European Soccer Rosters

European soccer has a crazy following in almost all European nations, and some of the national leagues of some countries are even broadcasted for billions of people all around the world to watch. European soccer rosters can be viewed in two different ways - the national teams of all 50 countries in Europe, or the national leagues that operate in all these countries.

European National Soccer Rosters

When you are learning about this particular subject, you have to take the UEFA European Football Championship into account. This is a tournament that is held every 4 years (2 years after the FIFA World Cup), and it is exclusive only for European nations. The last tournament was co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland in 2008, and it was won by Spain. The next tournament is going to be held in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

The 2012 version will be the last version in which only 16 teams qualify for the tournament. From 2016 onwards, 24 teams will be allowed to participate in the final tournament. The first tournament was held in 1960 in France, and it was won by the erstwhile Soviet Union. In those times, it was known as the European Nation's Cup, and the current name was used since the 1968 version. These tournaments are also known as Euro 2008, or Euro 2012, or any other number for the year in which the tournament is held.

The European soccer rosters that host the tournament are given automatic qualification, and the rest of the teams have to play through a series of qualifying games. These teams are divided into various groups based on a seeding system, so that each team is evenly balanced with a few strong teams and a few minnows. Each team in a particular group has to play all the other teams twice (home and away), and in order to qualify they must finish in the qualifying spots. There are two play-off spots in each group as well, and the teams that finish in these spots have to play a two-legged elimination against a randomly picked team that finished in the same spot in another group. During the qualifying process, a win earns a team 3 points, a draw gets both teams 1 point each, and the loser gets 0 points. The teams with the most points are ranked higher in the group table. If two or more teams are tied with the same points, their positions are determined first by the goal difference (goals scored minus goals conceded), then only goals scored, then only goals conceded, and then their result against each other.

In the final tournament, the teams are divided into 4 seeded groups with 4 teams each. Each team plays the other teams once, and then they progress to the knockout rounds, which ultimately ends with the final, and a third place play-off. Knockout matches that end in a draw, are given 30 minutes of extra time, and then they go to penalties if the scores are still level. The coaches of each of these European soccer rosters are free to pick soccer players who are eligible to play for their countries, with a squad of 23 players allowed for the final tournament.


European League Soccer Rosters

League football is very different from national football in Europe. Each country has their own levels of leagues starting with the very basic amateur levels. The biggest national leagues are those in England (Barclays Premier League, 20 teams), Spain (La Liga, 20 teams), Italy (Serie A, 20 teams), Germany (Bundesliga, 18 teams), France (Ligue 1, 20 teams) and Portugal (Primeira Liga, 16 teams). Each team has to play the other teams twice (home and away), and the points system is the same as that mentioned above. The season usually spans for about 10 months, and the team that gets the most points at the end is the winner.

Each team picks their players based on several different factors. The coaches pick players from the reserve team of each club, from the youth teams, or they buy players from anywhere in the world in the transfer market. These markets are open twice a year - between the end of the season and August 31, and between January 1 and January 31. The clubs have to negotiate players transfer fees with the current club of the player, they have to negotiate terms and conditions with the player and then the player can move to the club for a fixed amount of time that is stipulated in the contract he signs. The most expensive transfer was Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid in June 2009 for $132 million.

The rules for adding players to European soccer rosters is something that is becoming a topic of intense debate. FIFA chief Sepp Blatter is keen to enforce the 6+5 rule which states that each club must play 6 homegrown players and a maximum of 5 foreign players in any match. He claims that this will help leagues keep their nationality alive, and it will also help the national teams of the countries. The need for this rule is stemming from the fact that more and more teams are recruiting foreign players, and are neglecting their national players as a result of this. The whole debate of club versus country is another issue, since the clubs claim that they are ultimately business franchises, and they do not care about the national teams.

The biggest tournament for European clubs is the UEFA Champions League. The top teams from each country are pitted against each other, and play matches all season long to ultimately reach the final, and win club footballs greatest prize. This tournament is held every year, and it originally was open only to the champions of each league from the previous season. Today, most of the big nations are allowed to send 4 teams in this competition (teams that occupy the top 4 spots), and smaller countries can send in 3 or 2 teams. This tournament was started in 1955, and Real Madrid has won it the most number of times (9 times). Some of the biggest names in club football are as follows.


This information on European soccer rosters is only generic, and there are plenty more things that you can look at about association football. With this knowledge you can start exploring more details about the most watched game in the world.