Football 101

Hiya!

I celebrated my birthday by attending a Football game on Saturday, the Bristol Rovers. The club's official nickname or mascot is The Pirates [blue and white home uniform], reflecting the maritime history of Bristol. The local nickname of the club is The Gas-heads, from the gasworks next their former home stadium. It's kind of like being in Chicago as their main rivals are Bristol City Robins [red & white home uniform].

The Rover's club history can be traced back to 1883. Rovers currently play at the Memorial Stadium, where they have played since August 1996, and this year they are getting a new 18,500 capacity all-seater stadium. "All-seater" means you get to sit! I stood at the game yesterday in the family terrace. You can see the fans standing here in the Bass Terrace.

The fans are very involved in the games. They call out when players try to gain an edge when setting up the corner kick. They chant constantly throughout the game from the terrace at the end of the field which is the visitor's goal during the second half. The only chant I can repeat [and partly, that I understood] is the singing of "Good Night, Irene", which basically tells the other team you're losing! There are five divisions in English Football and the Bristol Rovers play in League One.

The Premiership which stands alone after breaking away in 1992 receiving more money and TV time. I won't get into the rest of it here.

1. The Championship,
2. Football League 1 [aka Coca-Cola Football League 1]
3. Football League 2, and the
4. Football Conference.

Unlike in the U.S. where a player may be traded at the end of the season, players are traded here as well, but the entire team moves between the English Football Leagues depending on the results of their season. There are 24 clubs in Football League One. Each club plays every other club twice (once at home & once away). Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. At the end of the season a table of the final League standings is determined, based on the following criteria in this order:

• points obtained,
• goal difference,
• goals scored,
• an aggregate of the results between two or more clubs (ranked using the previous three criteria) and, finally,
• a series of one or more play-off matches.

At the end of each season the top two clubs, together with the winner of the play-offs between the clubs which finished in 3rd–6th position, are promoted to Football League Championship and are replaced by the three clubs that finished at the bottom of that division.
Similarly, the four clubs that finished at the bottom of Football League One are relegated to Football League Two and are replaced by the top three clubs and the club that won the 4th–7th place play-offs in that division.

The Football League organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup (currently called the Carling Cup) and the Football League Trophy (or for sponsorship reasons, the Johnstone's Paint Trophy). The winners eligible to participate in the European Cup or UEFA Cup. This is the opportunity for teams to play out of their league, so to speak.

Lastly, before I go, my brother Mike celebrated his birthday this weekend as well. He's a life-long fan and player of football, or as we say in the U.S., soccer. Happy Birthday, Mike!