European Super League 2023-24

UPDATED April 18: Standings through today's games.

In previous years, some of the the richest clubs of European football announced (and then stepped back) a closed European Super League. They have made noise about permanent spots in the UEFA Champions League, as well. If there were a Super League, I would prefer it to be open, 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 2021-22 season, the two second-place teams of Division 2 will also be promoted to the Super League. Four teams from each Division 2 league will be relegated, replaced by the eight 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, Sevilla and Ajax were relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Zenit and Galatasaray were relegated from the Super League to Division 2 East. Leicester City, Porto, Napoli and Borussia Dortmund were promoted from Division 2 to the Super League. Sporting Portugal, Rangers, Braga, West Ham United, Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Praha, Olympiacos and Sheriff Tiraspol were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Nantes and Royale Union Saint-Gilloise were promoted to Division 2 West. Fenerbahçe, Ferencváros, Freiburg, Midtyjlland, Union Berlin and Basel were promoted to Division 2 East. Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Monaco were moved from East to West.

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.

Here are the current 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 teams that will be promoted from the domestic leagues for the 2023-24 season are the eight teams (that aren't in these international leagues) who progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. These teams are Copenhagen, Brighton & Hove Albion, Qarabag, Rangers, Slavia Praha, Sparta Praha, Sporting Portugal and West Ham United.

US Combined Soccer Leagues 2023

UPDATED February 16, 2024: Final Standings below.

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 2023, the USSF has 101 professional men's teams. After (or during) the 2022 season, California United Strikers, Tucson, Bay Cities, Valley United, and Syracuse Pulse folded. New teams added to Division 4 are Lexington Sporting, One Knox, Club de Lyon, Gold Star Detroit, Savannah Clovers, Austin II, Crown Legacy, Huntsville City, and Los Angeles F.C. 2. St. Louis City is added to Division 3, taking the place of St. Louis City2, which will be in Division 4.

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 didn't actually happen in each league above, I substituted that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2023, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1, 2, 3 or 4).

Three teams are relegated from Division 1 and three teams promoted from Division 2. Four teams are relegated from Division 2, while the best two of each Division 3 league are promoted. The number of teams moving between Divisions 3 and 4 is determined by the total number of teams in 2024. At least one team is relegated from each Division 3 league.

B teams must be in a division below their A teams (unless both are in Division 4), so if an A team is relegated from Division 1 to Division 2, then the B team is relegated from Division 2 to Division 3, no matter its place in the table.