well they are alright, Arsenal I don't mind, Leeds, well Johnny Giles played for them so they can't be all bad!

[dubs]

Shawn! Tell me you just didn't say you were a...*Gag* Gooner.....