UK Football - The Championship

[atreyu_ben]

soooooooooo whos going up and whos going down?

cmon southend :naughty:

[matt_h]

there is a football thread, but i surpose that most lower-league stuff gets ignored.

birmingham and wba will probably go up and they have kept most of their players and have started well.

sunderland may fight back but they are screwed at the mo

and forest will be promoted to the championship

[Bigbadbob]

So as long as this thread is here.... can I get a little help. I started watching the EPL last year (thanks to fox soccer channel) but I dont quite understand this champions league stuff. The top 3 teams, from the previous season, in all the European leagues, have some sort of play off?

Then there's the FA CUP?
and the the league trophy?

How does all this work?

[matt_h]

OK, first the FA Cup.

This is the world oldest cup competition. First you have preliminary rounds so that non-league (Conference and below) can get in.
The Football League Clubs (Championship, League One and Two) then join in Round 1, and the Premiership teams in Round 3. It is just a knockout competition.

League Cup (Currently the Carling Cup) is for the 92 league teams. Again, Premiership teams enter late, and teams in European Competitions even later. This is another knockout competition, but is less presigious then the FA Cup.

Champions League is a competion for the elite teams in Europe.
You have 3 sections:
1. Qualifying
2. Group Stage (Some teams go here straight away)
3. Knockout Stages

The better leagues have more places. Eg. The Premiership gets two automatic places (this year, Chelsea and Man Utd) and two more have to qualify (Liverpool and Arsenal). Poorer leagues, such as the Irish, Welsh and some Eastern Europe Leagues only get one or two places in qualifying (of which there are 3 rounds, and Premiership teams only enter at round 3)

In the group stage you have 8 groups of 4 teams. In each group they all polay each other home and away. Top 2 teams advance to the next round, which is the knockout stages.
Here you play two legs (one home one away) and the aggregate winner advances. In the case of a draw the team who scored the most goals away from home goes through, if away goals are equal you go to extra time and possible penalties. Continue until you get the final which is one game played at a predecided venue.

Very thorough, hope this helps. You could always looks them up on wikipedia if you are still not sure.

[Bigbadbob]

Got it.... thanks:thumb: