The structure of football club competitions

These days so much of football is being played. Many people get confused with many matches and many teams. Especially those who have just started following. I hope that this post will help you in understanding the structure of football competitions.

The League & Cup Structure:
Most of the nations around the world follow a league and cup structure. In the League all the clubs play twice against each other, and the club with highest points wins. The Cup is a knockout competition. The losers get eliminated and the survivor wins.
English league is arguably the most famous league (at least in India), so I will start with that. The football league structure, also called as Football Pyramid, contains around 150 leagues. Since we are not supposed to do a Doctorate, we will restrict the scope only to the top four levels of the league. These leagues feature "the full-time professional clubs". The system works on promotion and relegation, in which the best teams from lower leagues are promoted to higher leagues and worst teams from higher leagues are relegated to lower leagues. For more on this click here. Below is the list of first 4 levels in Football Pyramid.

Level	League	Clubs	Promotion	Relegation
1	Barclays Premier League	20 clubs	-	Last 3
2	Coca-Cola Football League Championship	24 clubs	3 clubs	Last 3
3	Coca-Cola Football League 1	24 clubs	3 clubs	Last 4
4	Coca-Cola Football League 2	24 clubs	4 clubs	Last 2

Besides this there are two major Cup Competitions in England.
1. The FA Cup (league levels 1-11) : One of the oldest football competition in the World
2. The League Cup or Carling Cup (levels 1-4)

Similar league structure exists in rest of the European (and other) countries. Here's a table of topmost leagues in some of the European countries.

Country	League	Major clubs
England	Barclays Premier League	Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City
Spain	Spanish la Liga	Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Villareal
Italy	Italian Serie A	AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, AS Roma
Germany	German Bundesliga	Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, FC Schalke 04
France	French League 1	Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux
Netherlands	The Eredivisie	Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord
Portugal	Liga Sagres	FC Porto, SL Benfica, Sporting (Lisbon)
Scotland	Clydesdale Bank Premier League	Celtic, Rangers

The Confederation Trophies:
UEFA is one of the six confederations of FIFA which governs the European Football. UEFA runs two main club competitions,
1. The UEFA Champions League - The biggest football trophy in Europe. Some consider it to be the most prestigious club trophy in sports. All the so called big clubs in Europe compete in the competition.
2. The UEFA Cup - This is the second biggest trophy in Europe.
In some later posts I will discuss these competitions in detail.

The major trophy and area of all the confederations is listed below,

Confederation	Competition	Continents
AFC	Champions League	Asia, Australia
CAF	Champions League	Africa
CONCACAF	Champions League	North America, Central America
CONMEBOL	Copa Libertadores	South America
OFC	Champions League	Oceania
UEFA	Champions League	Europe

The FIFA Club World Cup:
As discussed earlier, there are six confederations of FIFA. The champion of each confederation along with champion of host country compete with each other to be the World Champion. This competition is held in knockout rounds. Discussion on this competition can go very long, so I'll discuss it in later posts.

I think this much information is enough to clear the confusion. Any suggestions welcome...

Absolute Farce of an ODI at Kanpur...

What an absolute farce of a One-day match we had at Kanpur in the 3rd ODI between India and England. Even though lights are available, you start the match late because of bad light. Then reduce just a single over and in the end with 9 overs to go you declare India as winners by Duckworth-Lewis Rule... I know that crowd wanted to see India win but I'm sure no one liked the way match finished which would have been very different otherwise.

I'll consider two issues which ruined the match. Firstly ICC has a very strange rule regarding the meet of two captains to decide certain rules to be followed in the series. One of the points captains decide is 'whether lights will be used in a day game if game stops due to bad light'. And I don't know for what strange reason Dhoni and KP agreed on 'not using lights' in such situation. And this has not happened for the first time in India. If you remember the third test of Indo-Pak series last year (view scorecard), because lights were not used, match stopped about an hour earlier and India missed a golden chance to win the test. Ravi Shastri hit the nail in the post match comments. He said, "ICC should 'make it compulsory to use lights if they are available' and not to leave it to the two captains. This will help to avoid such matches and controversies it creates about the D-L rule."

The second issue is about the Officials. If the match is starting 45 minutes late due to bad light, you don't need any astrologer to tell that light will get bad in the evening. As Indians knew it, they just wasted as much time as possible and made sure that they were well ahead of the winning score according to D-L method. In India in this season light really becomes bad around 4:30. So why the officials didn’t reduce the match to 45 overs instead of 49 to ensure that it will complete before it gets dark? What is the point of having 'more overs' if they can never be bowled given the conditions.

Although the match was in the favor of India, imagine had it been 55 to win of 9 overs and if they had declared India as winners it would had been really unfair. In the end no one likes to win the way India won the match. Just a small change in rule or one wise decision of officials could have given better match or at least a better end to the match...

Vishwanathan Anand : The king of 64 Squares

I know this post should have come earlier, but since I was to busy solving the 8-Queens problem (For those who don't know it is a very famous Computer Science problem of 'placing 8 queens on a chess board' :P) I didn't get the time...

Anyways, last month India's Vishwanathan Anand won the World Chess Championship against Russia's Vladimir Kramnik (very awkward to spell :P) to successfully retain his title. The Indian won the best of 12 match 6.5-4.5 with one round to go. (You get 1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw and 0 for a defeat.)



Before going further I would like to go in the history of the championships. Before 1993, the World Championship used to be a straight fight between the Defending Champion and the Challenger. In 1993 the world of chess split into PCA and FIDE. In 2005 PCA's championship was won by Kramnik (Classical Champion) while FIDE's championship (this one was a 8 player round robin event held for the first time in the history of the game) was won by Veselin Topalov. The FIDE's next championship was scheduled in 2007 with Topalov as defending champion. But PCA and FIDE reunited in 2006. Thus there had to be a match between Kramnik and Topalov to decide the world champion, which was won by Kramnik. So Kramnik replaced Topalov as defending champion in 2007 world championships. It followed same round robin format as 2005, V. Anand emerging as a winner. But because the controversies due to non-inclusion of Topalov and Kramnik being unhappy with the round robin format, Kramnik was allowed to challenge Anand in 2008 and Topalov will get 'special privileges' in 2009's world championship. After this the World Chess Championship will be held after every 2 years since 2011.

Now come back to the Vishy and Kramnik. After retirement of Kasparov, this rivalry was always on the cards. But Kramnik was a bit disappointing being 3 points down after 6 matches (4.5-1.5). He later won the 10th match to delay his defeat, but Anand kept a draw in next match and made sure to win comfortably with one game to go. No more talking points, the 6.5-4.5 scoreline tells it all. For those who are interested in actual games visit this wikipedia link

For a few years now Anand has been making a mark of India on this Russia dominated game and has again proved that he is the real King of 64 squares. Congrats to this great man....

How exciting can it get.....

Well, well, well... It looked like dream over for a British, when a Polish man in German machinery looked to ruin the day and was joined by a German with Italy powered constructor, effectively helping another Italian constructor with a Brazilian operating for them in Sao Paolo, Brazil. But ultimately tide turned in the last moments when another German with Japanese power ailing due to slick rubber and came to the rescue of the British... Ultimately the British won in one department against the Brazilian but lost it to the Italians in the other.... What? Confused? Let me explain you.......

It was the occasion of last F1 GP of the season at Interlagos Circuit, Brazil. Before the start of the race it was a straight fight between Britain's Lewis Hamilton and Brazil's Felipe Massa. With Hamilton of McLaren on 94 points and Massa of Ferrari on 87, it was must win race for Massa (10 points) while Hamilton needed minimum 5th place finish (4 points). It was poised very well before the start as Massa on pole and Hamilton starting 4th on the grid. But it was no way a normal race. Just 5 minutes before the start of the race it started raining, race was delayed for 10 minutes and all the teams rushed for a tire change. Finally race started and unfortunately David Coulthard, who has now retired after the race, crashed out and couldn't even complete one lap in his final race. Safety car period but the race though goes on....

It's now about 10-15 laps remaining in the race. Even after so much drama Hamilton still 4th and Massa leading the race. Things look in favor of Hamilton. But wait... Oh no... Oh yes.... RAINNNNNNNNN..... It starts raining.... All the teams rush for a tire change including Massa and Hamilton.... But wait, Timo Glock in Toyota doesn't come in. So he goes ahead of Hamilton on dry weather tires. Hamilton rejoins in 5th place just in front of Vettel in Torro Rosso who stopped few laps ago. Vettel is closing in on him. But Hamilton will still win at this position. Nobody noticed but the lapped car of Robert Kubica is closing in on this duo. He wants to unlap himself. Goes past both of them but slows down Hamilton in the process. Vettel takes benefit and goes past hamilton. Goshhhhhhh..... Just 2 laps to go, now Massa will win the Championship (both on 97 points but Massa has won more races). Hamilton has thrown it away again in the last race (he did it in the last season too). Track getting wet due to rain. Massa takes Chequered Flag to win the F1 World Championship. All the Brazillian crowd in the groundstands starts celebrating. Ferrari pit crew starts celebrating. And suddenly..... why are the McLaren people celebrating. Oh... as I mentioned Timo Glock didn't change the tires. So he was on slick tires which give absolutely no grip on wet surface. This slowed him down so much that both Vettel and Hamilton passed him in the last section of the lap. So Hamilton finished 5th with 98 points and Massa's race victory (finished on 97 points) was in vain. Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 World Championship for year 2008.

However Italian Ferrari managed to win the Constructor's Championship (for the best team) with 172 points (against 151 of British team McLaren). Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari. But in the end you really feel sorry for Massa. So near... but yet so far.....

Do it the Redknapp's way

It has just been a week that Harry Redknapp has taken over from Junade Ramos as Manager of Totenham Hotspurs and he has already done something that Ramos couldn't do; to win a Premier League match. Not once but twice. Since he has taken over Spurs have scored 7 points of 3 matches as compared to 2 points of previous 8 matches in the Premier League.

Keeping aside the controversies he has been drawn into, I have always been an admirer of Redknapp's coaching style. He has not only helped clubs to come out of relegation threats but also has helped them to win trophies, including Portsmouth's FA Cup win last season. Although Totenham is bigger club than Portsmouth, moving from a descent Portsmouth side to a Totenham side rooted at the bottom was a big risk. But Redknapp was ready to take it and looks like the move has proved very wise so far.

Before he took over last week, Totenham had won only 1 match (that too in UEFA Cup first round against some small club in Europe). But since then they have registered a comfortable 2-0 win over Bolton last week. Then came back from trailing 4-2 against arch rivals Arsenal to draw the match 4-4. But yesterday they did something that even Man Utd or Chelsea couldn't do. They beat Liverpool 2-1 who had undefeated season till date. This has been a big boost to Totenham with most of the fowards and midfielders scoring and assisting but most importantly playing together as a team.

It looks like they will be out of the relegation zone by the end of the month. Although a top 7 finish and to aim at Europian Cup will be too much to ask for, Totenham can definitely hope for a top half finish.

The Third Commonwealth Youth Games Pune 2008

As the third Commonwealth Youth Games begin at Pune, India from Sunday, 12th October with 70 participating nations and around 1300 athletes. The games will be held for seven days and will conclude on 18th October. A special drive conducted during the games is 'Save the Tiger'. To visit official website of the games, click here .

The logo of the games shows the tradition and modern culture of the city. The logo reflects the historical seal of the great Maratha king, Shivaji Maharaj. The name of the Mascot is Jigrr. Jigrr is an amalgam of the Hindi word 'Jigar', which implies courage and the sound of a tiger roar (grrr...). For more on Logo and Mascot click here.

The games will be featuring 9 sports for 117 Gold medals. The sports included are Athletics, Swimming, Boxing, Wrestling, Shooting, Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis and Weightlifting. For the detailed information of events, venues and medals per event click here . For layout of the stadium and Athlete Village click here .

There are 70 participating nations as viewed here, with India having highest participants. Going by the history, Commonwealth Games have been producing many medals for India. India always finishes in top 5. But this time with maximum number participants and home advantage, India is likely to finish on the top spot.
The probable top 3 could be,
1. India
2. Australia
3. England

Wish ALL THE BEST to the games and all the Indian Participants...

Ganguly Set to Retire after Series against Australia

The Bengal Tiger, Saurav Ganguly, has declared thet he will retire from International Cricket after the home series against Australia. There have been lots of talks about his retirements after the series against Sri Lanka. It was also said that he is selected for Australian series just to give him an honourable exit from International cricket. This was later denied by both the player and the selectors.But in today's press conference Dada finally announced the retirement.

This could just be the perfect time to retire for him. Only thing he would want is a strong performance in the upcoming series to prove his selection was far more meaningful than just an honourable exit.

Cyclist Riccardo Ricco banned for Two Years

I don't know how many readers are interested in cycling, but I still thought this post should be here. Italian rider Riccardo Ricco has been banned for two years after tested positive in dope test during the Tour de France this year.



Tour de France is supposed to be the biggest cycling tournament of the world. It is the ultimate test of stamina, speed and endurance. But in last few years it has always been spoiled by doping scandals. Ricco being the latest. These scandals have also raised question mark on Lance Armstrong who has won the tour 7 times and you might see his comeback next year just to prove that 'he never cheated' in his career.

This is not the first time Ricco is found guilty. The 25 year old was also caught as junior rider. But this is really sad for the sport. Ricco was thought as the future world champion. So we will be missing a potential world champion at the Tour de France for the next two years or maybe we will never see him again at all. I hope that the other riders will learn from this incident and we will have a dope free Tour next year.

Indian Squad Announced for First Two Tests

The India's squad for first two tests against Australia is out. The squad is,
Anil Kumble (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni(wk), Sourav Ganguly, S. Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma and R.P.Singh
There were not many surprises in the squad. Ganguly was expected to return with the new selectors committee. Badrinath has shown fairly good form recently. However, selection of Mishra over Ojha or Murali Kartik was a real surprise.

In the starting lineup, Gambhir and Sehwag have proven themselves as the best opening pair of recent years. Dravid, after spending some good time at crease in Irani trophy match, will be confident at number 3. Laxman has always been intimidating to Aussies at number 5. I only doubt about Tendulkar and Ganguly. Both of them didn't play in the Irani trophy and didn't get any match practice since the miserable series against Sri Lanka. MS Dhoni looked good in both batting and keeping in match against Delhi. Looks like he is learning how to play with tail-enders (which Gilchrist did very well throughout his career). I don't see a place for Badrinath in starting 11 unless someone is unfit.

In bowling department no real talking points. Kumble, Harbhajan, Ishant and Zaheer are the most likely to start. Munaf or RP will only play in case of injury. Mishra is highly unlikely to get a match.

One thing has to be noted about Australia that, they arrived in India very early. Hence they got a good time to adjust with the conditions and also they will be getting two practice matches. As opposite, when India goes for a tour, BCCI keeps the schedule so tight that we hardly get one practice match and as a result team performs really badly in the first test match.

the Australian Squad is, Ricky Ponting(captain), Michael Clarke, Doug Bollinger, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin(wk), Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Bryce McGain, Peter Siddle, Shane Watson
With at least 4 new names and both spinners (Krejza and McGain) doing their debut, it really looks unfamiliar squad. With McGain likely to miss the first test, Aussies look weak in spin department. They will play with 3 seamers and single spinner. Probable Australian 11 could be,
Jaques, Hayden, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Haddin, Watson, Lee, Johnson, Krejza, Clark

Singapore all set to host the first ever night F1 race

On Sunday the 28th, Singapore will be hosting its first ever F1 Grand Prix. With the race in the city, all the buildings and Skyscrapers around, Singapore is set to be the 'Monaco of the East.'

But the race will be memorable being the first ever night F1 race. The track will be illuminated with lights as bright as it would be in daylight. But just imagine how beautiful the view of night would be with lights of the buildings around. This can be compared with NFS-UNDERGROUND when nfs went all dark, through the city.



The preview of the race will start at 4:30pm on Sunday on Star Sports while the race starts at 5:15pm live. The late telecast of qualifyings can be seen on Saturday the 27th at 9:30pm on the same channel. Don't miss the first ever night F1 GP.

President of National Rifle Association Digvijay Singh Bursts on Bindra, Rana

In an interview, Mr. Digvijay Singh, President of Indian Rifle Association called Abhinav Bindra and Jaspal Rana as ungrateful for not acknowledging the contribution of system for their success. He further said that their statements show arrogance. The full article can be seen here.

This came in reply to the Olympic Gold Medalist Bindra, who in an interview after winning the Gold, thanked his dad for his success and said that, 'I don't respect the association as it doesn't treat the players well.' But before replying him, Mr. Singh should have done some-analysis. It was fortune of Bindra that his dad is rich enough to provide him with the Shooting Range and equipments at home. Also, to pay for his training in Germany (for which the Olympic Committee refused to pay). Other players though had to practice in India and suffered of lack of good facilities and Ammo. The participants of Three-position Rifle got the ammo just two months before Olympics. Is this the contribution that Mr. Singh is talking about?

The statement of Asian Gold Medalist Jaspal Rana says it all. 'Since 2006, I have not done any shooting because of lack of ammo. But the association doesn't care. Such system can never produce champions.' In such situation how can Mr. Singh expect Abhinav Bindra to thank the Rifle Association? And why did he take so much time to repay Bindra's words? These associations just overlook the players and call them arrogant when they try to protest. For India to rise in the world of sports this mentality has to change, otherwise the future is dark. The only thing I hope is that the champions like Bindra should stay calm and don't get distracted by such comments. Because people like him is the only hope of every Indian sports fan.

First Ever race win for Toro Rosso at Monza, Italy.

Even though Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest driver to win a F1 race, I won't be talking about him (a lot has already been written about him). Let's talk about 'historically the weakest team' in F1, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

The constructor has been around for more than 20 years, previously known as Minardi and had a great fan following even after little success. After completing about 400 races, finally the team has registered their first win on Sunday, 14th sept. This win can be compared with 2003 Brazilian GP win of Fisichella for another minnow Jordan. (now better known as Force India!). A peculiar charactristic of both races has been the rain interference.

These minnows have always been unnoted but have produced many big names. Minardi have produced drivers like Jarno Trulli, Mark Webber and 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso. Jordan has also supplied greats like Michael and Ralf Schumachers, Barrichello and Eddie Ervine.

But because of lack of funds, these teams never grow. They keep on changing hands (like Jordan -> Midland -> Spykar -> Force India!) or pull out (Aguri honda being the latest casualty). Let's hope this win give enough respect to Toro Rosso in F1 circuit, if not at least enough funding to compete. Hope same with Force India! This is good for the sport and will only help to make F1 more exciting.

Liverpool ready to go for League title...?

Yesterday was a great day for Liverpool FC as they overpowered arch rivals Man Utd (recently I came to know that it’s not MANU, and their supporter hate this name :P ). The Reds started without the stars Gerrard and Torres, but still came up very strongly (like real Liverpool). Riera, Mascherano and Babel looked brilliant. For Man utd it was disappointing loss. Plus they have lost Vidic due to Suspension. However berbatov looked good with the new crew.

At the start of season, I thought it would be a straight fight between Man Utd and Chelsea (again don’t say chelski). But yesterday’s performance could be inspiring for Liverpool. Consistency has really been a problem in recent seasons for Liverpool. After a very good game (like yesterday’s) they have failed to produce good results in the next. They just need to be more consistent and Benitez should be more positive in choosing the lineup. If this happens, they can really have a go at both premier league and champions’ league this season.

Preface to the sports blog....

It has been a while since I was thinking to start a blog. So I thought why not write on a topic which I can talk about. So let's talk about sports....
Something about the name of the blog.... Cognize means 'to know or to be aware of'. So this blog is all about knowing what happens in the world of sports.
I thought this to be the right moment to start with when my favorite club (Liverpool) have beaten their arch rivals manchester united.