A game followed by millions but played by hardly a few in a major part of the country. And amongst those few most of them have had played for fun and later discontinued. There are many more facts to feel pity for ourselves but rather I would like to talk about positive aspects the country has been witnessing since the rise of ISL. It seems the rise of Indian football has begun, putting my hands forward to contribute in the computation, I would like to share some useful information that many of us are not aware of! I am going to share the structure of football tournaments taking place internationally, winning them is no less than a glory in the world. So, here it goes!
Just like ISL every country has its own championship as listed below:
Spain - La Liga
Sweden - Allsvenskan
Switzerland - Raiffeisen SL
U.S.A. - MLS
Argentina - Primera Division
Australia - A-League
Austria - A Bundesliga
Belgium - Pro League
Brazil - Liga do Brasil
Chile - Chilean Primera Division
Colombia - Liga Águila
Denmark - Danish Superliga
England - English Premier League
France - France Ligue 1
Germany - Bundesliga
Italy - Serie A
Russia - Russian League
Amongst all English Premier League and La Liga Santander are mostly followed all across the world. Except these domestic cups played by different clubs based in a country, there are a few more prestigious tournaments.
1. FA Cup: The FA Cup, known officially as the Football Association Challenge Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men’s domestic English football. The competition is open to any eligible club down to Level 10 of the English football league system – all 92 professional clubs in the Premier League (Level 1) and the English Football League (Levels 2 to 4), and several hundred "non-league" teams in Steps 1 to 6 of the National League System (Levels 5 to 10). A record 763 clubs competed in 2011–12. The tournament consists of 12 randomly drawn rounds followed by the semi-finals and the final. Current Champions are Manchester United and they also share the first place for maximum titles with Arsenal.
2. Champions League: The UEFA Champions League is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs. It is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champion (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of each UEFA national association. While most of Europe's national leagues can still only enter their national league champion, Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams for the competition. Also, the UEFA Europa League winners enter in the group stage if the UEFA Champions League winners qualify directly for the UEFA Champions League group stage via their domestic league programme.
The winner of the UEFA Champions League qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Real Madrid are the current champions and the most successful club in the history of the competition.
3. UEFA Europa League (UEFA Cup): Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions. Clubs that finish next-in-line in each nation’s top level league, having not for the UEFA Champions League competition, may be eligible for this competition. Current champions are Manchester United and the most successful club in the history of the tournament is Sevilla.
4. FIFA Club Worldcup: The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The FIFA Club World Cup's prestige is perceived quite differently in different parts of the football world: while it is widely regarded as the most distinguished club level trophy in South America, it struggles to attract interest in most of Europe. The current format of the tournament involves seven teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about two weeks; the winners of that year's AFC Champions League (Asia), CAF Champions League (Africa), CONCACAF Champions League (North America), Copa Libertadores (South America), OFC Champions League (Oceania) and UEFA Champions League (Europe), along with the host nation's national champions, participate in a straight knock-out tournament. The host nation's national champions dispute a play-off against the Oceania champions, from which the winner joins the champions of Asia, Africa and North America at the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners go on to face the European and South American champions, who enter at the semi-final stage, for a place in the final. Current champion of the format is Real Madrid and the most titles has been won by Barcelona.
Above mentioned are the most followed club tournaments all across the world besides the following international competitions played by nations.
1. FIFA World Cup:Every football playing nation competes in qualifiers to book a berth to FIFA world cup. Factually, 211 teams are eligible to play FIFA world cup and 32 actually make it into the main event. It happens once in every four year. The next FIFA world cup is held in 2018 and will be hosted by Russia. Current world champion is Germany and the most successful team is Brazil with 5 titles.
2. UEFA Euro Cup: This competition is contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), determining the continental champion of Europe. Again, this tournament is held once in every four year. 55 european countries compete into qualifiers to filter out best 24 for the event. Current champion is Portugal who won their first ever title last year. Germany and Spain are the most successful nations with 3 titles each.
3. Copa America: South American Football Championship, also known as Copa America has been played by the nations of CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation). Since 1993, the tournament has generally featured 12 teams – all 10 CONMEBOL teams and two additional teams from other confederations. The 2016 version of the event, Copa América Centenario, featured sixteen teams, with six teams from CONCACAF ( The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) in addition to the 10 from CONMEBOL. Current champion is Chile and the most successful nation in the history of the competition is Uruguay with 15 titles.
4. Olympics: Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 and 1932.
