European Super League 2020-21

UPDATED May 29: Final Standings for the season.

Some of the the richest clubs of European football have made noise about permanent spots in the UEFA Champions League, or wanting to create a closed European Super League. Naturally, I would prefer an open Super League, with promotion and relegation with the domestic leagues.

Since there are too many "big" clubs for one twenty-team league, I created a twenty-team Super League and a second division with forty teams, split into East and West Leagues. To pick which teams are placed in which leagues, I used the UEFA Club Coefficients from the end of the 2014-15 season. Since then, each season, teams were relegated from the Super League to Division 2, replaced by the East and West champions. Beginning with the 2018-19 season, the second-place team with the better record was also promoted to the Super League. (Ideally a playoff.) Three teams from each Division 2 league are relegated, replaced by the six teams that progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. (Ideally, this would just be the final Champions League teams, with the relegated teams automatically qualified for the next season's Champions League so they have the potential for promotion as soon as possible.)

After the previous season, Porto and Genk were relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Dynamo Kyiv were relegated from the Super League to Division League East. Celtic, Olympiacos and Slavia Praha were promoted from Division 2 to the Super League. Gent, Sporting Portuga, Anderlecht, Fenerbahçe, Rubin and Viktoria Plzeň were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Basel 1893 and Woverhampton Wanderers were promoted to Division 2 West. Atalanta, Copenhagen, Wolfsburg and İstanbul Başakşehir were promoted to Division 2 East.

Here is a map of the sixty teams in the international leagues. Click the rectangle tab thing in the upper left to get to the list where you can deselect the separate divisions.

Below are the final standings.

The standings include only games against teams in a team's division (Super League or Division 2). The first tiebreaker is the number of games played. The second tiebreaker is the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

The six teams that will be promoted from the domestic leagues for the 2021-22 season are the six teams (that aren't in these international leagues) who progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League: Borussia Mönchengladbach, Granada, Molde, Rangers, Young Boys, and Crvena zvezda (per highest club coefficient of the teams that ended in the round of 32).

At the Mall

So Spock says to Spiderman: "That's not how lightsabers work."

US Combined Soccer Leagues 2020

UPDATED February 2, 2021: Final Standings edited for who's playing in 2021.

Just suppose that many years ago, the US Soccer Federation required all professional teams to play in the same league system. Just suppose that they decided to divide teams vertically into Division 1, Division 2, etc. Just suppose that, each year, they promoted the best teams from Division 2 and relegated the worst teams from Division 1.

And here's the big leap. Just suppose that we didn't have any more teams playing than what we actually have.

In 2020, the USSF has 81 professional men's teams. After the 2019 season, Fresno and Lansing United folded, while the Ottawa Fury moved to Miami to become The Miami FC. Since there are now too many teams for two divisions with two leagues each, a Division 3 was created. New teams added to Division 3 West are 1904, California United Strikers, Los Angeles Force, Oakland Roots, San Diego Loyal and Union Omaha. New teams in Division 3 east are Chattanooga FC, Detroit City, Inter Miami and their B team Fort Lauderdale, Michigan Stars, New England Revolution II and Stumptown Athletic.

Here is a map of the teams. Click the rectangle tab thing in the upper left to get to the list where you can deselect the separate divisions.

Here are the final standings:

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin doesn't actually happen in each league above, I substitute that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2020, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1, 2 or 3).

Four teams will be relegated from Division 1, while the best two of each Division 2 league will be promoted. Three teams will be relegated from each Division 2 league and three promoted from each Division 3 league. If there are more new teams for next year, this may be adjusted. At least one team from each Division 2 league will be relegated no matter how many teams are added next year.

B teams must be in a division below their A teams (unless both are in Division 3), so if an A team is relegated from Division 1 to Division 2, then the B team will be relegated to Division 3, no matter its place in the table. Fort Lauderdale is Inter Miami's B team, so Inter Miami would be promoted in their place if Fort Lauderdale ended the season in a promotion position.