Confused with European Soccer (football)?

I know that this question was asked many times before but I just don't seem to get it. Can someone please explain to me how European football works.

I am aware that there is a Champions League and a UEFA Cup.

And I also know that there is Premier League (English), Serie A (Italian), La Liga (Spain)...and so on...



What I do not understand:

1. How does it all begin? I assume that Leagues in each country compete at some point to see who will participate in UEFA Cup and Champions League. What month does it start?

2. What comes next? UEFA Cup or Champions League, or are they played at the same time. And if so how is this possible? Please provide dates

3. Do UEFA Cup winners ever get to compete with Champions League? And when?

4. Finally, is there a European Cup or a World Cup when all the European Countries and all the nations in the world get to compete?

5. It seems like soccer never stops and a lot of things are happening at the same time so I find it very difficult to follow...It doesn't make it any easier that I live in America and have limited access to sports channels, although I do have FoxSoccer and Gol Tv.

But I enjoy playing soccer and would really like to get into it more, so...

I hope you guys can clarify some of this for me! Thank you so much and I'm sorry if I said soccer a few times I know that some people get offended. I meant Association football =)Confused with European Soccer (football)?
1: Domestic Leagues start around August time and finish around may TIme (seria A, Premiership etc). Team gain qualification to the UEFA Cup and champions league based on domestic league position from the previous season. So for Example the top 4 teams in the premiership 08-09 Season gain entry to the champions league competition 09-10. Every country is allocated a different amount of spots but the big footballing ones like Italy, Spain and England get 4 team spots.



The UEFA cup is based on the same principle of domestic league position but involves teams finishing lower in lower positions like 5th and 6th. (So the champions league is the premier Competition)



2: The Champions league and UEFA Cup competitions run during the Domestic leagues time period.



3: Yes, There is a competition called the UEFA Super Cup which takes place in August at the start of the domestic season.



4: Yes a European and World cup happen every four years and are two years apart from each other. So for example the European cup happened last year in 2008 and the next world cup is scheduled for 2010 in South Africa. These competitions happen in the summer in the domestic seasons breaks and only the best players from every nation compete which means these competitions are regarded as the biggest.



5: It never does stop! There is always a competition happening somewhere. There is also an African Cup which takes place during the domestic season in which teams have to release there African player to compete in!Confused with European Soccer (football)?
Yeah, the guy above has said the basics, pretty much...



But just to put it to the points:

1. Each country in UEFA (there's 53 of 'em) has its own domestic league (except Liechtenstein, which just has a domestic cup). The majority of the leagues are played around the same time, normally August to the following May. When the leagues are over, the top few teams go through to play in the Champions League, with the few beneath them getting to play in the UEFA Cup.



2. The Champions League and UEFA Cup are played at the same time - along with the leagues (the European competitions contain the teams which qualified to play in them the season before).



3. UEFA Cup winners only get to play in the Champions League if they qualify for it (league position). Champions League teams can actually play in both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup in the same season. After the group stage of the Champions League, the teams which finished third in the groups play in the UEFA Cup (weird, I know).



4. There's a Club World Cup, in which the winners of all six FIFA federations' "Champions Leagues" get to compete (UEFA - Europe, CONMEBOL - S America, CONCACAF - N America, OFC - Oceania, AFC - Asia, CAF - Africa). These are played at the same time as the European leagues/cups too; the last one was December last year and contained the Champions Leagues winners from the season before. There's also a Super Cup just for UEFA, in which the winners of the Champions League and UEFA Cup compete against each other.



Really hope that helps :)Confused with European Soccer (football)?
Well first of all the Champions League is different from the UEFA Cup and is the 3rd highest tournament in all of FIFA.



The highest tournaments in FIFA are:



World Cup

Euro Cup

UEFA Champions League



The UEFA Cup is not very important and only small clubs participate. If you really want to catch in on the action, watch Champions League today Man United vs Porto.



Whoever wins the Champions League is basically the champions of Europe and pretty much the best team in the world, in my opinion, because Europe has the best clubs in the world. This is why Man United won the champions league, they also won the FIFA world cup for clubs. The champions of concaf (American continent, spanning from Canada to Argentina) will face the european champions, the african champions, the asian champions, all in the world cup of clubs. Man United was winner of all the highest tournaments for clubs last year but I think Barcelona is going to win it this year as they got a very strong team.



And please call it football. Its a game played with your feet with a ball. If you want to sound smarter, call it football not soccer. Soccer sounds gay and misfitting...



Btw, you can watch all Champions League on ESPN2 and Foxsoccerchannel.



And yes, football is never ending. Its the most popular sport in the world with more then half of the population playing it, the most leagues, the most teams, the supreme association that united the world into one, FIFA!