The same system — more or less — exists in other European leagues, although the “play-off” thing appears to be unique to England. There is no play-off round in France, for example. The bottom three teams of the Ligue 1 go down, and the top three teams of the Ligue 2 go up.

As for the business side of things, relegation is obviously a big disaster financially for relegated teams. Playing in the top league provides lots of additional revenue (TV broadcasts, attendance, etc.). Also, each team has players that are not interested at all in playing in a lower league and leave the team. So it’s not always easy to go down one year and come back up the next year.

It’s a pretty fair system that ensures that there is always “new blood” in the top league, and it’s also a way for relatively unknown players in newly promoted team to get exposure and hopefully (from their point of view) be snatched away by more prestigious teams.

I must admit that I find it hard to imagine a league system that would be “anti-relegation”. If there is no hope for lowly teams to ever get promoted, where’s the motivation to excel? Where is the dream of making it on the big scene? And where is the challenge for weaker teams in the top league? Strange.

Hope this answers your question. I am no specialist, I am just a football fan who thinks that the current system in Europe is pretty good, and obviously finds European football much more entertaining than the MLS or the A-League :).

You have to admit that the EPL is interesting every year. I’m glad that Fox Sports World broadcasts two or three games a week–it makes the MLS league here in the states look rather primitive.

Pierre: perhaps you could write a piece on how the relegation business works. We do not have this yet in the states in any league. (I think that Major League Baseball would benefit from relegation; I would like to see the Philadelphia Phillies sent down to the AAA level, they deserve it.) In the NBA, they appear to have anti-relegation: the worst teams get to make the first draft choices for the next season.

As to my concept of anti-relegation, it does seem that the american professional basketball and “football” have to go to some lengths to insure a high quality of play and effort. They share television money and other monies from advertising so as to improve profitablity for teams in small metropolitan areas. The inverted draft system does insure that the less accomplished teams get good new players. But their closed league system seems rather un-democratic, whereas the system in place in european soccer (sorry, football) does result in interesting pairings late in the season at least at the top and bottom of the league tables. Again, I think that some of the pro teams in the U.S. would benefit from being relegated.

Thanks again for explaining the system–I didn’t know about the playoff, for instance, and I hope that some of those games are televised here. I also enjoy your periodic discussions about the EPL.

The English Division 1 play-offs are televised here in Canada, but I’m not sure about the US. I’d keep checking the usually reliable SoccerTV.com mailings for the latest updates.