Professional sports league organization: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 07:05, 15 November 2010

Professional sports leagues are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are a European model, characterised by a pyramid-style strcuture of hundreds of teams using promotion and relegation to determine membership in a hierarchy of leagues and a North American model characterized by its use of franchises and closed membership.

Structure of North American leagues

Professional sports leagues in North America are limited to a fixed number of teams, sometimes called "franchises."^[1] In this system, sometimes called a "franchise system" in the U.K., ^[2]^[3]^[4] only a vote of the existing franchises can admit more teams. When this is done, a new place is put up to bid among would-be owners. With a few exceptions, no second team is allowed in an area where a team already exists.

This system of league organization was first developed in Major League Baseball with the formation of the National League in 1876, and was later adopted by the other North American sports leagues.

Although member teams are separate corporate entities from the league, they operate only under the auspices of the league. The league, rather than any other sporting organization, determines the rules of the sport and sets the conditions under which players join and change teams. Since North American professional teams are so closely tied to their leagues, and, in the case of the four major team sports, clearly represent the top level of play in the world, teams almost never play games outside of their league.

Exceptions to the ownership structure described above do exist. Major League Soccer is technically not an association of franchises but a single business entity, though each team has an owner-operator. The team owners are actually shareholders in the league. The league, not the individual teams, contracts with the players.

The best teams in a given season reach a playoff tournament, and the winner of the playoffs is crowned champion of the league, and, in the case of the "the Big 4" major professional sports leagues as world champions. Major League Soccer teams, however, play many games against international competition, due to the global nature of the sport and the presence of regional (CONCACAF) and international (FIFA) organizations.

Most of the teams in the four major North American pro sports leagues were created as part of a planned league expansion or through the creation of a rival league that later merged with its older counterpart. Only the few oldest teams in the National Hockey League, for example, existed before becoming part of the NHL or its former rival, the World Hockey Association. The rest of the teams were created ex novo as expansion teams or as charter members of the WHA, which merged into the NHL in 1979.

The North American system has some features of the European model in terms of a pyramid struture. Major League Baseball has an associated minor-league system used to develop young talent. Although most minor league teams are independently owned, each one is contracted toa major-league team, which hires and pays the players and assigns them to a given level in its minor-league hierarchy. The teams themselves do not move up or down in the hierarchy. Professional ice hockey has a system somewhat similar to baseball's, while the National Basketball Association operate a small developmental league and the NFL used to operate one in Europe.

A number of leagues outside of the United States also use this system. Most sport leagues in Australia are based on the franchise model, with the most notable examples being the Australian Football League (Aussie rules) and National Rugby League (rugby league). Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan uses this system due to American influence on the game. In cricket, the Indian Premier League, launched in 2008, also operates on this system. The Super League, which is the top level of rugby league in the United Kingdom and France, will be run on a franchise basis from 2009.^[5]

Where a country is comprised of distinct administrative or political regions, such as counties or states, some leagues are comprised of teams representing each region. Examples of this system are English cricket's County Championship, Australian cricket's Sheffield Shield and Super League Malaysia playing football. In rugby union, the Southern Hemisphere Super 14 competition operates on a franchise system, but it grew and developed from an international provincial competition where each major province contributed a team, rather than each city. In 2006, a promotion/relegation system was introduced affecting only the South African teams, but as of November of that year, it was confirmed that it will never actually be employed.^[6]

Structure of European leagues

See also: Sports in Europe

English football (soccer) developed a very different system from the North American one, and it has been adopted for soccer in most other countries, as well as to many other sports founded in Europe and played across the world. The system is marked by:

Teams are organized as "clubs". They be either unincorporated associations operating as a social club or owned by an incorporated entity operating as a business.
Clubs are grouped in several tiers. Each club's tier is determined by their performance historically.
There is promotion and relegation between adjacent tiers primarily based on performance in the previous season. Relegation may also be imposed based on other criteria, such as entering into administration.
A single tier, or two or more adjacent tiers, may be run by a single organization, known collectively as a league, giving rise to a hierarchy of leagues. The clubs that play in a league are members of the league organization. Where a league comprises of more than one grouping, each grouping is called a "division".
New clubs may be formed at any time and at any location. New clubs are required to join a league at a low tier.
Teams play games both inside and outside of their leagues.

European football clubs are members both of a league and of a governing body. In the case of England, all competitive football clubs are members of The Football Association, while the top 20 teams also are members of the Premier League, a separate organization. The FA operates the national football team and tournaments that involve teams from different leagues. In conjunction with other countries' governing bodies, it also sets the playing rules and the rules under which teams can sell players' contracts to other clubs.

The promotion and relegation system is generally used to determine membership of leagues. Most commonly, a pre-determined number of teams that finish the bottom of a league or division are automatically dropped down, or relegated, to a lower level for the next season. They are replaced by teams who are promoted from that lower tier either by finishing with the best records or by winning a playoff. In England in 2010, Burnley, Hull City and Portsmouth were relegated from the Premier League to the Football League Championship, the second level of English soccer. They were replaced by the top two teams from the second level, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion, as well as Blackpool F.C., which won a playoff tournament of the teams that finished third through sixth.

The tiered structure is sometimes referred to as a "pyramid" system as the higher tiers have only one grouping, while tiers lower down may tend two have more groupings, often regionally based. In the major European footballing nations of England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France, the higher tiers are professional, while the lower tiers tend to be semi-professional or amateur. The largest sports pyramid worldwide is the English football league system.

Unlike in North American pro sports, where the "league" is the only competition member teams play in, European teams play matches both inside and outside of their leagues. In English soccer, a team may follow a league game with a match in the FA Cup (a tournament involving hundreds of pro and semi-professional teams), and then a game in the UEFA Champions League (a competition involving the best European teams from the previous year.

In any given year, a country could have several trophy winners. In 2004-05, Chelsea won the Premier League championship, Arsenal won the FA Cup and Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League.

A similar system is used by other sports popular in Europe such as rugby union, rugby league, field hockey and team handball.

Comparison between the North American system and the European system

In the European system, the league does not choose which cities are to have teams in the top division. For example, Leeds, the fourth-biggest city in England, saw their team relegated from the Premier League to the Championship in 2004, and then saw their team relegated to the third-tier League One in 2007. Leeds will remain without a Premiership team as long as it takes for Leeds United or in theory any other local club to do well enough in the second-tier division to win the right to play in the Premiership. Famously, the French Ligue 1 lacked a team from Paris for some years.

Territorial rights are not recognized, and successful new teams in a geographical location can come to dominate the incumbents. In Munich, for example, TSV 1860 München were initially more successful than the city's current biggest team Bayern München.^[7] Major cities such as London may have many teams in the professional leagues: for example, in 2010–11 it has five teams in the Premier League alone, an additional eight teams in the three fully professional leagues within The Football League, and at least one fully professional team (AFC Wimbledon) in Conference National, the top level of Non-League football.

The "closed shop" aspect of baseball's National League was not deemed to be necessary to ensure stability in England because a national English football league did not require the sort of travel commitments that were necessary in the U.S. A secretariat was created to organize and run the Football League. Later lower tiers (divisions) were added.

This system is widely used in football around the world, notably in Africa and Latin America as well as Europe. The most notable variation has developed in Latin America where many countries have two league seasons per year, which scheduling allows because many Spanish-speaking Latin American nations lack a national cup competition. Promotion and relegation has historically been used in other team sports founded in the United Kingdom, such as rugby union, rugby league and cricket.

The system is also used in Europe even when the sports were founded in America, showing that the league system is not related to the sport itself, but more on the tradition of sports organisation in that region. Sports such as basketball in Spain and Lithuania and ice hockey in Russia use promotion and relegation. Alternately, in Australia the A-League follows the tradition of Australian sports having a franchise model that better suits a country with great distances between the country's main population centres, similar to the situation in the U.S. and Canada.

East Asian countries (Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan) have a particular differentiation among leagues: "European" sports such as football and rugby use promotion and relegation, while "American" sports such as baseball and basketball use franchising, with a few differences varying from country to country. A similar situation exists in countries in Central America and the Caribbean, where football and baseball share several close markets.

References

^ [Rader, Benjamin G.; 2002; Baseball:A History of America's Game; Second Edition; University of Illinois Press]
^ {{cite web|title=Steve James: The Twenty20 franchise system simply will not work|publisher=Daily Telegraph, London, UK |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/twenty20/7598735/Steve-James-The-Twenty20-franchise-system-simply-will-not-work.html}
^ {{cite web|title=ECB head dismissed talk of Twenty20 franchise system |publisher=Taipei Times, Taipei, Taiwan|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2008/05/01/2003410674}
^ Shropshire, Kenneth L. "The sports franchise game: Cities in pursuit of sports franchises, events, stadiums and arenas"
^ Article discussing the potentially negative affects of franchising on Rugby League
^ "Spears abandon their Super conquest". Planet Rugby. 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2006-11-22.
^ [Bundesliga history http://www.the-shot.com/bundesliga-faq/history-faq/]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <!--unless stated otherwise, facts and assertions in this article are supported by the Cain and Haddock paper listed under 'References'-->
-Professional [[sports league]]s are organized in numerous ways. The most common are those in the [[North America]]n mode and those in the [[Europe]]an mode. Generally, the North American structure is characterized by its use of '''[[Franchising|franchises]]''' and closed membership; the European structure is characterized by its use of '''[[promotion and relegation]]'''.
+Professional [[sports league]]s are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are a [[Europe]]an model, characterised by a pyramid-style strcuture of hundreds of teams using promotion and relegation to determine membership in a hierarchy of leagues and a [[North America]]n model characterized by its use of '''[[Franchising|franchises]]''' and closed membership.
-==Fixed number of franchise teams==
+==Structure of North American leagues==
 {{see also|Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada}}
 Professional sports leagues in North America are limited to a fixed number of teams, sometimes called "franchises."<ref>[Rader, Benjamin G.; 2002; Baseball:A History of America's Game; Second Edition; University of Illinois Press]</ref> In this system, sometimes called a "franchise system" in the U.K., <ref>{{cite web|title=Steve James: The Twenty20 franchise system simply will not work|publisher=Daily Telegraph, London, UK |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/twenty20/7598735/Steve-James-The-Twenty20-franchise-system-simply-will-not-work.html}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=ECB head dismissed talk of Twenty20 franchise system |publisher=Taipei Times, Taipei, Taiwan|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2008/05/01/2003410674}</ref><ref>Shropshire, Kenneth L. "The sports franchise game: Cities in pursuit of sports franchises, events, stadiums and arenas"</ref>
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 This system of league organization was first developed in Major League Baseball with the formation of the [[National League]] in [[1876]], and was later adopted by the other North American sports leagues.
-Although member teams are separate corporate entities from the league, they operate only under the auspices of the league. The league, rather than any other organization, makes its own rules and sets the conditions under which players join and change teams. Since North American pro teams are so closely tied to their leagues, and, in the case of the four major team sports, clearly represent the top level of play in the world, teams almost never play games outside of their league.
+Although member teams are separate corporate entities from the league, they operate only under the auspices of the league. The league, rather than any other sporting organization, determines the rules of the sport and sets the conditions under which players join and change teams. Since North American professional teams are so closely tied to their leagues, and, in the case of the four major team sports, clearly represent the top level of play in the world, teams almost never play games outside of their league.
 Exceptions to the ownership structure described above do exist. [[Major League Soccer]] is technically not an association of franchises but a single business entity, though each team has an owner-operator.  The team owners are actually shareholders in the league. The league, not the individual teams, contracts with the players.
@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 The best teams in a given season reach a [[playoff]] tournament, and the winner of the playoffs is crowned champion of the league, and, in the case of the "the Big 4" [[major professional sports leagues]] as world champions.  Major League Soccer teams, however, play many games against international competition, due to the global nature of the sport and the presence of regional ([[CONCACAF]]) and international ([[FIFA]]) organizations.
-Most of the teams in the four major North American pro sports leagues were created from scratch as part of a planned league expansion or the creation of a rival league that later merged with its older counterpart. Only the few oldest teams in the [[National Hockey League]], for example, existed before becoming part of the NHL or its former rival, the [[World Hockey Association]]. The rest of the teams were created ''ex novo'' as [[expansion team]]s or as charter members of the WHA, which merged into the NHL in 1979.
+Most of the teams in the four major North American pro sports leagues were created as part of a planned league expansion or through the creation of a rival league that later merged with its older counterpart. Only the few oldest teams in the [[National Hockey League]], for example, existed before becoming part of the NHL or its former rival, the [[World Hockey Association]]. The rest of the teams were created ''ex novo'' as [[expansion team]]s or as charter members of the WHA, which merged into the NHL in 1979.
-[[Major League Baseball]] has an associated [[minor league baseball|minor-league system]] used to develop young talent. Although most minor league teams are independently owned, each contracts with a major-league team, which hires and pays the players and assigns them to a given level in its minor-league hierarchy. The teams themselves do not move up or down in the hierarchy. Professional [[ice hockey]] has a system somewhat similar to baseball's, while the [[National Basketball Association]] operate a small [[NBA D-League|developmental league]] and the NFL used to [[NFL Europe|operate one in Europe]].
+The North American system has some features of the European model in terms of a pyramid struture. [[Major League Baseball]] has an associated [[minor league baseball|minor-league system]] used to develop young talent. Although most minor league teams are independently owned, each one is contracted toa major-league team, which hires and pays the players and assigns them to a given level in its minor-league hierarchy. The teams themselves do not move up or down in the hierarchy. Professional [[ice hockey]] has a system somewhat similar to baseball's, while the [[National Basketball Association]] operate a small [[NBA D-League|developmental league]] and the NFL used to [[NFL Europe|operate one in Europe]].
-A number of leagues outside of the United States also use this system. Most sport leagues in [[Australia]] are based on this model as well, with the most notable examples being the [[Australian Football League]] ([[Australian rules football|Aussie rules]]) and [[National Rugby League]] ([[rugby league]]). In [[rugby union]], the Southern Hemisphere [[Super 14]] competition also operates on a franchise system. In [[2006]], a promotion/relegation system was introduced affecting only the [[South Africa]]n teams, but as of November of that year, it was confirmed that it will never actually be employed.<ref>{{cite web| work=Planet Rugby | title=Spears abandon their Super conquest|url=http://www.planet-rugby.com/Teams/South_Africa/story_55239.shtml | date=2006-11-16 | accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref> [[Nippon Professional Baseball]] in Japan uses this system due to American influence on the game. In [[cricket]], the [[Indian Premier League]], launched in 2008, also operates on this system. The [[Super League (Europe)|Super League]], which is the top level of [[rugby league]] in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]], will be run on a [[2009–11 Super League licences|franchise basis from 2009]].<ref>[http://www.lasttackle.co.uk/eyeonrl.php?subaction=showfull&id=1140028103&archive=&start_from=&ucat=5& Article discussing the potentially negative affects of franchising on Rugby League]</ref>
+A number of leagues outside of the United States also use this system. Most sport leagues in [[Australia]] are based on the franchise model, with the most notable examples being the [[Australian Football League]] ([[Australian rules football|Aussie rules]]) and [[National Rugby League]] ([[rugby league]]). [[Nippon Professional Baseball]] in Japan uses this system due to American influence on the game. In [[cricket]], the [[Indian Premier League]], launched in 2008, also operates on this system. The [[Super League (Europe)|Super League]], which is the top level of [[rugby league]] in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]], will be run on a [[2009–11 Super League licences|franchise basis from 2009]].<ref>[http://www.lasttackle.co.uk/eyeonrl.php?subaction=showfull&id=1140028103&archive=&start_from=&ucat=5& Article discussing the potentially negative affects of franchising on Rugby League]</ref>
+Where a country is comprised of distinct administrative or political regions, such as [[counties]] or [[states]], some leagues are comprised of teams representing each region. Examples of this system are English cricket's [[County Championship]], Australian cricket's [[Sheffield Shield]] and [[Super League Malaysia]] playing football. In [[rugby union]], the Southern Hemisphere [[Super 14]] competition operates on a franchise system, but it grew and developed from an international provincial competition where each major province contributed a team, rather than each city. In [[2006]], a promotion/relegation system was introduced affecting only the [[South Africa]]n teams, but as of November of that year, it was confirmed that it will never actually be employed.<ref>{{cite web| work=Planet Rugby | title=Spears abandon their Super conquest|url=http://www.planet-rugby.com/Teams/South_Africa/story_55239.shtml | date=2006-11-16 | accessdate=2006-11-22}}</ref>
-==The pyramid system==
+==Structure of European leagues==
-English football (soccer) developed a very different system from the North American one, and it has been adopted for football in most other countries, as well as to many other sports played in Europe and its former colonies. The system within each country is marked by:
+: ''See also: [[Sport_in_Europe|Sports in Europe]]''
-*Teams are organized as [[Football_club|"clubs"]].  They be either [[unincorporated association|unincorporated associations]] operating as a social club or owned by an [[incorporated association|incorporated entity]] operating as a business.
-*Clubs are grouped in several tiers.  Each clubs tier is determined historically.  Each tier may comprise of one or more groupings. If there is more than one grouping in a tier, the lower tier usually has more groupings.  Each grouping is usually called a "division".
-*One or more adjacent tiers may be linked together to form a "league".  Each league is administered by an organization of which the clubs in that league are members.
-*There is [[promotion and relegation]] between adjacent tiers.  New clubs may apply to join a league/division at a lower tier.
+[[Football_in_England|English football (soccer)]] developed a very different system from the North American one, and it has been adopted for soccer in most other countries, as well as to many other sports founded in Europe and played across the world. The system is marked by:
-The tiered structure is usually referred to as a [[Football_pyramid|"pyramid"]].  The largest sports pyramid worldwide is the [[English football league system]].  The top tier in England, the [[Premier League]], has [[Deloitte_Football_Money_League#The_top_10_leagues|the highest revenues for a football league/division worldwide]].  The next three leagues/divisions on the list, Serie A, the Bundesliga and La Liga, are also part of large pyramids in [[German football league system|Germany]], [[Spanish football league system|Spain]] and [[Italian football league system|Italy]] respectively.
+* Teams are organized as [[Football_club|"clubs"]].  They be either [[unincorporated association|unincorporated associations]] operating as a social club or owned by an [[incorporated association|incorporated entity]] operating as a business.
-Apart from playing in a domestic league, clubs also play in one or more domestic, regional or continental cup competitions.  Cup competitions are played on a [[Single-elimination_tournament|knock-out]] basis, although they may have a mini-league format in the earlier rounds.
+* Clubs are grouped in several tiers. Each club's tier is determined by their performance historically.
+* There is [[promotion and relegation]] between adjacent tiers primarily based on performance in the previous season.  Relegation may also be imposed based on other criteria, such as entering into [[Administration (British football)|administration]].
+* A single tier, or two or more adjacent tiers, may be run by a single organization, known collectively as a league, giving rise to a hierarchy of leagues.  The clubs that play in a league are members of the league organization.  Where a league comprises of more than one grouping, each grouping is called a "division".
+* New clubs may be formed at any time and at any location.  New clubs are required to join a league at a low tier.
+* Teams play games both inside and outside of their leagues.
+European football clubs are members both of a league and of a governing body. In the case of England, all competitive football clubs are members of [[The Football Association]], while the top 20 teams also are members of the [[Premier League]], a separate organization. The FA operates the national football team and tournaments that involve teams from different leagues. In conjunction with other countries' governing bodies, it also sets the [[Laws of the Game (association football)|playing rules]] and the rules under which teams can sell players' contracts to other clubs.
-A national body oversees all domestic competitions.  The national body is usually a member of an [[international sports federations|international sports federation]].
+The [[promotion and relegation]] system is generally used to determine membership of leagues. Most commonly, a pre-determined number of teams that finish the bottom of a league or division are automatically dropped down, or relegated, to a lower level for the next season. They are replaced by teams who are promoted from that lower tier either by finishing with the best records or by winning a playoff. In England in [[Premier League 2009–10|2010]], [[Burnley F.C.|Burnley]], [[Hull City A.F.C.|Hull City]] and [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] were relegated from the Premier League to the [[Football League Championship]], the second level of English soccer. They were replaced by the top two teams from the second level, [[Newcastle United]] and [[West Bromwich Albion]], as well as [[Blackpool F.C.]], which won a playoff tournament of the teams that finished third through sixth.
-===Illustrations===
+The tiered structure is sometimes referred to as a [[Football_pyramid|"pyramid"]] system as the higher tiers have only one grouping, while tiers lower down may tend two have more groupings, often regionally based. In the major European footballing nations of England, Italy, Germany, Spain and France, the higher tiers are professional, while the lower tiers tend to be semi-professional or [[Amateur_sports|amateur]]. The largest sports pyramid worldwide is the [[English football league system]].
-European football clubs are members both of a league and of a governing body. In the case of England, all competitive football clubs are members of [[The Football Association]], while the top 20 teams also are members of the [[Premier League]], a separate organization. The FA operates the national football team and tournaments that involve teams from different leagues. In conjunction with other countries' governing bodies, it also sets the [[Laws of the Game (association football)|playing rules]] and the rules under which teams can sell players' contracts to other clubs.
-The Premier League negotiates television contracts for its games. However, although the league the dominating competition in which a club might participate, there are many non-league fixtures a club might play in a given year. A Premier League team might play a league game one week and an [[FA Cup]] game against a team from a lower-level league the next. The third game might be against a Danish team in the [[UEFA Champions League]], operated by the [[UEFA|Union of European Football Associations]]. On occasion all three such games may involve the same clubs.
+Unlike in North American pro sports, where the "league" is the only competition member teams play in, European teams play matches both inside and outside of their leagues. In English soccer, a team may follow a league game with a match in the [[FA Cup]] (a tournament involving hundreds of pro and semi-professional teams), and then a game in the [[UEFA Champions League]] (a competition involving the best European teams from the previous year.
-In any given year, a country could have several champions. In [[2004-05 in English football|2004-05]], [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]] won the Premier League championship, [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] won the FA Cup and [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] won the UEFA Champions League, a multi-country club championship. Usually the national league winners are considered the national champions, similar to the franchise-based leagues, and bragging rights  may be settled by means of a [[Super Cup]], although this is considered a special event and has not been mandatory in any league anywhere in the world.
+In any given year, a country could have several trophy winners. In [[2004-05 in English football|2004-05]], [[Chelsea F.C.|Chelsea]] won the Premier League championship, [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]] won the FA Cup and [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] won the UEFA Champions League.
-The [[promotion and relegation]] system is generally used to determine membership of leagues. Most commonly, a pre-determined number of teams that finish the bottom of a league or division are automatically dropped down, or relegated, to a lower level for the next season. They are replaced by teams who are promoted from that lower tier either by finishing with the best records or by winning a playoff. In England in [[Premier League 2009–10|2010]], [[Burnley F.C.|Burnley]], [[Hull City A.F.C.|Hull City]] and [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] were relegated from the Premier League to the [[Football League Championship]], the second level of English soccer. They were replaced by the top two teams from the second level, [[Newcastle United]] and [[West Bromwich Albion]], as well as [[Blackpool F.C.]], which won a playoff tournament of the teams that finished third through sixth.
+A similar system is used by other sports popular in Europe such as [[rugby union]], [[rugby league]], [[field hockey]] and [[team handball]].
-Relegation often has devastating financial consequences for club owners who not only lose TV, sponsorship and gate income but also see the asset value of their shares in the club collapse. Some leagues offer a "[[parachute payment (Sports)|parachute payment]]" to its relegated teams for the following years, (if a team is promoted again the next year then the parachute payment for the second season is distributed among the teams of the lower division)<ref>[http://football.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1837801,00.html  Article discussing the financial disparity between the Premier League and the Football League]</ref>, sums which often are higher than the prize money received by some non-relegated teams, in order to protect them from bankruptcy. There is of course a corresponding bonanza for owners of promoted clubs.
+==Comparison between the North American system and the European system==
-Clubs may be sold privately to new owners at any time, but this does not happen often where clubs are based on community membership and agreement. Such clubs require agreement from members who, unlike shareholders of corporations, have priorities other than money when it comes to their football club. For similar reasons, relocation of clubs to other cities is very rare. This is mostly because virtually all cities and towns in Europe have a football club of some sort, the size and strength of the club usually relative to the town's size and importance. Anyone wanting ownership of a high ranked club in his native city must buy the local club as it stands and work it up through the divisions, usually by hiring better talent. Buying an existing top-flight club and move it to the city is problematic, as the supporters of the town's original club are unlikely to switch allegiance to an interloper. There have been [[Relocation of professional sports teams#Team relocation in Europe|some cases]] where existing owners have chosen to relocate out of a difficult market, to better facilities, or simply to realize the market value of the land that the current stadium is built upon. As in the U.S., team relocations have been controversial as supporters of the club will protest at its loss.
-The league does not choose which cities are to have teams in the top division. For example, [[Leeds]], the fourth-biggest city in England, saw their team relegated from the Premier League to the Championship in 2004, and then saw their team relegated to the third-tier [[Football League One|League One]] in 2007. Leeds will remain without a [[Premier League|Premiership]] team as long as it takes for [[Leeds United A.F.C.|Leeds United]] or in theory any other local club to do well enough in the second-tier division to win the right to play in the Premiership. Famously, the French [[Ligue 1]] lacked a team from [[Paris]] for some years.
+In the European system, the league does not choose which cities are to have teams in the top division. For example, [[Leeds]], the fourth-biggest city in England, saw their team relegated from the Premier League to the Championship in 2004, and then saw their team relegated to the third-tier [[Football League One|League One]] in 2007. Leeds will remain without a [[Premier League|Premiership]] team as long as it takes for [[Leeds United A.F.C.|Leeds United]] or in theory any other local club to do well enough in the second-tier division to win the right to play in the Premiership. Famously, the French [[Ligue 1]] lacked a team from [[Paris]] for some years.
 Territorial rights are not recognized, and successful new teams in a geographical location can come to dominate the incumbents. In [[Munich]], for example, [[TSV 1860 München]] were initially more successful than the city's current biggest team [[FC Bayern Munich|Bayern München]].<ref> [Bundesliga history http://www.the-shot.com/bundesliga-faq/history-faq/]</ref> Major cities such as London may have many teams in the professional leagues: for example, in [[2010–11 in English football|2010–11]] it has five teams in the Premier League alone, an additional eight teams in the three fully professional leagues within [[The Football League]], and at least one fully professional team ([[AFC Wimbledon]]) in [[Conference National]], the top level of [[Non-League football]].
-This system originated in [[England]] in 1888 when twelve clubs decided to create a professional [[The Football League|Football League]]. The "closed shop" aspect of baseball's National League was not deemed to be necessary to ensure stability in England because a national English football league [[Promotion and relegation#Historical comparisons|did not require the sort of travel commitments]] that were necessary in the U.S. A secretariat was created to organize and run the Football League.  Later lower tiers (divisions) were added.
+The "closed shop" aspect of baseball's National League was not deemed to be necessary to ensure stability in England because a national English football league [[Promotion and relegation#Historical comparisons|did not require the sort of travel commitments]] that were necessary in the U.S. A secretariat was created to organize and run the Football League.  Later lower tiers (divisions) were added.
-This system is widely used in [[association football|football (soccer)]] around the world, notably in Africa and Latin America as well as Europe. The most notable variation has developed in Latin America where many countries have [[Apertura and Clausura|two league seasons per year]], which scheduling allows because many Spanish-speaking Latin American nations lack a national cup competition. Promotion and relegation has historically been used in other team sports founded in the [[United Kingdom]], such as [[rugby union]], [[rugby league]] and [[cricket]].
+This system is widely used in [[association football|football]] around the world, notably in Africa and Latin America as well as Europe. The most notable variation has developed in Latin America where many countries have [[Apertura and Clausura|two league seasons per year]], which scheduling allows because many Spanish-speaking Latin American nations lack a national cup competition. Promotion and relegation has historically been used in other team sports founded in the [[United Kingdom]], such as [[rugby union]], [[rugby league]] and [[cricket]].
 The system is also used in Europe even when the sports were founded in America, showing that the league system is not related to the sport itself, but more on the tradition of sports organisation in that region. Sports such as [[basketball]] in Spain and Lithuania and [[ice hockey]] in Russia use promotion and relegation. Alternately, in Australia the [[A-League]] follows the tradition of Australian sports having a franchise model that better suits a country with great distances between the country's main population centres, similar to the situation in the U.S. and Canada.
-[[East Asia]]n countries ([[Japan]], [[China]], [[South Korea]], [[Taiwan]]) have a particular differentiation among leagues: "European" sports such as soccer and rugby use promotion and relegation, while "American" sports such as baseball and basketball use franchising, with a few differences varying from country to country. A similar situation exists in countries in [[Central America]] and the [[Caribbean]], where soccer and baseball share several close markets.
+[[East Asia]]n countries ([[Japan]], [[China]], [[South Korea]], [[Taiwan]]) have a particular differentiation among leagues: "European" sports such as football and rugby use promotion and relegation, while "American" sports such as baseball and basketball use franchising, with a few differences varying from country to country. A similar situation exists in countries in [[Central America]] and the [[Caribbean]], where football and baseball share several close markets.
 ==See also==
-*[[Gate receipts]]
+* [[Gate receipts]]
+* [[Football_in_England|Football In England]]
+* [[Football_in_Italy|Football In Italy]]
+* [[Football_in_Germany|Football In Germany]]
+* [[Football_in_Spain|Football In Spain]]
+* [[Football_in_France|Football In France]]
+* [[Football_in_the_netherlands|Football In The Netherlands]]
+* [[Football_in_Portugal|Football In Portugal]]
+* [[Football_in_Scotland|Football In Scotland]]
+* [[Football_in_Russia|Football In Russia]]
+* [[Football_in_Norway|Football In Norway]]
+* [[Football_in_Sweden|Football In Sweden]]
+* [[Football_in_Denmark|Football In Denmark]]
+* [[Football_in_Greece|Football In Greece]]
+* [[European Football]]
+* [[Rugby Football League]]
+* [[English Hockey League]]
+* [[EuroHockey Club Champions Cup]]
+* [[Handball-Bundesliga]]
+* [[Liga ASOBAL]]
+* [[EHF Cup]]
 ==References==

Revision as of 07:05, 15 November 2010

Structure of North American leagues

Structure of European leagues

Comparison between the North American system and the European system

See also

References

Further reading