Five Interesting League Systems.

Soccer is the global game and with that title comes different cultures and countries that each have their own special way of governing the game. All soccer fans who love this game are familiar with the typical pro-rel system and its clear hierarchy of tiers in Europe. However; in some places, the soccer pyramid isn’t as clear due to the certain circumstances of football as a sport in that given country. These weird league systems have their own quirks and their stories are worth telling.

1. Canada’s Dual Pyramid (MLS/USL/NPSL/PDL & CPL/OL1/QB1 + CSL)

Recently, Toronto FC won Major League Soccer for the first time in the franchise’s history. Making Toronto the only club from Canada to win America’s premier club soccer competition.

MLS currently has 3 Canadian teams (Montreal, Vancouver, & Toronto). Though these aren’t the only Canadian teams involved in the US Soccer pyramid. In the USL (second division) the Ottawa Fury exist and in the NPSL + PDL (dual fourth divisions) there are a few clubs from smaller Canadian cities. Despite being infused with American soccer clubs, Canadians do have the Canadian Championship that does give the team who wins it a CONCACAF birth. As of now, it is a competition that features the big 3 from MLS, the Ottawa Fury, and the champions of the Ontario League 1 and Quebec League 1 (D3 of the Canadian soccer pyramid).

Despite the fact that the most famous Canadian clubs are apart of the American soccer system. Canada has just begun to build its own 1st division with the recent announcement of the Canadian Premier League, a 6-8 team league expected to launch in 2018 or 2019. Canada also has dual third divisions with the Ontario League and the Quebec League placed two levels beneath the new Canadian Championship. Though perhaps the most interesting part of the pyramid is the rogue Canadian Soccer League, which currently exists only in Ontario. It has not been sanctioned by the CSA or FIFA and is home to multiple immigrant clubs in the Ontario area.

2. Copa Peru, an interesting third division cup. 

The Copa Peru is a yearly cup tournament between the clubs of the regional leagues of Peru. The Copa Peru is the proclaimed third division. It is a ten month tournament that starts in February and ends in December. The tournament starts with a regional stage then a provincial stage followed by a departmental stage and lastly the national stage, which involves 50 clubs. Each team plays a total of six games against three geographical rivals. After the six matches, the top eight directly qualify for the round of 16, while seeds 9-24 play against each other to determine the last eight.

From there, the knockout rounds continue until there are four teams left. The last four participate in a group stage with the winner earning promotion to the first division and the runner up in the group earning promotion to the second division.

Ultimately through the Copa Peru, amateur teams are given a chance to reach the first division quicker than usual.

3. Belgium’s second division best involved in Europa League qualifying.

The Belgian Football Association recently reconstructed and rebranded its second division just a few years ago. The second division shrunk from  clubs to eight clubs in an effort by the Belgian Football Association to professionalize the second division through stricter licensing standards.

With this move, came in a change in the Europa League qualifying playoff structure with the top three Proximus League finishers (not counting the champion of the Proximus League) enter the playoffs along with the nine other Pro League clubs that finished from seventh to fifteenth a two group stage table (with six in each group). What this ultimately meant is that a team from the second division could earn a Europa League birth without being promoted to the first division!

4. Argentina’s dual third tier (Primera B Metropolitana (Buenos Aires) vs. Federal A)

Argentina is home to 43.85 million people. More than 13.1 million people live within the greater Buenos Aires area. Given Buenos Aires’s large population density and the large amount of neighborhood clubs that dominate Buenos Aires’s club soccer scene, Argentina’s football pyramid is split with dual third, fourth, and fifth tiers, separating clubs from the greater Buenos Aires area from the rest of Argentina.

Today, the Federal A has 35 football teams and is considered to have “indirect membership” with the AFA. Meanwhile, the Primera B Metropolitana has 18 clubs with the league having “direct membership” with the AFA. Ultimately, this doesn’t mean much though it does look as if clubs in Buenos Aires are valued more to the AFA than in the rest of the country.

5. Brazil’s State Leagues. 

Brazil is the only country in the world, where club football is played almost all year round. The Serie A, Serie B, Serie C, and Serie D are played from March to November. There is only a six week break before the State Leagues start up from January to March.

Brazil’s States Leagues are organized by the state confederations of Brazil and give amateur teams a chance to compete against giant clubs in their region in a short three month tournament. This is the case in Sao Paulo, Recife, Belo Horizonte, and Rio de Janeiro.

The tournament has come under recent criticism due to the large amount of meaningless games for large teams like Santos, Palmerias, Vasco da Gama, and Flamengo. However; for amateur clubs this is the only time these clubs get to play unless they are in Serie C or Serie D.