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American soccer fans may not be familiar with the concept of relegation, it isn’t built into the fabric of US sports.
It doesn’t matter how many, or few, points your team collects in Major League Soccer this season (MLS), it will line up in the same conference next season. The same goes for the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB.
In every leading soccer league around the world, however, finishing at or near the bottom of the standings means your team will be relegated.
This can have serious consequences for clubs, players, and fans. Let’s look in more detail at what relegation means.
What Does Relegated Mean in Soccer?
In simple terms, relegation in soccer means your team has not won enough points over the course of a season.
If the league your team plays in operates a system of promotion and relegation between divisions, the lowest-ranked teams are relegated each season. They are replaced by the teams who performed best in the division below.
Soccer relegation means that in the following season, your team must play in a lower division. The challenge then is to win enough points to be promoted back to the higher league as quickly as possible.
There is no limit to the number of times a team can be relegated.
Norwich City, for instance, has been relegated no fewer than six times from the English Premier League over the years, and currently plays in the division below, the Championship.
Premier League relegation can have a serious impact on a club’s financial situation. Deprived of the riches on offer in the EPL, it may have to revamp its commercial model quickly to cope with the blow.
However, relegation also has a massive effect on fans of a club. Dedicated supporters will be able to recall instantly when their team was relegated.
It is an unforgettably awful feeling to watch your team go down to the next level, but can be fun once you start winning again.
Fans of hit TV show Welcome to Wrexham will know full well about the ups and downs as clubs battle for promotion and to avoid relegation.
How Does Relegation in Soccer Work?
Relegation happens in soccer leagues where the teams taking part are divided into several divisions.
At the end of each season, the teams that finish with the fewest points in each division are demoted to the division below – a process that is also called relegation. In most leading soccer leagues, the bottom three clubs are relegated.
This introduces a sense of jeopardy to the whole season. If your club does not win enough games, and does not collect enough points, it will be relegated after all the games have been played.
Relegation is an unfamiliar concept to many American sports fans who follow teams in MLS, or in other leading pro sports.
No matter how few games New England Revolution or Chicago Fire wins in the MLS season, and regardless of how many points they finish behind the league leaders, they will still be in the Eastern Conference next season.
The same rules apply to teams in the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Your current season’s record does not count against you in terms of relegation, and you will be facing the same teams when the action strikes up again.
Where relegation and promotion operate, there is a sense that every game matters, leading to fuller stadiums, more meaningful matches and added bite to games.
What is a Fixed League Membership System?
Major League Soccer is an example of a league that operates a fixed league membership system. This means there is no relegation between the divisions or conferences that make up the league.
It is, more or less, designed to insulate teams and their owners from the financial impact of relegation. And, to stop the prospect of their market share being taken by another team.
Every club that plays in MLS is a franchise that holds a stake in the league, rather than a separately operating entity. The teams in the league are owned centrally, as are the contracts of the players who appear in it.
One consequence of this structure is that the teams who play in MLS are the same every season – unless a new team is added to the roster.
A fixed league membership system offers stability and predictability to each club and its investor-operator. However poorly your team performs on the pitch, there is no specter of relegation hanging over its coach and players.
How Relegation Works in the Premier League
The millions of dollars available to participants in the top flight of English football mean that Premier League relegation is a serious setback to any club.
From an early stage of the season, a line appears in the EPL table above the bottom three teams. If your team is still below that line when the music stops after 38 games, you will be relegated to the Championship.
Three teams have been demoted in this manner in every season since the EPL started except 1994-95, when four clubs were relegated as the league’s size was reduced from 22 to 20 teams.
The threat of relegation from the Premier League, and the serious consequences for any club thus demoted, means that the battle to stay in the EPL is one of the most fiercely contested elements of the season.
Many bettors try to predict which teams will lose their place at the end of the season, and the best soccer betting sites will offer you the chance to wager on which clubs will be relegated.
A total of 51 clubs have featured in the EPL, founded in 1992, but only six clubs have been ever-present without being relegated: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham.
The drama of promotion and relegation makes soccer such an entertaining sport to bet on at the best soccer betting sites.
What is Promotion?
Where there is relegation in soccer, there must also be promotion. Any team that is relegated will be replaced by a side from the division below.
In the case of the EPL, the teams demoted at the end of the season have their places taken by three teams from the Championship.
Two of these teams qualify by finishing at the top of the standings, while the third is decided through the Championship play-off final.
This is the game commonly referred to as the ‘richest game in soccer’, because the difference to the winner’s bank balance over the following seasons can run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
The magnitude of the prize available for clubs who move up to the EPL ensures that the race for promotion from the Championship is intensely competitive.
But the reality is that if a team gets promoted from the Championship, they’ll be one of the favorites to go straight back down at the best Premier League betting sites – as the league is so competitive.
The difference between promotion and relegation could not be much wider – but the battles to clinch one and avoid the other are equally desperate.
What Happens if You Get Relegated?
The immediate consequence of relegation in soccer is that your team is condemned to play at a lower level in the next season.
Though some fans might be disheartened, the lower league can actually be favored by some supporters. After a season of being thrashed by bigger clubs, a season of winning is a perfect remedy.
For the day-to-day running of clubs who have suffered Premier League relegation, however, the consequences can go deep.
Losing money
A club relegated from the EPL no longer shares in the full riches available through TV broadcast fees. Sponsors may also pull out, or renegotiate their deals.
Clubs may have to charge your fans less for match tickets too. Relegated teams receive EPL fees known as parachute payments for three years after relegation to soften the impact of being demoted, but they will still have to make significant budgetary changes.
Losing players
A team’s leading players may be reluctant to play soccer at a lower level, and may try to engineer a transfer. The leading performers may be lured away by teams that are still in the higher division, and retaining their services will not be easy.
References
- https://jobsinfootball.com/blog/what-is-relegation-in-soccer/ (Jobs in Football)
- https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/working-paper/economics-promotion-and-relegation-sports-leagues-case-english-football (Stanford University)
- https://www.goal.com/en/news/which-premier-league-clubs-have-never-been-relegated/vpm1glnufz1x1q8ay98uw5w3u (Goal)
