NFL Fans React To "(European) Soccer Explained For Americans" 

Football is an institution in Europe, you can hear a conversation about a team in every bar across Europe, everyday, every hour, every minute. 😎✌

You mentioned hypothetically Kansas City winning the Super Bowl and then being relegated a couple of years later, that literally happened in real life here. Leicester City won the Premier League in 2016 and were relegated last season. They’re doing well this season and looks like they might come back up again, though

You talked about teams fading into obscurity, and the narrator says that "nobody cares" about teams in the national league. Just to help you understand how important the game is, even at such a low level, teams in the national league (5th tier) can play in front of thousands of fans (average gate about 3,000, the top clubs average 6,000-8,000). Even in the 6th tier, there are quite a few teams that pull in over 2,000 fans per match on average, and can go up to about 3,000-4,000 for a big match such as a local derby or top of the table clash.

So in soccer, offside is similar to offside in ice hockey, but the blue line is not painted on the field because it is "moving" with whoever the last defender before the goal is. That's why the two side refs are usually always on the same level as the last defender.

Football is a game of anticipation. Nobody expects more than 4 goals in a match, the average is 2 goals, 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, 2-0. The excitement is the possibility of your team scoring when they go forward and the possibility of the opponents scoring against your team. That's the very base level of football. After a while you'll understand the Ins and Outs of the game

You said Arsenal blocked content.. Do you know who owns Arsenal? An American Stan Kronke who is a big owner of LA Rams amongst many other U.S teams in various sports and is worth in excess of £7bn +.. everything arsenal do on or off the field has to be ratified by him

Relegation/Jeopardy in the league makes it far more exciting. Like this season in the Premier League, it's looking like a 3 horse race to win the title between Liverpool, Man City & Arsenal & it will probably go down to the last game of the season to see who is crowned champions. But there's 5/6 teams at the bottom who will all be scraping it out not to be 1 of the 3 teams relegated on the last day of the season. Making it a nail biting last day of the season, with loads of different storylines all being played out.

The idea that it's the same teams in the NFL year after year and that if you suck you get rewarded is not only boring as hell but bizarre, and that you have no comps where everybody and anybody can play is also boring, these differences are some of the reasons normal club games have way way more viewers than the superbowl final.

What the video failed to mention is that in England, the top 2 teams gets promoted straight to the premier league, while third to sixth are sent to a knockout-style mini tournament playoff with home and away legs, with the winner getting the third promotion spot. Also championship playoffs are usually the hypest set of matches of the year due to how much is at stake.

18:17 the top 4 leagues in England are all fully professional. I support a team in League One (3rd tier), Oxford United, who are a professional club. The third tier isn’t complete ‘obscurity’, there’s still thousands of fans that go to each of the games in these leagues. We managed to get to the top league in the 1980’s, and won the League Cup in 1986.

Offside rule: When the attacking team with the ball passes the ball forward...the player recieving the ball MUST be behind or in line with the last defender (not including the defending goalkeeper) ie as soon as the ball is kicked (touched) by the player passing to him..he cannot be ahead of the last defender..or it will be ruled offside. There is slightly more to this with various circumstances, but thats the basic jist of it. This is when you see replays of the attacking move freeze framed on screen with 2 lines accross the pitch..showing where the last defender and the attacking player who is being passed to as the ball is kicked. It can literally come down to a half inch difference sometimes. The attacking player must time his run perfectly to beat the offside trap set by the defending team.

Release clause is kind of "if someone offers this money we have to accept it", so it takes the owning club out of the equation. And then the team that offered that money can negotiate with the player directly on their personal contract. The player doesn't have to accept the move if they don't want to. Anyone else who wants to buy the player would have to offer the same money as the clause to negotiate with the player direct. So it doesn't make the player a free agent. In England, we don't really have many release clauses. I'm not sure I've heard of too many players moving in England because another team decided to play the release clause. Although I think in Spain release clauses are compulsory in every contract. That's one of the reasons Paris SG bought Neymar back in 2017. FC Barcelona set his release clause at 222m Euros, thinking they were safe, as only the previous year Manchester United set a new world record fee when they bought Paul Pogba for 89m Euros. But the Qatari owners of PSG were happy to more than double the world record fee to buy Neymar out of his contract, and Neymar himself wanted to go there and there was nothing Barcelona could do about it.

Midfielders are considered the generalist, all round players. They are usually the brain of the team. Many great football coaches and managers used to be midfielders in their playing days.

I’ve never understood the idea that football is slow or boring compared to US sports. My wife watches baseball and they celebrate if someone hits the ball. Once. It changes personnel quickly I guess, but nothing happens for most of the time.

Banging video :) The European Championships is coming up this Summer, I highly recommend trying to watch a few games. Or at least watching the daily recaps each day for the month it's on, might be useful to get a grasp of the top players in the modern game, etc ...

I utterly disagree with the (idiotic, to say the least) statement that 'only their Mum's care about the league at this point.' Considering there are 20 tiers in England alone.

Germany with world largest soccer association and club structure have a 13 level deep system of leagues. There are over 2000 different leagues in this system with over 30.000 teams compete in it.

I tried to tell an an American movie reactor to try the running around a field experiment after he said footballers go down too easily, he really didn't understand.

Football is full of different playstyles. A lot of the top teams are possession sides but you have counter attacking teams, very defensive teams, teams who play a fast passing style. That's what keeps the game insteresting

A few teams in England have gone from the top flight to the fifth tier (Still mainly full profesionals). Notable teams are Oldham Athletic and Luton Town, although Luton have recently won promotion back to the Premiere league after nine consecutive seasons, which is pretty good going considering the little they've spent compared to most?

This is a good explainer video at laying out some of the key appeal that may get lost if you don’t know what you’re watching. For me it’s always been a couple of things: both teams are 20/30secs away from scoring…. and the free-flowing nature of the game. This creates a gnawing see-saw of tension that isn’t so present in sports where there are short bursts of coordinated action. With soccer, there’s an unpredictable quality that can be utterly anxiety inducing when you’re invested. Because of the ‘low-scoring’ deadlock nature of it, one tiny mistake and the punishment can be brutal. There’s more to it, of course but this idea is good to have in mind when getting into it…👍⚽️

Ok, this is the first football video I've watched ever since today, so I'm gonna rant here. It's been 2 years in a row of Arsenal absolulutely bottling the Premier Lague title. Our biggest title race competitor, Liverpool, just fumbled away crucial points against a midtable team, and we just lost against a midtable team as well. Now our second competitor, Manchester City, that were given for dead, are 2 points ahead of us in first place and both Liverpool and us have already played our 2 matches against them. Now we relly on the midtable teams that Manchester City has to play against in his last games to tie or win against them, which is nearly impossible. We are doomed.

*YALL need to watch this video By Zealand " WHY THE USA SUCKS AT FOOTBALL ⚽" He explains the history of the sport in the US*

In england you could set your own team up and if things went incredibly well you coukd eventually find yourself in the premier league. Its highly unlikely but the "pyramid " structure gives fans of all clubs that essential thing they need.....hope.

27:47 when players are signing kids, they’ll be scouted whilst at school, usually when they’re playing exceptionally for county or district clubs. They’ll then join the club’s school system (which most big clubs have) or move in with a foster family close to the club they’ve joined and go a normal school there. At either a football academy school or local school they learn and get their qualifications whilst also training and developing as a player. Eventually when they enter their late teens, they’ll either get promoted to their club’s first team if they’re exceptionally good, get released and have to get a job of join a lesser club, or get sold/loaned (temporary transfer-usually for one season) to a rival who thinks they have space for that player in their team.

25:18 The release clause it's meant to be activated by the player that wants out of a contract, it will most likely be paid by another club but only if the player agrees.

Not every player has a release clause . In Spain it's a rule that every player has a release clause but most of the good players have ridiculous ones that no one would ever pay. If your a minor team with not much money you might have a young kid come through the youth team and you know you won't be able to keep him so a release clause would be a good idea. If another team bids the amount set in the release clause that player has to atleast enter negotiations but is not under obligation to leave but usually the bidding team is better so he leaves.

Football is such an important part of European culture that almost every kid plays it (either just for fun like during recess or after school, or at a club). In Germany, where I live, the kids who play at clubs also have A ,B and C teams (by age group) and take part in regional tournaments. There is a programm (by DFB, German Football Association) in which the best kids from the small local clubs are scouted and invited to join for special training, addtional tournaments and further sounting by the professional clubs. That's why many top players can trace their way back to a small town club with a muddy pitch and having to carry home all players' club jerseys to wash them when it was their turn.

Signing very young players is getting stricter in the PL. As these 8,9 and 10 year olds can't be bought but are free to move on a youth contract the biggest clubs would poach the best kids by offering well paid jobs to the parents and maybe a brand new home to move in with their talented son. They decided this was exploration and strictly speaking the under 14's can only be picked to train with a club within a certain radius. 14-17 year olds that can't sign a professional contract until an adult and 18 can sign a contract elsewhere but the club losing the player can demand a 'training' fee which could be as much as £2m based on achievements. A tribunal will decide the fee if the clubs can't agree. After 18 it's a matter of making an acceptable offer to the players club to buy the player or paying the release clause. To answer your question, no a player never has to accept a transfer out of a club. There's been stories of managers putting players on planes to fly to sign for another club and the player not arriving. There was also the famous story of Bogarde at Chelsea. Signed by one manager who left after a few weeks of signing him. The next managers didn't want Bogarde and tried numerous times to sell him. He refused so they kept making him play for the u21 and then the u18's. He played 11 times for Chelsea during his 4 year stint. Collecting a reported £160k a month during this time!! Of course the flip side is players or their agents try to engineer a move out of a club. That happens a lot.

Relegation makes you watch both the good and bad teams. It makes the games for the teams fighting to stay in the top division as important as the teams fighting for the championship.

You were the King of the draws Daniel! It was really fun to watch it while you were outside at night. What about the European Cup? You have to watch that as well. Writing all the predictions on a paper. Sorry we threw you out of the World Cup. We still don't have a great team. We have no real strikers yet.

What i really love some of these leagues have a special turnament where every team has a chance to qualify. In germany its the "DFB Pokal" where some interesting upsets can happen. All the 1league teams are playing and it can happen in the later rounds that the total misfits of 4league play against Bayern München and win.

JJ Watts said something super interesting in a UK interview. He said, America aims for all teams to be kinda central and in the middle of the the league.

I complained about the amount of time spent sitting around passing in soccer until I had a friend complain about the time between plays in American football. I explained that if you know what is going on in NFL pre-snap strategy and positioning, it's pretty interesting from a tactical perspective. Then it hit me- the same probably held true for the "boring" passing in soccer. I looked into some rules and strategy and watched some matches, and sure enough, it's really cool to watch them set up the plays now.

The release clause is only paid if the player and the new team come to an agreement on a contract. The Release clause just means that the current team can't turn down the transfer fee. If there is no Release Clause, then the new team has to negotiate a transfer fee with the original club before they can negotiate a contract with the player. If the player turns down the contract offer, than no fee is paid to the original team. The transfer fees are only paid if a player agrees to a new contract with the new team.

Relegation introduces Jeopardy, Jeopardy introduces Drama and Drama is what makes Football interesting

5:18 Last Sunday, I was watching a Portuguese league game (FC Porto vs Sporting CP) with 2/3 minutes left to finish, Porto was winning 2-0, I went to the kitchen to prepare a coffee, When I returned to the living room it was already 2-2, Sporting in a minute scored 2 goals...

Love the way you say ‘Regulation’ lol😅

Very few players have release clauses, although it's more common with clauses like "if the team is relegated the player is released" or something like that. But release clauses are usually only for big stars. It's to deter other clubs coming to poach their best players, so they set a release clause usually waay higher than their actual market value. Often based on what they think they might be worth after e.g. a year if they are confident that he's going to do well. Either way, release clauses are not that common. And no, they are not released "outright" like an American UFA, everything is done in one swoop, the team will obviously not pay to release someone if they can't sign him.

13:25 VAR is just the video surveillance Offside is simple: If you are past the second last opponents player your teammates can't pass the ball to you. (second last is usually the defender nearest to the goalkeeper but it's worded that because in some cases the goalie ends up in front of other players although that's exceedingly rare) and some people think it's a dumb rule, but without it teams would have a big incentive to just leave half of their team behind to prevent those kind of passes. it'd KILL the game in the midfield and that's where you can see a lot of tactics at their best

09:45 - That's why, when they call for a sub you really listen to what name or shirt number. It can change the whole game set up depending on which position they are subbing.

Do not worry about the offside rule and VAR that is for full discussions in any pub around the land for a forthright discussion on any decision and you will never prove who is right.....

A typical timeline of a football fan will start in July: with the preseason friendly games, kind of like US exhibition games, this normally means big teams playing in the States or more medium sized teams playing against random opponents they have arranged to play. August: Not long after Champions League and Europa League qualification begins, half of the teams in these competitions have already qualified based on their result the previous season that ended in May, but the final spots are made up of teams that will play each other for the last spots, this is normally a 128ish team knockout, with teams from places like Iceland and Luxembourg in the early rounds with clubs from bigger nations joining in the last few rounds. Brackets don't really exist as its common in football for draws to happen, not draws as in 0-0 2-2, but where names are pulled out of a ball like the lottery to decide the fixtures. After the Qualification begins the leagues often start, not all leagues start at the same time but its normally at some point in August. These will normally be played on weekend, occasionally Mondays/Fridays, and the odd midweek game on Wednesday. Some countries play a super cup to start the season, Superpokal in Germany, Supercopa del Rey in Spain, this is where the League winner plays the Cup winner, this game you'd think from an American perspective would be the biggest game, but most people don't value it highly. A few weeks into the season Cup games which often happen midweek start, these are separate from the league tables and will see teams play teams from other divisions, these are domestic, ie you only play teams from your own country. Cup competitions often predate the league since back in the day leagues where harder to arrange as they required season long commitment from teams rather than playing a few games at a time like a cup. Cup games often lack momentum as they are played weeks apart but they are an important traditional part of football. The league is only valued more as it is the fairest competition, it doesn't have upsets, truly the best team wins, but the cup allows for more underdog stories. September: Champions League/Europa League group stage begins, this will be 6 games, where you play each team twice, similar to how the Bears have to play the Packers, Lions and Vikings twice a season, the groups are random though as different teams, from different countries enter each year. this last from September to about December. October to New Years: The season runs as normal, some countries like England and Scotland have two Cups, one called the Leagues cup, normally its ____ Cup after a sponsor, like Carling Cup, Carabao Cup, Viaplay Cup and the more traditional Cup ie the FA Cup or the Scottish Cup. The traditional one features every team in the country where as the league Cup is only the ''league'' teams, which is a term that describes the top 4 leagues in the country ie the leagues that are fully pro and not semi pro/amateur. This is minor but its important to know. Most places dont do this. January: at this point the season is underway, the Champions League and Europa league group stage will be done and top two teams from the groups of 4 will progress to the knockouts and the 3rd place team in the case of the CL will play an extra round against the 2nd placed EL teams, both tournaments then having 16 teams that will drop to two for the final. at certain weeks during the last 5 months there will have been breaks for national teams to play in friendly matches or against each other to qualify for the World Cup or the Euros(the Euros is the WC but just for European teams, each continent has one). We might also be down to the last 16 or 8 teams in the Cup. The league will be halfway done, we often look at the team who is top of the league at Christmas as the team who will win the league, or if they fall off and choke we say, 'how could you do that you were top at Christmas'. May: Most seasons often end about May, just like how the leagues start at different times they will often end at different times, if the top teams is so dominant that they have more points than the second place teams and the second place cant mathematically catch up they are crowned champion before the League ends. The Cup finals in most countries happen after the last matches of the league have been played, and that ends the domestic seasons in most countries. Teams that finished in the top 4 places in England, Spain, Germany and Italy are now in the Champions league for the next season. Other countries get less spots which is unfair and maybe the only big downside to Football in Europe. The Champions League final will now be played in late May early June. This is at a neutral venue that will be selected ahead of time, like the Superbowl, except tickets aren't a rip off so that only the elites can go. There are no halftime shows and only people who like Football will watch it, you won't have watch parties where people make stupid bets and only watch for the singer, not acceptable behavior. in Europe. After the Champions League the season is over and the preseason games begin a month later. Other things: Transfer of players can only happen during transfer windows, if a player has a contract at a team for say three years and he has only been there a year then he can only move to another team for a fee during the window, these windows normally start at the end of the season and will close a few weeks into the new season, and there is a second window at Christmas to late January. You can sign players outside these time periods but they can only play once the next window starts. These rules are consistent because European football has an Organisation that maintains every thing called UEFA, often labelled UEFA MAFIA by many ultras. They control the Champions League, they are very corrupt but are necessary evil to maintain order. 2 years ago twelve teams from England Spain and Italy tried to break away from UEFA and found their own league and this failed hard because the fans saw that this was only for greed and they protested, and they had to step away from their multi billion dollar plans. Last thing is that every two years Either the Euros happen, or the World Cup happens, this is the biggest and most important event in the whole sport, so pretty much 2/4 years there is no off season, meanwhile the off season of college football lasts 8 months, sheesh. South American seasons start in January due to their seasons being inverted because they are in the Southern Hemisphere, some countries like Japan and the US also do this for their leagues. In Brazil in particular the season starts with state leagues since Brazil is so big it has individual states that are comparable to countries so they play a league competition which last 3 months before the real league starts in about March. Non Brazilian Leagues in the Americas in places like Argentina and Mexico often split the league into two halves with a champion awarded in the middle and at the end so there are two national champions a year plus the cup, I have no clue why this is and this will be foreign to even die hard European football fans but considering Argentina's influence on the world stage with Messi, Maradona, teams Boca Jrs and River Plate and their World Cups I'd thought I'd mention it. I don't know if anyone read this but thanks if you did.

6:30 I never thought about it like that. I'll certainly look at it differently now whenever a footballer is hamming it up over an injury. Ye go for it, you deserve it, have a rest lol.

19:50 2 weeks ago in the German "DFB Pokal" (the same tournament like the FA Cup in England) a 2. division team (Kaiserslautern) has beaten a 3. division team (Saarbrücken) to advance to the german cup final. Saarbrücken has beaten top tier teams like Mönchengladbach. They also have beaten the record bundesliga champion Bayern munich. Bayern (929 Million €) has the largest Team salary in Germany by a mile (saarbrückens Team salary to compare: about 5 million €). It doesn't happen to much but you see, it is possible. If Kaiserslautern will beat Leverkusen in the final they will get a spot in the Euro League as a 2.division team. That would gave them a massive TV contract. That's the beauty of this Sport.

So one of the funniest things about him saying to call it football if you leave the US and not soccer is that the US was not the first country to use the word soccer to describe the game. It was actually England. Back when the game was in its infancy, there was confusion about what sport was called football. Between the game we call soccer now and rugby. What ended up happening was an association formed to govern the rules of soccer in England so they began calling that association football. Well, that’s a little bit of a mouthful, so they shortened the word association to soccer to refer to association football. Eventually, the rugby union would be formed and they would adopt the rugby for their sport and soccer would drop the association and just be referred to as football because you played with your feet. The reason we don’t call is because by the time this all happened, rugby had made its way over to the US and gotten into the colleges. They began to play around with the rules a bit, and the game of American football was born. So the game of rugby came over when it was being called football and that name just kind of stuck and has forever.

havent read all the comments but regarding high school - college - professional u can see that also instead of feeding clubs as countries with lesser money in the sport can earn money by selling their young players (18-22 yrs old) so they can profit and build their club. As for me who live in Sweden we also have a rule called 51% rule wich means no company can come in and buy more then 49% of shares in a club. 51% belongs to the members of the club so i can be a member and have the right to vote on yearly meetings and so forth. negative with this is we can never compete moneywise with the big countries but the passion for your team is real since ur part of the club if u get what i mean but in the meantime it makes people follow their club in another way and when u get kids the usually do what u do and thats the case in Sweden. Love ur videos keep it up!

Definitively a great video from this guy, and great thoughts from you too 👍🏻

I can't speak for other countries, but the England (and Wales - they're combined) leagues started out differently. There used to be one league which was split into four divisions. The top was 1st division, with 4th being lowest. After that, you also had non-league teams. The difference between league and non-league teams was basically for media coverage and betting: league matches would be televised and were used for 'the pools' (a kind of semi-skilled lottery...). Yes, teams could be relegated on the back of a crappy season, and even leave the league if they were in the 4th division at the time. However, teams were also promoted by being at the top of their current division, and there have been a lot of teams who spend most of their time doing the hokey-cokey between divisions because they are a bit too good for one division, but not quite good enough for the next one up. Introducing the Premier League was basically a cash grab on a larcenous scale - concentrate everything on the top division (now the Premier League), and ignore everything else.

Offside is, when the forward pass was played, when the attacking team has the closest player to the enemy goal, involved in the attack play.

The owners of Arsenal are American. They also own the LA Rams. Might explain a few things 😂

One of my local teams was relegated down to league 2 (the 4th level) but this year they are now back up into the Premiership. There are instances of lower league team, below league 2 haveing been promoted to league Football. The football player gets a percentage of the transrer fee when they move clubs.

Usually those players have managers, if the player feels unappreciated he tellls his manager go find me another club and then the manager gets to work. So usually the player is good with his new club before the new club talks to the old. The teams set the money for the buy out very high for the best talents sometimes up to 1 billion euros.

Offside - you are not allowed to pass the ball to a teammate that is behind the last defender (at the moment of the pass…) VAR - it’s a technology advancement to the game that lets the referee check important game changing decisions via smart cameras and monitors. Technically there are referees that monitor the VAR system back stage and whenever the referee asks them to check something they do that.

I don't know where you guys specifically live, but you could go watch a game of the Maryland Bobcats, only pro team in the state that plays in 3rd division in Boyds, MD. If you want to see 1st division game there are both the Philadelphia Union and the DC United, and even Loudoun United a 2nd division club from Leesburg, Virginia, just west of DC

25:03 To make it simple, you need to negotiated with the player first for how much the new club willing to pay him and how long the contract would be, if the player accept it, then The new club must pay all of the player's salary under the player's remaining contract on his current team. Let's say the player's salary is $5 million, and he has 2 years remaining on his contract, so the new team must pay the team up to $10 million. Of course, the new club can negotiate the price to be cheaper or more expensive so that the team is more willing to sell their players. If the current club accept it, the player will be transferred at the end of the season (That's right, the player doesn't immediately move because the player still has the remainder of his unfinished contract). BUT if the player doesn't have any remaining contract and he didn't want to extend his contract at the current club, then the new club just only need to negotiate with the player, if the player accept it, at the end of the season he will be your player for free (without release clause) honorable mention that the new club can also just borrow the player for a short time of contract, if the contract ends the player will back to his old club, it called "loaning a player" and the system nearly the same, you contact the player, if the player accept, you contact the team, if the team accept, you can loan the player for a short time (in general only for 1 or 1/2 of the season)

I think a good example of sell on clause is where Birmingham sold Jude Bellingham to Dortmond who then sold Bellingham to Real Madrid and Dortmond had to pay Birmingham around 10million i believe.

If one (or more) clubs are willing to pay the release clause the player can speak to the team(s) but he still has to sign a contract and can reject some clubs. Example: Player A has a 20 Mill. Clause and there is one team in England, one in France and two in Spain willing to pay that. Ofc the player will listen to the paycheck, but if he insists on going to one of the Spain Clubs those are in a bidding "war" (just not the salary, but also playing time, standing in the league, european competion are valid arguments).

On the FA Cup and other European domestic knockout cups where any team from any league in the country can play! Yes they are normally won by top tiered teams but for the smaller clubs from the lower leagues if they get a chance to go against a top team like a Manchester United / city, Liverpool, Barcelona, PSG etc the financial reward they can get is sometimes a life saver for the clubs especially if they get play at the big clubs much bigger stadium as win or lose the small club gets a % of the gate, considering that some of these smaller clubs have much less seating capacity in their stadiums this could bank roll the clubs for years. There used to be a situation where smaller clubs would give up the "advantage" of playing at their place so that they could play in the bigger stadium and get a % of the gate from the bigger clubs stadium even if the turnout was low for the big club it would still be more than the small club could get in the terms of gate receipts from having the game played at their place.

Release clauses aren't compulsory, I think in Spain every player must have a release clause in their contract but elsewhere it's optional. Generally it's more common that the better players will have the release clauses, often ridiculous amounts. Once it has been paid it means the club paying essentially bypasses negotiations with the receiving club and can immediately negotiate a contract with the player. Otherwise they first have to agree a transfer fee before they are able to talk to the player. Release clauses don't mean the player is then open to talks with anyone, only with the club who paid it. At times players can run down their contracts and refuse to sign a new one meaning that they are then a free agent. Again that means any interested clubs can negotiate directly with the player (and their agent).

regarding release clauses.. by no means does every player have a release clause. whilst it's common, it's not across the board. each player will negotiate his / her own contract via their agent. which may or may not include whichever clauses are agreed between club and player.

Most leagues in Europe make release clauses in contracts mandatory. If you're good enough you'll always have an out. The amount of the release clause is negotiated when the original contract is drafted. Young players with high potential always have these ridiculously high release clauses. What wasn't specifically mentioned is how teams qualify for champions league. It's not that your subjectivity the best. You have to come in like 1st or 2nd in your league. Each league is given a certain amount of spots based on how big and successful they are england will get 3 spots where as a smaller league like portugal will get 2. So the top 3 teams at the end of the season qualify for CL and itnisnt necessarily gonna be one of the bigger clubs you have to earn it. There is also a europa league and conference league. Which are like 2nd and 3rd teir version of the champions league.

some release clauses at the top are..Jude Bellingham - Real Madrid - €1bn (£871m/$1.08bn) ... Ansu Fati - Barcelona - €1bn (£871m/$1.08bn) ... Pedri - Barcelona - €1bn (£871m/$1.08bn) ... Ronald Araujo - Barcelona - €1bn (£871m/$1.08bn) ... Vinicius Junior - Real Madrid - €1bn (£871m/$1.08bn) and then a new clause is set after they move, my team is oxford utd because im from oxford. we are in div1 so the 3rd tier. and because we are close to playing to be promoted, we now have scouts turning up to buy our best players, so some may move up 1 or 2 leagues. so then we have to scramble to fill their roles. so our scouts will be out watching other teams to fill some gaps or take a spot of a player who isnt as good as the manager wants in any position. you also have players on loan who might only be with you for a season, like a goal keeper you can get a premier teams 3ed team one as he would be extra to what they needed, plus it takes some of their costs. as in, we would pay their wages which balances their books and they do not get fined and lose points for spending to much.

The good thing about promotion/relegation is that it means that (in theory anyway) any club can get to the top league in their respective country. If we just take England as an example - Luton Town are currently in the top division but about 10 years ago they were in the FIFTH tier of English football. That is an extreme example but it is not that uncommon for some pretty big clubs to get relegated from the English premier league and go down to the 2nd tier. In the last decade or so Leeds Utd, Newcastle Utd & Aston Villa have all played in the 2nd tier. In fact Leeds are currently in the 2nd tier. Leicester City won the Premier League in 2016 and are currently in the 2nd tier. The argument against promotion/relegation is basically a financial one and it is mainly driven by the bigger clubs and is also a consequence of many English clubs now having American ownership. The American owners do not like the idea of relegation. The English premier league is by far the richest football league in the world in terms of the money it receives from TV, so relegation from the league can often prove financially ruinous for clubs who have budgeted to be playing in the premier league. Players sign 3, 4, 5 year contracts and then one bad season means the club now has to pay these guys Premier league wages when they are no longer in the Premier League. From an American point of view it'd be something like the New England Patriots giving Tom Brady a 7 year deal worth $100's of millions back in the day but then one season in to the deal, the Patriots are no longer an NFL team! The financial consequences of that happening are unimaginable for American sports teams & their owners but in European football it's all just part of the game

25:09 It's a complete deal. You only pay the release clause if the player signs a contract with you. Usually you start negotiations with a player or his personal agent, and after you have an agreement you pay the other club

About the release clause: that happened last season to Benfica (Portugal) and a player (Enzo).. Benfica bought the player mid-season (can't remember how much, but I'll point to no more than 20M).. He played VERY well, Chelsea noticed, payed the release clause (120M+), the player wanted to go to England, Benfica didn't wanted the player to leave, but the clause was payed. Benfica's president words: "We made 100M profit in less than 6 months, but we didn't want to. The only thing good from this is we have one less salary to pay to someone that doesn't want to be in our team".

One thing about the release clause. When a player can get a better salary or improve his changes as a player ( better team better league) he can make his team let him go. (Bosman arrest) So the clubs as well as the new club amd the player need to agree to transfer. So if man united wants a player from bayern they talk to the player and the club. So when both agree the player transfers signs a contract at man united then the transfer money is payed. So the question if man united pay the transfer fee the player can't just move to barcelona. Then they need to pay a tranfer fee and agree with the player.

If you don't want to miss a goal, you can't go out. I once took my son to a Bundesliga game with the new champions Bayer Leverkusen and he had to go to the restroom. It was 0:0 and I said to him, watch out, if we go out the score will be 1:0 for Leverkusen. And what can I say. We were just outside when we heard the goal celebration.

To answer your release clause question, if team A committed to paying the release clause, it won’t be fulfilled until the player has agreed to his contract with the club so his wages, contract length, any bonuses etc. so it wouldn’t be opened to other clubs but often if one club is happy to pay the release other clubs will be so the player can choose where he goes. Release clauses aren’t activated often as it’s normally the two clubs will negotiate what they feel is fair for both sides.

25:10 Release clause is payed after the negotiation between the player and the buying club are concluded

Hi Spencer and Daniel, another great reaction guys! Now before the 2026 World Cup in USA 🇺🇸 Mexico 🇲🇽 and Canada 🇨🇦, we have the men’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany 🇩🇪 starting from 14th June and the Final will be exactly a month later on 14th July. It’ll have 24 countries in it and hopefully you’ll get to see most of the games. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again American 🇺🇸 sports would benefit from relegation and promotion in its setup. You guys are fantastic! Keep doing great videos and reactions.

A release clause is a number put on the player. If a club comes in with the money, the club has to sell. Most contracts don't have one. Often it's a very high number if the player is good. To stop other clubs buying them. Most of the time clubs offer what they think the player is worth, and then negotiate

Before the Premier League was formed in 1992 there were 4 divisions, 1-4. The old First Division became the Premier League, the 2nd Division the Championship, the 3rd League One and the 4th League 3. The old system was basically the bottom 3 teams in the Prem/Div 1 were relegated to the Championship/Div 2. In the leagues below the the Prem league there 's also promotion. This used to be the top 3 teams in a division but is now the top 2 teams who gain what is known as automatic promotion. The 4 teams below them play in a play off and the two teams who come through that play each other in the playoff final at Wembley. This can be a big day out for the fans and in the case of the Championship playoff is a very lucrative game with the winners promoted to the Prem. The FA Cup is a knockout competiion which the Premier League teams don't enter until the 3rd round in January. Teams are literally drawn against each other by selecting numbered balls from a bag. So for example if Scunthorpe have got through to the 3rd round they could be drawn against one of the big boys like Arsenal, Man Utd etc. There have been a few major upsets in the FA Cup over the years, my team Arsenal have suffered a few including a famous defeat against Wrexham. If a team from a lower division beats one from a higher div it's known as a giantkilling. We also have the League cup which a lot of fans will describe as a micky mouse cup, unless your team wins it of course, in which case it's the best cup competition in the world 😂 With the Champions League it used to be known as the European Cup and back then it was just the champions of the top divs in Europe. When it was revamped as the Champions League it was the top 4 teams from the respective European Leagues who qualified. The other two European cup competions were the Cup Winmers Cup and Uefa Cup. The Cup Winners Cup is sadly no more but as the name suggests was for the cup winners in the countries. As well as a League programme ever major European country has a cup competition. The Uefa cup became the Europa League contested by the next 4 teams in the League after the top 4 who've qualified for the Champions League. That's why even if a team has no chance winning the league they'll still try to finish as high as they can to qualify for the Champions or Europa League. In todays climate with all the money sloshing around in football a lot of teams are promoted to the prem and go straight back down again. Some teams can be too good for the Championship but not good enough for the Premier. The legendary Brian Clough got Nottingham Forest promoted from the 2nd to 1st div and they were champions of the 1st the following season. This is unprecedented to get your team promoted and the following season win the title. I can't ever see this happening again in my lifetime. The closest in comparison would be Leiceste recently but even that pales into insignificance when compared with what Clough achieved, Forest also won the European cup twice in that period (late 70's, early 80's). Sorry about the novel lads, but I hope that helps to understand the structure of the football league pyramid.

Offside isn't nearly as difficult to understand as you think it is, it would be easier to explain using visual aids but I'll describe it as best I can in written form. In simple terms when the ball is played forward there needs to be two opposition players (which can and usually includes the goalkeeper) between the player receiving the ball and the goal. There are exceptions to this you can't be offside when you are in your own half of the field, you can't be offside from a corner, throw in or goal kick. You can't be offside when the opposition plays the ball. Where people sometimes get confused is that it's the players position when the ball is played that matters not when they receive the ball, so if your teammate kicks the ball you can run behind the defenses before receiving the ball.

There is a really good book called "How Soccer Explains The World."

Speaking about dropping through the system: as recently as 2011 Scunthorpe United were playing in the Championship. This year they are playing in a "whatevs" league. This is a team which was, until very recently, a fully professional team with a 120+ year history. Same with Yeovil Town - they were in the Championship in 2014, this year 'whatevs'. So it absolutely does happen.

Ah football, a game of two halves. Jumpers for goalposts, wasn’t it? What’s for tea mum, beans on toast marvellous.

If player x wants to leave his current team, and has a few teams lined that he is wanting to go to, but his current club really dont want him to leave, one of the clubs that want to buy him will basically pay the money to his current team to basically get them to fuck off, and let the player directly negotiate with the club that paid the money. Now technically players and clubs wanting to sign a player discussing things before paying the release clause is frowned upon and in some cases illegal. Also clubs can just make the release clause a ridiculous number like a billion euros, which is a win/win, no one will pay it, and if they do then thats a billion dollars for one guy.

You should probably watch the "welcome to wrexham" documentary series you won't be able to watch it on your channel but it will give you an insight as to what life as a football fan is all about.

there are some very interesting things that happened in german football most notably kaiserslautern who won the german cup in 95/96 and got relegated in the same season, winning second division in 96/97 and the bundesliga in 97/98 something nobody else has ever achieved winning the bundesliga as a newly promoted team. Why is that interesting? Because they are currently qualified for the cup final and also fighting against Relegation (this time from the second division) this could lead to them playing in the third division and the europa league next season which would be somewhat hilarious

Each player is good at their positions like in American football. A Centre back defender is normally tall. A good tackler, good at jumping & heading the ball. That's why a defender will go up the pitch for corners. Full backs are semi good tacklers semi good crosses of the ball but normally pretty fast. Right/Left mid players are good at crossing the ball and usually good at getting around other players and shooting from distance. CDMs/Centre defence mid fielders are ok tacklers ok at passing ok at heading the ball. Attacking mid fielders are good passes of the ball good long distance shooters of the ball have great player awareness they can make long & short passes and good at passing through the opposite teams defense. Centre forwards & strikers are great at shooting holding up the ball if their back is too goal shifting through defenders. Hope that helps explain better for you. It's like you never stick a left tackle as Quarter back that's not what he's good at.

24:50 Yes and no. The new club can simply pay the amount of money needed to fulfill the release clause and the old club gets the money but the player gets around 10% of the sum (depending on how their contracts are, this can vary a little bit).

Just to clarify the release clause part. It's actually not common for players to have a release clauses unless the player ask for one to be included in his contract, typically it's the teams between them that negotiate the price. Every player have a estimated marked value but a team can put in a bid ten times his marked value and the teams that owns him can just decline the offer. Spain is the only league as far as i can remember that have release clauses mandatory for any new player that signs for a Spanish club, but even then teams can put an astronomical sum that no team would be willing to pay. Another point to mention is that a player will always negotiate a personal contract whenever he moves to a new club, so no contract transfers between clubs and the player can decline regardless if the teams reached an agreement.

Big difference about trades and transfers. In Europe player can refuse to leave the club. Even if someone pays the release clause. In US when player gets traded that's it. And contracts are different. In Europe when someone buys the player that player signs a new contract.

There’s also more at stake with relegation. If teams spend too much on their player contracts when they are the premier league, when they get relegated they have to pay their players premier league rates while getting lower league ticket prices.

About the contracts, soccer clubs treat their players as "products". It's like Nintendo and Mario Bros. If the player became a professional or became famous in a club (some players enter their clubs being children) that club won't be willing to give up their player without profit. It's like if the player was made in that club. A big deal of club's profits come from this player market. Literally, there are clubs that make a living out of this players trade scouting for "promises", young bright players that they buy chip when they are nobodies and sell at higher prices when they gain some name.

14:55 the problem is that in USA you buy a franchise to enter a league. None of that in Europe. You got a team that's a part of the countries football federation, federation has X rules, GO WILD and to earn money you gotta have a good marketing, and rise trough leagues because higher tiers get better sponsors and even TV deals

Re the offside rule. Don't worry about being confused by it. They have changed the rule so many times over the years that it even confuses some people who've been following football their whole life. It's a tricky rule to explain without using pictures but the basic premise is that you are "offside" if you receive a pass but you are closer to the opposition goal than all but one (or zero) of the opposition players. So for example - Lets say Man City are playing Liverpool and Erling Haaland is standing in the Liverpool penalty box and all the other players (except the Liverpool GK) are further up the field. Haaland is currently in an offside position and if any of his teammates pass the ball to him it'll be a foul to Liverpool. I think hat's the best way to explain the gist of it without drawing pictures LOL!

24:00 well not every player has a release clause except for in spain where its mandatory (that doesn't mean they are reasonable, some ar borderline insane to protect the squad getting torn apart) many clubs try to avoid trsansfer fee clauses, led to many contract negotiations that failed

Gents. It would be great if you choose a team each and just follow them throughout a season. You'll get it and you'll get hooked. You guys pretty much understand it anyway but following a team will do wonders for you. I did the same with basketball and I got it eventually. NFL was difficult, just too many commercials to really get invested in it but I respect how important it is to you guys. Literally every one of my American friends say that relegation and promotion would make your sports more spicy. Every game counts and your club could potentially have a few shitty seasons and you're fucked, or a smaller team could do fantastic and get back to back promotions and get to the big time. Ipswich town are on the cusp of back to back promotions to make it to the prem, so from league 1 to the premier league in 2 years. Every club has a narrative which makes it fascinating throughout the season. The euros ( like a world cup but for European nations) start in June. Maybe choose a country and follow them throughout. It'd be great content to see you guys give your views on it. Very respectful as always in your videos and extremely entertaining to watch you guys figure things out. Another great upload you two are by far my favourite American reactors. Two great blokes ✌️

That was a brilliant video. All the essential information with handy graphics. It is strange it didn't connect with Americans the same. You can go anywhere in the world, not speak the language, but gather a group of lads & throw a football down & it all just happens. We've all experienced that. It's truly magical. You really missed out. Those Man City documentaries are good but I am a City fan. Not sure how old that was. City did the treble last season, there's a documentary on Netflix about that. 👌🏼

The pace of the game varies across countries. England and Scotland tend to have fast paced games with a lot of running. Italian games tend to be slow for long periods, followed by frantic end to end running and bursts of high speed. Some of this is down to climate, but it’s also the culture of the game in different countries. Different tactics and strategies also play a part.

the modern way of playing is to now pass in the own half not for defending but to draw the opposition in and then to break

The off side rules is if the opposition player is ahead of the defender before the ball is played to him it is offside. If they was no offsides , even my mum would score a goal, she would just hang around with a five yard start and run towards goal lol

Number of subs are up to 5 now and additional 1 if the extra-times are played in case of a draw in play-offs

Actually professional teams can strike out deals with colleges schools and act as their feeder… All that goes down to sell on clauses if that player turns out to be a gem The money goes down from the club to the Academy schools It’s a whole business model

Release clauses for some players today are 500 millions euros upwards😂😂😂 it's beyond ridiculous

it's interesting how you say your college sport way is so big, because it's different and unique, which makes sense, but the way i see both systems, your college football is more similar to our football than your professionnal football, european football clubs are so big and the fans so into it, because it's not just a team but a history of a team originally created by "random" workers who met up together and now they're here, because it's not just players and coach but also all the training staff, medical staff, scouts, many infrastructures like the academy, which make it overall more "meaningful", it's not just a brand, a similarity with college sports which are "real schools" also with their history and where people probably grew there

I have got the patience or time to properly explain the offside rule, but var is new, all it is is a panel of refrees checking video of every goal or penalty claim or any big decision to make sure the referee got it right.

I miss the days when it was simply Division 1, 2, 3, and 4. The Championship sounds too good for Division 2, and League 2 sounds too good for Division 4.