Why Every Sport Needs Relegation
Why Every Sport Needs Relegation Joseph DiPietro The May volume of Odin’s Thoughts centered around the underappreciated sport of soccer. I lost myself in my personal love for the game and for the bright future of American soccer (see our recent win over Mexico in a tournament championship) and therefore forgot one of my favorite parts of the sport: relegation. I understand many folks’ struggle watching the game, but the way soccer leagues reward good teams and punish bad teams is magnificent. If you are not familiar, relegation is the process of pushing the worst-finishing teams to a lower league and pulling the top teams from the lower league up. This system is great for many reasons, but the main reason is effort. Unlike many American professional leagues, European soccer leagues have a safeguard to throwing seasons or “tanking” as you might know it by. Finishing in the bottom of the EPL, for example costs the team and ultimately the players millions of dollars. In the NFL, fin