In most European countries each large town will have at least one football team who play in leagues, which last August to May in most of Europe but March to October in others. Unlike most American sports, the top teams in each league go up a league to be replaced by the last teams in the league above. The top teams in the top division of each European country enter the UEFA Champions League, a league and knockout competition played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays around the season.
==Soccer and socialism==
The nature and rules of soccer very much resemble [[socialism]] in many ways:<ref>http://blog.american.com/?p=16158</ref><ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/soccer_the_perfect_socialist_s.html</ref>
* Soccer is very bureaucratic.
* Even the World Cup encourages "achievement" by holding a third-place game for the two losers in the semifinals.
* [[Union]] [[strikes]], even during the playing season, are a major issue with soccer.
* Participants are known to behave dishonestly and illegally and act against the interests of their team in order to gain financially themselves.<ref>http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/62773.html</ref>
==Great Players==