Soccerology 101: Promotion and relegation
An introduction to soccer's multi-tiered domestic league setups
Welcome to Soccerology 101, a series of articles explaining soccer’s nuances and complexities. The objective is to equip new fans and those who don’t follow the sport closely with a better understanding of how it works and the terminology that is used.
Each article will focus on a specific aspect of the sport related to what is currently happening in the soccer universe. A new European club season is about to get underway, which makes it a convenient time to dive into promotion and relegation.
How does promotion and relegation work?
Many European countries have at least two leagues that are part of the same overall league structure. The leagues are sometimes referred to as divisions, so a player in the third-best league could be described as playing in the third division. At the end of every season, the worst teams from one division are sent to the one below it and the top teams from that division take their place in the higher division.
Each division has a set number of teams, so the same number of teams get promoted and relegated. For example, there are 20 teams in England’s top division, called the Premier League. The bottom three teams in the standings are relegated to the second division, which is the English Football League Championship. Three teams from the Championship take the place of the relegated teams in the Premier League. Typically, the top one or two finishers in a lower division will be automatically promoted while another team earns promotion by winning a playoff featuring the top remaining teams in the division.
Why is it used and how common is it?
The use of a promotion and relegation system is incredibly common in soccer as well as other sports and eSports leagues. The United States, Canada and Australia are three of just a handful of countries that use what is referred to as a closed model where teams cannot be promoted or relegated. In its purest form, promotion and relegation is a way to determine a team’s status based on sporting merit rather than financial resources and membership to an exclusive group.
What happens to teams that get relegated?
Teams that are relegated often lose their best players and are forced to cut costs since their revenue drops significantly. In the Premier League and other top leagues, relegated teams receive payouts called parachute payments to help with the transition. Some teams are able to regroup and immediately push for promotion while others spiral into economic turmoil. Four of the 13 teams relegated from Europe’s top five leagues in the 2020-21 season got promoted in 2021-22.
How successful are promoted teams?
For almost all promoted teams, the goal is simply to avoid relegation, and every season there are some that manage to do so. The hope is that the financial benefits of playing in a higher division will allow the team to acquire more talent over time if they can survive the first season. Some promoted teams do have immediate success.
RB Leipzig finished second in Germany’s top division in their first season (this was much less remarkable than it appears for reasons that would need their own Soccerology 101 to explain). A newly promoted team has also finished 13th or better in the 20-team Premier League the past two seasons. Of the 14 teams promoted to Europe’s top five leagues in 2021-22, nine were able to stay up (avoid relegation).
Why doesn’t the U.S. have promotion and relegation?
As mentioned previously, the U.S. is one of the few countries that uses a closed model for its top sports leagues. Closed leagues have some kind of revenue sharing agreement that divides the money made by the league among the teams’ owners. This allows teams spending less money or having less success to benefit from the better teams, giving Major League Soccer owners absolutely no incentive to introduce a system with dire economic consequences for not fielding a competitive team. It is possible that the United Soccer League — which has three divisions and is independent from MLS — starts using promotion and relegation down the line.