Difference between Euro 2008, Champions League, FA Cup, and etc

[Sgt_Strider]

So I heard Man U won today and they're the champions of Europel, but I'm not sure how these tournaments work. First there is this Champions League, then there is the FA cup. How do these work? I thought the English leagues were separate from the other leagues. Why were they playing in Moscow? Sorry, I don't know much about soccer and its leagues and I'm really curious about this stuff.

[sinnacle]

Not to shill my site but yeah I'm going to shill for my site. Read my article below and feel free if you have any questions. It should answer your questions.

http://www.sinnacle.com/beginners-guide

[hobophobe]

Check out Sinnacle's site, but for quick answers:

The Champions League is a European competition controlled by the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) for the top club teams in Europe. They take the top finishers from each countries individual leagues and put them together into competition. In order to qualify, a team must have placed high enough in their respective leagues the year before. The location of play is predetermined as to try to not give home/away advantage. The 2007-2008 location was decided to be in Moscow.

The FA Cup is a domestic cup in England. All the teams from the premiership down to the lower leagues are allowed to compete.

Euro 2008 is a European competition for national level teams (not club ones). They are the players from that country who are hand picked for the national team who represent their country. Much like a World Cup that is only played in Europe for European teams.

[jayehs]

Not to shill my site but yeah I'm going to shill for my site. Read my article below and feel free if you have any questions. It should answer your questions.

http://www.sinnacle.com/beginners-guide

Good guide! I remember being totally confused when I started watching football couple of years back, thinking "huh? what do you mean no playoffs? that's stupid!"

[langong]

>sinnacle thanks for the site, I do have a question about The Champions League........<snip form your site>.......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. Does team B will drop down to the UEFA Cup and play in that competition.?

[jayehs]

Does team B will drop down to the UEFA Cup and play in that competition.?

Nope. They go home.

[sinnacle]

Good guide! I remember being totally confused when I started watching football couple of years back, thinking "huh? what do you mean no playoffs? that's stupid!"

Thank you, it's actually my favorite part of my site. That and the EPL Gossip are generally what people say they like best.

Nope. They go home.

Not that you need me to confirm this but Jayehs is correct.

[twotterdhc6]

Check out Sinnacle's site, but for quick answers:

The Champions League is a European competition controlled by the UEFA (Union of European Football Association) for the top club teams in Europe. They take the top finishers from each countries individual leagues and put them together into competition. In order to qualify, a team must have placed high enough in their respective leagues the year before. The location of play is predetermined as to try to not give home/away advantage. The 2007-2008 location was decided to be in Moscow.

The FA Cup is a domestic cup in England. All the teams from the premiership down to the lower leagues are allowed to compete.


Just a slight correction: the FA Cup is only contested by the top tier teams in the Football League (one tier down from the Premier League). The 20 teams in the Premier League play for the more prestigious Premiership trophy.

[Nettles]

This was a bit confusing for me at first too when I was around 12.

Each country has their own football association (ex: English FA). Each continent has it's own football association (ex: European UEFA). The entire world has one big football association (FIFA).

Each of these hold their own competitions. FIFA holds things like the World Cup and Olympics. UEFA and continental associations would hold competitions for clubs (European Champions League where Man U won) and competitions for national teams (Euro 2008 which starts next month, Greece won Euro 2004).

Each national association has their own competitions like cup competitions, the season competitions, etc. The FA Cup is a club knock-out contest between different English clubs from the 1st division to the 4th division I think. Each division also has their own league where each team will play the other twice usually and the one with the most points wins the trophy.

It's all neatly organized, just wikipedia it.

[rb]

Just a slight correction: the FA Cup is only contested by the top tier teams in the Football League (one tier down from the Premier League). The 20 teams in the Premier League play for the more prestigious Premiership trophy.

FA cup is played by all teams in England - theres lots of qualifying rounds - premier league teams start competing at round 3

this years FA cup winners Portsmouth - (from Premier league)

[OldFortYork]

Not to shill my site but yeah I'm going to shill for my site. Read my article below and feel free if you have any questions. It should answer your questions.

http://www.sinnacle.com/beginners-guide

Good guide.

You might want to correct the grammatical errors though. I'm not sure how many times I counted the incorrect usage of the word "their" (vs there).

[sinnacle]

Good guide.

You might want to correct the grammatical errors though. I'm not sure how many times I counted the incorrect usage of the word "their" (vs there).

Thanks and will do, I'll get someone smarter then me to read it over again.

[langong]

Nope. They go home.
thanks

[flexwong]

So I heard Man U won today and they're the champions of Europel, but I'm not sure how these tournaments work. First there is this Champions League, then there is the FA cup. How do these work? I thought the English leagues were separate from the other leagues. Why were they playing in Moscow? Sorry, I don't know much about soccer and its leagues and I'm really curious about this stuff.

try not to refer to united as man u. very insulting.

every league in europe has at least 1 domestic cup, (ie. the Football Association Cup in england, coppa italian in italy) and that cup is contested by more teams, rather then just the top tier. the FA Cup this year had 731 teams competing in it, a record number. england also has a "league cup" more commonly known as the Carling Cup (for sponsorship purposes). this is a club cup competition but only teams from the football league (the next 3 tiers) and the premiership (the top tier).

the most sought after domestic trophy is the league trophy (for lack of better terms). this would be the Premiership trophy in the English Premier League, the trophy that is awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the season (38 games, 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw). there are NO PLAYOFFS! (and trust me, you do not need playoffs for it to be exciting).

uefa champions league: top 3 tiers according to uefa qualification rules are: england, spain and italy. the top 4 teams in those domestic leagues get a berth in the champions league, top 2 get automatic group stage and the next 2 have to qualify via qualifying rounds. then the next 2 tiers are france, germany and russia where i believe the top 3 teams get berths. then, the next tier gets 2 berths, and the final tier gets 1 berth. then all the final participants are placed in group stages and they battle it out for a chance to be in the finals and ultimately win it all, like manchester united did this year, along with their domestic league title, hence achieving the Double.

[VorteC]

SIMPLE EXPLANATION:


Euro 2008 - much like the world cup, but only european national teams. eg: France, Italy, England, Portugal, etc.

Champions League - league for european CLUB teams, not-national. eg: AC Milan, Chelsea, Man United, Inter, Real Madrid, Barce

FA Cup - league for English CLUB teams. eg: Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Blackburn, Newcastle, Middlesburgh, Man City etc.

There are other nation specific leagues like La Liga, Serie A, etc