Originally posted by pelos21:
Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:
Originally posted by pelos21:
Originally posted by 49ersMyLife:
Originally posted by pelos21:
Can someone please explain to me how the Champions League works? I went too their website but it just confused me more. Is it like a league that controls the whole continent or what? I'm trying to get more into soccer so I figured what better league to watch than the Champions League.
8 groups - 32 teams - group stages - top 2 advance to knockout stage.
It runs parallel to other leagues...so teams that finish at the top (3 or 4) of their leagues (really depends on many things) like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barca, Inter etc. play in their league and also Champions League at the same time. Just wiki search Champions League - it's easier to read it than explain how the qualifications work.
That's what I don't understand. Can you word that like in NFL terms? 
Okay...I'll try:
Think of each division in the NFL as a separate league (ie. Premier League, La Liga, Serie 1 etc.) but 20 teams per league. So, the top 3-4 teams in each of the top leagues in Europe qualify for Champions League. I'm sure you know which are the top leagues (English league, Spanish league, Italian, German are the strongest).
Now, the teams that finish top 3 in Premier League, they automatically qualify for NEXT year's Champions League. Let me give you an example...Liverpool finished in the 2nd spot in 2008-2009 season of Premier League. So, they qualified for Champions League for 2009-2010 season. In 2009-2010 Premier League season - they finished 7th - so they they won't play in Champions League in 2010-2011 season (which is this year).
So, your league standing of this year will determine if you will qualify to Champions League next year or not. Teams that finish 5th-8th play in Europa League in the same fashion. So, this year - Liverpool will be playing Europa League and not the Champions League.
So, it is possible that Liverpool wins Premier League this year and yet they won't be featured in Champions League this year.
I know it's confusing.
So the better the league the more slots you get for the champions league? Do all these leagues qualify for the Champions league?
spanish la liga
italian serie a
german bundesliga
english premier league
french ligue 1
portuguese superliga
turkish league
dutch eredivisie
Is the Europa league like the B league or what? Also, when does the Champion league games come on? Thanks for the help.
Top three leagues currently are EPL, La Liga, and Bundesliga. The top 3 leagues get maximum of 4 teams in the Champions League. Top 3 automatically qualify and the 4th one has to play in qualification round. The next 3 teams in those leagues (ie. team finishing in 5th, 6th, and 7th spot) are qualified for Europa League.
If you search UEFA Coefficient - you will be able to find more on this.
So, you can see - Europa League is not competed among top teams but teams that finish just below them.
