Football the beautiful game.

Football is a game adored by many people, and it inspires the dreams of many young athletes worldwide. It is often referred to by players, commenters, and fans as “The Beautiful Game”, and goes by many names all over the world. For example, in Italy, it is referred to as “Calcio”, while it is referred to as soccer in the United States. The roots of football can be traced back to the third century in China, during the Han Dynasty where it was called “Tsu’ Chu”. The Chinese game had many similarities to today’s game, which was popularized by the British, and included a leather ball filled with feathers with hair protruding from an opening, a net fixed to bamboo canes, and the prohibition on the use of hands.

Over the last 100 years, football has become the world’s most popular sport. Currently, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (French for “International Federation of Football Association” or “FIFA”) is the defacto rule setting organization for football globally. FIFA is headquartered in Switzerland and is divided into six regional confederations organized geographically (Figure 1 — FIFA Regional Confederations)

FIFA’s most notable football tournament, the Men’s World Cup, commenced in 1930 and is played every four years. The tournament pits each confederation’s best countries against one another until one winner prevails, and is arguably the most anticipated sports event known to mankind. Also, FIFA’s rule set is mandated by virtually all football leagues globally, including that of the Premier League in England, Serie A in Italy and La Liga in Spain, to name a few.

Six regional federations are divided as below:

Europe: Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)

South America: South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL)

North/Central America & Caribbean: Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)

Africa: Confederation of African Football (CAF)

Asia: Asian Football Confederation (AFC)

Oceania: Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)

National associations oversee football within individual countries. These are generally synonymous with sovereign states, (for example the Fédération Camerounaise de Football in Cameroon) but also includes a smaller number of associations responsible autonomous regions (for example the Scottish Football Association in Scotland). Currently, there are 209 national associations affiliated both with FIFA and with their respective continental confederations.

All football federations divide their competitions between clubs and national teams.



Let’s take a look at Europe and UEFA division:

UEFA Competitions

Clubs:

UEFA Champions League

UEFA Europa League

UEFA Super Cup

UEFA Women’s Champions League

UEFA Futsal Champions League

UEFA Youth League

National teams:

UEFA European Championship

UEFA Nations League

UEFA European Under-21 Championship

UEFA European Under-19 Championship

UEFA European Under-17 Championship

UEFA Women’s Championship

UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship

UEFA Women’s Under-17 Championship

UEFA Futsal Championship

UEFA Futsal Under-21 Championship

National teams:

The newest tournament form is UEFA Nations League that aims to replace friendlies. It’s going to commence in September 2018. Teams are divided into small groups. Winnings teams advance higher, the teams from the last place are relegated to lower division.

Clubs:

Each local FA governs the structure of leagues within an association. To give an example TheFA (The Football Association) that governs clubs in England embraces over 7000 clubs registered. Below is the division:

As clubs play in multinational leagues (like Champions League) UEFA uses coefficients, also known as the UEFA rankings, to rank the leagues of Europe, and thus determine the number of clubs from a league that will participate in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

A country’s ranking is calculated based on the results of its clubs in UEFA competitions over the past five seasons. Two points are awarded for each win by a club, and one for a draw. If a game goes to extra time, the result at the end of time is used to calculate ranking points; if the match goes to a penalty shootout, it is considered to be a draw for the purposes of the coefficient system. The number of points awarded to a country’s clubs is added together and then divided by the number of clubs that participated in European competitions that season.

CAF

Unlike UEFA where local federations are by countries, African federation is divided into sub federations and then into countries as below:

UNAF (North Africa)

WAFU-UFOA (West Africa)

UNIFFAC (Central Africa)

CECAFA (East Africa)

COSAFA (Southern Africa)

And competitions within African region go like belowL

Clubs:

CAF Champions League

CAF Confederation Cup

CAF Super Cup

National teams:

Africa Cup of Nations

African Nations Championship

UEFA European Under-21 Championship

CAF Men’s Under-20 Championship

CAF Men’s Under-17 Championship

CAF Women’s Under-20 Championship

CAF Women’s Under-17 Championship

CONCACAF

Central and North America competitions

Clubs:

CONCACAF Champions League

CONCACAF League

CONCACAF Futsal Cup

National teams:

CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF Nations League

CONCACAF U-20 Championship

CONCACAF U-17 Championship

CONCACAF U-15 Championship

CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup

CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship

CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship

CONCACAF Girls’ U-15 Championship

CONCACAF Futsal Championship

CONMEBOL

The smallest federation by country — only 10 members but playing significant role in football world.

Competitions:

Clubs:

Copa Libertadores

Copa Sudamericana

Recopa Sudamericana

Copa Libertadores Femenina

Copa Libertadores de Futsal

Copa Libertadores de Beach Soccer

National teams:

Copa América

South American Under-20 Championship

South American Under-17 Championship

South American Under-15 Championship

Copa América Femenina

South American Under-20 Women’s Championship

South American Under-17 Women’s Championship

Copa América de Futsal

FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifiers

South American Under-20 Futsal Championship

South American Under-17 Futsal Championship

Copa América Femenina de Futsal

South American Under-20 Women’s Futsal Championship

Copa América de Beach Soccer

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers

South American Under-20 Beach Soccer Championship

Superclásico de las Américas

Asian Football Confederation

Currently with 47 members competitions are like below:

Clubs:

AFC Champions League

AFC Cup

AFC Futsal Club Championship

National teams:

AFC Asian Cup

AFC U-23 Championship

AFC U-19 Championship

AFC U-16 Championship

AFC U-14 Championship

AFC Women’s Asian Cup

AFC U-19 Women’s Championship

AFC U-16 Women’s Championship

AFC Solidarity Cup

AFC Futsal Championship

AFC U-20 Futsal Championship

AFC Women’s Futsal Championship

AFC Beach Soccer Championship

Oceania Football Confederation

It’s by surprise, not the smallest confederation consisting of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, and other Pacific Island countries — together exceeding CONMEBOL by a number of countries belonging to the federation. Naturally, it’s smallest by the number of clubs registered.

Clubs:

OFC Champions League

Oceania Cup Winners’ Cup

OFC President’s Cup

Melanesian Super Cup

National teams:

OFC Nations Cup

OFC U-20 Championship

OFC U-17 Championship

OFC Women’s Nations Cup

OFC U-20 Women’s Championship

OFC U-17 Women’s Championship

OFC Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament

OFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament

OFC Futsal Championship

OFC Beach Soccer Championship

Revenue

Currently, football’s market value is enormous and constantly grows. In Europe alone, football’s biggest market, revenues peaked at 24.6 Billion Euros in 2016 and has grown quarter over quarter since 2006 at an average annual rate of approximately 8% (Figure 2 — European Football Revenues)

Five leagues in Europe produce more than 50% of the total European revenue from football. (Figure 3 — Top 5 European League Revenue by Year)

Moreover, the revenue is heavily concentrated with approximately 20 European football clubs.