Beginners Guide
The Beginners Guide to the Beautiful Game.
Welcome and thanks for checking out the site. Consider this a starting guide if you are looking to get into Football. It won’t be too in-depth but this should provide a good starting ground to get more information on the game.
Who Controls Football?
Football’s governing body is called FIFA. (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) They make sure cash is flowing into the game. They are not so hands on with regards to rules. FIFA has a special section that deals with the rules of the game. FIFA can’t stand politics or politicians. When the U.S congress was investigating the major sport leagues regarding steroids the heads of the four major sporting leagues all appeared before congress. That would not work with FIFA, not only would they thumb there nose at congress but they would ban U.S Soccer from playing in International competitions. Politicians manage the country and FIFA manages football is their mind set.
FIFA’s crowning jewel is the World Cup. More regarding the World Cup would be explained in another section below.
FIFA is the international body that controls football around the world. Each continent has there own governing body that oversees football within the continents. The European governing body is called UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and the North American governing body for the sake of information is called Concacaf. (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association)
Most of the examples will be based on UEFA since they are the biggest of the continental bodies. UEFA sets the policy when it comes to European football. Their crown jewel is the Champions League for Club competition that occur annually and the European Championships for national competitions which occur every four years. Each continental body has their own version of the Champions League and European Championships. For example the Concacaf national competition is called the Gold Cup.
Each country’s also has their own FA (football association). Each country’s FA looks after football at the grass roots level all the way up to the top professional leagues.
Now we’ll move on professional leagues.
For this area forget everything you know about North American sports since it doesn’t really apply here.
Each country has their top professional league. The example used here will be the English Premier League. Most of the top leagues have between 16-20 teams playing within and play each other twice a year. The standard calendar for most leagues is between August and May. MLS and other cold weather countries such as Russia run between March and December.
A win is worth three points and a tie is worth one. Using the EPL (English Premier League) example whoever has the most points after 38 games wins the league. Where it differs from North American sports is that whoever occupies in the bottom three places in the EPL no longer get to play in the EPL next season. Those three teams are sent down to play in the second division (in England its called the Championship) and three new teams from the Championship take there place in the English Premier League.
So there is no playoff type format?
With some exceptions such as the MLS, no there isn’t a playoff structure to determine the champion. It’s based upon the entire year of league play.
Knock out competitions do occur through the course of the year. Some countries only have one and some have two. In England they are two. This first one is the FA Cup. Certain weekends are set aside during the season where teams will play for the FA Cup instead of playing in the EPL. Provided you are a registered club with the FA you are entered into the FA Cup. That means this title in not only open to the 20 teams playing in the main league. It’s open to every football team in England, professional or amateur. When the FA Cup draw is made there is a chance a small club that averages 1000-2000 people a game can have Manchester United visit them which is part of its charm.
The FA Cup is played throughout the course of the year, while the rules differ from country to country if you win you move on. England for example if the game ends in a draw the game is then replay at a later date. Only this time if team A plays team B in team B’s home stadium the replay now takes place in team A’s home stadium. If after two games it’s still a tie then extra time is needed, then penalty kicks.
The second knockout type format is the League Cup. As mentioned some countries have this and some do not. The League Cup is not open to every team registered with the FA. It’s only open to the teams that play in the four professional leagues in England. The top division in England is called the English Premier League and the second division called the Championship. There are two more leagues under it. The next one down is called League One and naturally the next one below is called League Two. Unlike the FA Cup, the League Cup differs slightly in that there are no replays if a game isn’t decided in 90 minutes. Instead extra time and penalty kicks would be needed.
A fan typically has three trophies in which to root for. The EPL title, FA Cup and League Cup. That will bring me to the next question.
It’s seems like only big teams like Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea win the league. If that is the case what does a fan of a club, let’s say West Ham have to cheer for?
While the goal is to win the league and its true for most clubs it is unrealistic, fans that don’t cheer for the big four still have reasons to be interested.
Below is an example of the EPL standings. (Forgive the format)
Points
1 Manchester United 76
2 Chelsea 71
3 Arsenal 70
4 Liverpool 62
5 Everton 57
6 Portsmouth 53
7 Blackburn 50
8 Aston Villa 49
9 Manchester City 49
10 West Ham 44
11 Tottenham 39
12 Newcastle United 35
13 Middlesbrough 34
14 Sunderland 33
15 Reading 32
16 Wigan 31
17 Birmingham 30
18 Bolton 26
19 Fulham 24
20 Derby 11
This is where UEFA now comes into play. Mentioned above UEFA controls European Football. It is the goal of just about every team to end up playing in Europe, partly for the money and partly for the prestige. UEFA runs two European competitions, one is the Champions League and the other is the UEFA Europa League. For any college basketball fans think of the Championships League as March Madness but more importantly the UEFA Europa League is the NIT however winning it is treated with much more respect.
The top two team teams in the EPL currently (this may change in the future) will automatically qualify for the Champions League. The teams in 3rd and 4th place will then go into a draw and will play another European based team in an home and away format and whoever comes out on top will then go on to the main Champions League competition. Usually England gets four teams in the Championships League however that is due to the EPL being a strong league. Each country depending on the quality of their league only gets a set amount of teams entered into the Champions League. For example Portugal the top two get in automatically and then the 3rd place team has to qualify. Scotland only gets the 1st place team and the second place team needs to qualify. As you can see each country is different. The number of teams entered into European play also changes depending on the success over the last five years. In other words the numbers of clubs who gain access to European football can change depending on their success in European play in the years previous.
The Champions League is where you want to be. It’s the money league and playing in the Champions League will convince the best players to play for your team but that will be touched on later.
The same quota system is also in placed for the Europa League. The 5th place team will qualify for the UEFA Europa League. Now the tricky part comes into play. On some years the 6th and 7th place team will also qualify however there is a big if to that.
Remember the FA Cup and League Cup mentioned before? Well if a team wins that then their ticket to Europe is already punched. So Tottenham for example won the 2008 League cup. That means despite them being in 11th in the EPL their assured of an European place which means one less spot to play for. In 2008 whoever finishes in 7th will not have a direct entry into the UEFA Europa League. The same also applies to the FA Cup whoever wins that will also go straight to the UEFA Europa League and that would mean the 6th place team wouldn’t make it to Europe.
2008 is a strange year with regards to European places (spots) due to the fact that the big four teams in England usually win the FA and League Cup. In doing so that opens up the door to places 6th and 7th making it to Europe.
In a perfect world an EPL team would want to be in the top 7. Places 8th-13th are not great but not bad either. Those teams are not going to Europe yet are in no danger of losing their EPL status and getting regulated. Teams 14th-17th can’t be comfortable since it’s close to the drop zone. You don’t want to finish 18th, 19th, and 20th since a team would lose their EPL status. Unlike in American sports where teams mail it in for the last part of the season to get a better draft pick the reserve is true here. Teams at the bottom end have to fight tooth and nail to ensure they stay in the top division because that is where the money is.
How’s Does Player Movement Work?
Try to forget the North American based systems here as well. It will be good to list roughly the top eight teams in European Football. (Apologies to a few clubs that should make the list but I wanted to keep it simple.)
In no order
1 Manchester United
2 Arsenal
3 Liverpool
4 Chelsea
5 Real Madrid
6 Barcelona
7 Inter Milan
8 A.C Milan
To bring it back to college sports consider the above your power house teams. With a few exceptions consider any other team below that a Mid Major team.
What this means is if a team from the big eight chooses to go after a player from a team not in the big eight that player will most likely want to jump ship. It gets tricky and expensive when a team in the top eight wants a player from another top eight team.
While North American sports have drafts, trades and free agency, Football has transfers and loans.
In football there are only two times a year where transfers are allowed to take place. The first is the summer transfer period which is between July 1 to August 31. The other is the winter transfer period which is open between January 1st and January 31st. You can talk and try to make moves at anytime however it won’t become official and that player won’t become part of your team unless it falls within those two time periods.
This is roughly how transfers happen.
Team A goes to Team B and says we want this player, how much would it cost to buy him? If team B wishes to put a price on the player they will come back and say “you can buy the player however you would have to pay us 10 million dollars for his rights” If Team A is fine with that they cut Team B a check.
This is where Football also differs to North American sports. In those sports league if two teams make a trade the players involve have to report to their new team. Not the case in Football. As a side note while trades do happen its very rare in Football so that is all I will make mention of that.
Back to the example now, Team A and Team B have agreed to a price Team A is now allowed to talk to the player regarding a contact. See in North American sports the contract gets taken over by the new team. Not so in European Football, Team A will now have to deal with the players agent since the player will need to sign a contact with the team that wants to sign him before it can become official.
In the end this is how it would break down.
Team A gets the player they want.
Team B gets cash which they can keep in the bank or use to buy another player
and
The player gets a new contact which usually means more money.
Free Agency is also rare in Football. If a team likes a player they will approach that player about signing a new contact two years ahead of time. If the player says no they the team will look to sell him before losing the player for nothing.
The other major form of player movement is sending a player out on loan. If team A sends a player out on loan to team B, team A still own the player however usually team B pays a part if not all the players wages. Much like a transfer the player would have to agree to the loan in order for it to take effect.
Football Competitions
The Champions League
In the Champions League 32 of the best club teams from around Europe meet up to determine who is the best in Europe. Not only does a fan get to cheer for their team on a National level but the best of the best is determined on an Continental level every year. Unlike Baseball who crown teams World Champions in a league that is only played in North America. In Football there is no argument, the best of the best is crowned not only in Europe with the Champions League but that team goes on to play in the Club World Cup in Japan where all the winners of each continents version of the Champions League meet to see who is the best.
Back to the Champions League, 32 teams which are broken down into 8 groups of 4 teams. The groups of 4 then play each other home and away in a round robin format. The top two teams in each group move on to the round of 16. The 3rd place team doesn’t move on however they will now drop down to the UEFA Cup and play in that competition. The last place team goes home. The group stages of the Champions League take place between September and December
The next stage of the Champions League start again in February. The 16 teams left are then placed in a draw where one team will face another team. Unlike the group stage this round will be played over two games in a home and away format. The winner over the two games moves on. Away goals are important since it is considered the main tie breaker. For example is Team A and Team B play in Team B’s stadium and the result of the first game is 2-1 for Team B. If in the second game Team A Win 1-0 while the overall score is 2-2 they will move on since they scored an away goal.
If both games end up with the same score in the two games then extra time and penalties will be needed.
That is the format used in the Champions League right up until the deciding game. The finals are a one game winner take all with extra time and penalties if needed.
UEFA Cup……Now Europa League.
The format for the UEFA Cup is changing in the fall of 2008 to pretty much match up with the Champions League. With that being the case there isn’t too much of a difference between the two competitions going forward.
Now that the major club competitions have been taken care of, we move on to the International tournaments.
The European Championships.
As mentioned previously each continent has there own governing bodies. Each governing bodies holds a major tournament once every couple of years. With UEFA being the most powerful and biggest of the continental bodies the example of the European Championships will be used. The examples below are not standard with the other governing bodies. For example in the European Championship, countries need to qualify for it. The South American version which is the Copa America no qualifying takes place. The information below is not standard across the world.
The European Championships take place every four years and aside from the World Cup, Summer Olympics and maybe the Super Bowl there is no bigger sporting event.
The home nation automatically qualifies for this event. Since two countries are hosting it in 2008 (Switzerland and Austria) that leaves 14 other countries that need to qualify. Seven groups of either 7 or 8 teams are formed with each country playing the other twice over a 18 month period in order to decide who qualifies. The top two teams in each group then move on to the European Championships.
Once the European Championships kick off there will be four groups of four countries. Each country plays within there group once in a round robin format. After the three games are complete the top two teams move on to the knockout round. When the final eight is set its win or go home right up until the final which will determine the winner.
The World Cup
The World Cup is the grandest stage in Football and It occurs every four years. A good month will lift a player into legendary status. Each continental federation gets a certain amount of places in the World Cup. With Europe being the largest football playing continent they get the most entries into the World Cup with 13 places (out of 32 teams) the lowest is CONCACAF (North/Central America) who only get three automatic places. Each continents system for awarding World Cup places is difference. In Europe it pretty much follows the same routine as qualifying for the European Championships. The only difference is that the first place team qualifies. The teams who finish 2nd are then put together where they would have to face another 2nd place team in a home and away format. The country that wins over the two games then advances.
Once the World Cup starts, the format is exactly the same as the European Championships, only with more teams. There are eight groups of four teams with each team playing three times again in a round robin format. The top two teams then move on to the knockout rounds. When the final 16 are set its win or go home all the way up to the World Cup finals.
That pretty much wraps it up. If anyone has a question please feel free to email me at
dmmd98@sinnacle.com