Ibanez wrote:There are way too many championships, etc... So, the World Cup is every 4 years. Is there a yearly championship for the EPL, whatever Real Madrid is in, Bayern, etc...?
Here is basically how it is.
You have your regular league. No playoffs from that. Regulation winner after 38 games for EPL is the winner.
In England, everyone in a league of some sort qualifies for the FA Cup.
In England, there is also the Football League Cup which consists of EPL teams plus some of the other higher lower level leagues (but not as many total teams as FA Cup)
If you finish top x in your European league (4 for EPL), you qualify for Champions League which is a European Club tournament.
If you finish just below that but still in the top X (5-7 for EPL), you qualify for Europa League which is a European Club tournament.
I believe in each of the tournaments, the better ranked teams (or leagues) start later as there are a number of preliminary rounds.
Clubs get a lot of money the further they advance in each league. The fact that ManU did not make it to even Europa League is horrible for them for money reasons but also prestige. Players will sign for a team specifically because they made Champions League. ManU may be able to get away with it because of their name though.
As you said, lots of games overall though. A player in a high level England, Spanish or German league will likely have not only those games but their International games as well. Messi played in 53 club games in the 2009-2010 season and 10 games for Argentina in 2010 (which was a World Cup year). Didn't score much but was involved in many goals and many blamed his lack of scoring on the amount of games he played.
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