User:Rainjar/dispute in european section of professional sports organization

I started this page as there were several disputes over the article on Professional sports league organization. My changes have been repeatedly removed by Mwalcoff and Mdw0.

I set out the article below with most of the changes I have tried to make. Much of the content pre-dates my changes. I have left those parts as they are, even where I don't necessarily agree with them.

THE ARTICLE WITH MY CHANGES

Regular, revenue-generating competitions for professional team sport in various countries around the world are organized or structured in numerous ways. Two significant models are a European system, characterized by a tiered structure using promotion and relegation to determine entry and participation in a hierarchy of leagues or divisions, and a system used in North America and Australia characterized by its use of franchises and closed membership, with teams having territorial rights.

The system in North America and Australia

See also: Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and Sport in Australia

Professional sports leagues in North America are limited to a fixed number of teams, sometimes called "franchises." In this system, sometimes called a "franchise system" in the U.K.,

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.

he North American system has some features of the European model in terms of a tiered structure. 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.

Most sport leagues in Australia are based on the North American model, with the most notable examples being the Australian Football League (Aussie rules) and National Rugby League (rugby league).

The A-League in Australia does not use the pyramid structure normally found in association football (soccer), but instead follows the tradition of Australian sports having a franchise model and a playoff system that better suits a country with a few important central locations where a sport needs to ensure there is a team playing with no risk of relegation.

The system in Europe

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 features of the system are:

• Teams are organized as "clubs". They may 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. Where a league comprises of more than one tier, each level 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. The top 20 teams are also members of the Premier League, a separate organization. The next 72 clubs are members of the Football League, divided into three divisions. The FA operates the national football team and organizes or oversees knock-out competitions that involve teams from different leagues. The Football Association in turn is a member of the European ruling body UEFA, the international ruling body FIFA and, in recognition of the role of the Home Nations in the development of the sport, the International Football Association Board (IFAB). The Laws Of The Game are established by the IFAB. Rules on player transfers and contracts are governed by FIFA. UEFA, the FA and the individual leagues also have jurisdiction to make rules on player transfers, provided the rules are not inconsistent with those made by the higher level body. The Bosman ruling, a decision of the European Court of Justice in 1995, reinforced freedom of movement. Other league rules, such as financial and stadium requirements, are determined by each league itself.

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. For example, in Italy in 2010, Atalanta, A.C. Siena and A.S. Livorno were relegated from Serie A, the top division of Italian football, to Serie B, the second division. They were replaced by the top two teams from the second division, U.S. Lecce and A.C. Cesena, as well as Brescia, which won the playoffs between the teams that finished third through sixth.

With the promotion-relegation system, the league does not directly choose which cities are to have teams in the top division. For example, Leeds, the fourth-biggest city in England, saw their main team, Leeds United relegated from the Premier League to the Championship in 2004, and then saw their team relegated again to the third-tier League One in 2007 before being promoted to the Championship in 2010. Leeds will remain without a Premiership team as long as it takes a local club to perform well enough to gain promotion to the Premier League. Other cities in England such as Bristol and Sheffield also lack a team in the top league. In fact, Yorkshire, the largest historic county in England (in which both Leeds and Sheffield lie), is currently without a Premier League club. Of the 20 clubs currently in the Premier League, 8 are in the north-west (Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire), five from London, four from the West Midlands and two from the North-East. The remaining club is Stoke City.

As well as having no right to being in the top tier, a club also has no territorial rights to its own area. London has 14 professional teams, including five Premier League teams. Cities such as Madrid, Milan and Lisbon have a number of clubs playing in the top tier of their domestic leagues. Both Milan clubs, AC Milan and Internazionale, have won the UEFA Champions League and its predecessor, the European Cup, making Milan the only city in Europe to have achieved this. Although crosstown rivalries are not unknown in North America, the numerous instances of two or more clubs from the same town, city or region playing in the same league/division gives rise to regular local derbies throughout Europe.

The tiered structure is sometimes referred to as a "pyramid" system as the higher tiers have only one grouping, while tiers lower down may have two or 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. The first four tiers in England are fully professional, while there are also fully professional clubs at the fifth tier, the Conference National.

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". Taking Premier League clubs as an example, in addition to their regular home and away league schedule, there are weeks in which a club will be scheduled to play in the FA Cup (a tournament involving hundreds of professional and semi-professional clubs affiliated to the FA) or the Football League Cup (involving clubs from the Premier League and the Football League), played on an elimination or knock-out basis (commonly referred to as "cup" competition to distinguish them from "league" competition). The best performing clubs at the end of each season also qualify to play in the following season's UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League, competitions organized by UEFA, where clubs play top clubs from other countries in Europe. The top teams from the UEFA Champions League also take part in the FIFA Club World Cup. Leading players are also required to represent their countries in international matches.

A similar system is used by other sports popular in Europe such as rugby union, rugby league, field hockey and team handball. Basketball in Spain also uses the European system.

Systems used in the rest of the world

See also: Sport in Asia, Sport in South America, and Sport in Africa

Team sport in the rest of the world generally follow one or other of these systems.

The promotion-relegation system is widely used in association football, notably in Africa and Latin America. The most notable variation has developed in Latin America where many countries have two league seasons per year, which scheduling allows because many 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 field hockey.

Many countries 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. This is particularly so in East Asia and South-East Asia, in which both sports with European origins, such as association football and rugby union, and those with North American origins, such as basketball and baseball, are popular. For example, the Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan uses the North American system, while the J-League, Japan's association football league, uses the European system.

Developments and analysis

The example above of basketball in Spain shows that the league system adopted is not entirely related to the sport itself, and that the tradition of sports organization in that country may be an influential factor.

Nevertheless, the use of the North American system is increasing worldwide. As team sport becomes increasingly commercialized, the 'closed' system, with territorial rights, and without the financial risk of relegation, allows for greater business stability and profitability. For example, in cricket, the Indian Premier League, launched in 2008, 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.

The Football League, the world's first association football league, actually started with a closed system in 1888, with limited capacity to replace member clubs by a system of re-election. There was also originally a rule that only one club from each town should be included. In order to expand, the Football League absorbed the rival Football Alliance in 1891 to form a 'Second Division', with promotion and relegation between the First Division and the Second Division. Promotion and relegation was thus more a result of prevailing circumstances than a conscious departure from a closed system.

In any event, prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992 by the clubs of Football League First Division, and the introduction of automatic promotion and relegation between the then Football League Fourth Division and the Football Conference in 1987, the entire four tiers of the Football League could be regarded as 'closed' system, with promotion and relegation taking place internally. Such a multi-tiered closed system with internal promotion and relegation is not uncommon in association football and other "European" sport.

Association football's equivalent to Major League Baseball's financing of minor league teams are reserve team leagues, such as the Premier Reserve League.

The increasing use of the North American system for league competition in countries that previously used the European system, while continuing to maintain a separate cup competition, has resulted in increasing hybridization. For example, clubs playing in Rugby League's Super League continue to participate in the Challenge Cup.

The global nature of association football also gives rise to a hierarchy of governing bodies. Even though they operate under a closed system, Major League Soccer and the A-League are both subject to governance by FIFA.

In the final analysis, the only real difference may be the availability of territorial rights in the North American system, and the absence of such rights in the European system.

Other additions which have been deleted

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. Clubs below the top tier are members of other leagues, such as the Football League (the oldest football league in the world) and the Football Conference. The Premier League was formed in 1992 when clubs of the old First Division broke away from the Football League. The Football Conference is the lowest level at which there are professional clubs. A club from the Football Conference could, by way of several promotions over several seasons, get to play in the Premier League.

The Football Association is the governing body in England. The Football Association operates the England national football team and organizes the FA Cup, the oldest non-school football competition of any code in the world, involving clubs from professional, semi-professional and amateur leagues in England. The Football Association also organizes the FA Trophy, a cup competition for clubs in the Football Conference and lower semi-professional and amateur leagues.

The Football Association also exercises overall supervision over the several leagues played in England, and other domestic cup competitions, such as the League Cup (involving clubs from the Premier League and the Football League) and the Football League Trophy (for clubs in the second and third tier of the Football League). The FA Cup, the League Cup, the Football League Trophy and the FA Trophy involve teams from different domestic leagues.

The Football Association is also a member of UEFA and FIFA. UEFA is the governing body for European football and organizes the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The top clubs from the domestic leagues in Europe qualify for the following season's UEFA Champions League. Other clubs from the domestic leagues in Europe qualify for the following season's UEFA Europa Cup.