Domestic association football season

Last updated

The domestic association football season in countries that association football is played around the world varies in length and time of year contested. Most employ a single period in which the main league competition is contested alongside any cup competitions, although many Latin American leagues have two competitions contested in one season under the Apertura and Clausura system.

Contents

As a rule, the period of the domestic football season is ultimately dictated by the weather, with most football games played on natural grass pitches which are vulnerable to freezing or becoming water-logged, although advances in artificial turf and pitch drainage/heating systems have improved pitch availability in many leagues.

In countries where association football competes with other football codes that are locally more popular, the season cycle can also be dictated by the scheduling of competing codes. Major League Soccer (MLS), which began in the United States and has since expanded into Canada, has had to compete with American football from its inception, and now competes with Canadian football as well. When MLS began, most of its teams had to play in large American football stadiums that were used by teams in the NFL or college football. This led to scheduling the season to begin in spring and end in fall (autumn), which put the bulk of the season outside that of American football. Stadium conflict has now been reduced with the advent of soccer-specific stadiums. In Australia, the two most popular football codes are Australian rules football and rugby league, both of which are traditionally played in the Southern Hemisphere winter. Because all of the stadiums used by the A-League are also used for one or both of these two codes, that league chose to operate on a spring-to-autumn cycle, which placed most of its season outside those of Australian rules and rugby league.

The domestic season is preceded by a pre-season, in which clubs will require players to report back to the club by a set date to begin pre-season training, and will arrange pre-season friendly games toward the start of the season to improve fitness and test team formations and tactics, particularly if new playing staff have joined a club.

In many leagues, the dates of the domestic season dictate the opening and closing of a transfer window, the periods when players can be transferred.

The timing of a domestic season must be coordinated with international football competitions, which can see national teams with different domestic seasons playing each other at different times in their domestic season, although this can be less significant for certain countries where their best players, and hence the bulk of their national team, do not play in their international team's domestic league programme.

The world football governing body, FIFA, which governs club as well as national football, mandates an international football calendar, whereby certain weeks in the year are reserved for national friendly and competitive matches, as well as regional club competitions. For dates which fall within a country's domestic season, league clubs are required to release any called up player for their international team a set number of days before a fixture. The date of the worldwide national team competition the FIFA World Cup is always in June/July, with the exception of the 2022 Qatar edition which was played in November/December. [1]

League seasons

In colder climates, like in Sweden, the season is restricted by weather conditions. Behrn Arena 00575.JPG
In colder climates, like in Sweden, the season is restricted by weather conditions.

Europe

When not specified, winter breaks are around the Christmas and New Year weeks.

Africa

Americas

Asia

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C.F. Monterrey</span> Mexican professional football club

Club de Fútbol Monterrey, often known simply as Monterrey, is a Mexican professional football club based in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. The team plays in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Founded on 28 June 1945, it is the oldest active professional team from the northern part of Mexico. Since 1999 the club has been owned by FEMSA, Latin America's largest bottling company. Its home games have been played in the Estadio BBVA since 2015. The team's nickname of Rayados stems from the club's traditional navy blue striped uniform. The uniform is reflected in the club's current crest, which is also decorated with stars above the crest representing the club's league titles and stars below representing continental.

In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of September. In other team sports, like association football or basketball, it is generally from August or September to May although in some countries – such as Northern Europe or East Asia – the season starts in the spring and finishes in autumn, mainly due to weather conditions encountered during the winter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador</span> Association football league in El Salvador

The Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional, more commonly known as La Liga Mayor or La Primera, is the top professional football league in El Salvador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apertura and Clausura</span> Split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues

The Apertura and Clausura tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is divided in two sections per season, each with its own champion. Apertura and Clausura are the Spanish words for "opening" and "closing". In French-speaking Haiti, these are known as the Ouverture and the Fermeture, while in English-speaking Belize, they are respectively the Opening and Closing seasons. When used in the United States and Canada, they are known as the Spring and Fall seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Giménez (footballer, born 1981)</span> Mexican footballer and manager

Christian Eduardo Giménez, also known by his nickname Chaco, is a former professional footballer, commentator, and manager. Born in Argentina, he represented the Mexico national team.

The following are the association football events of the year 2005 throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricardo Ferretti</span> Brazilian-Mexican football player and manager

Ricardo Ferretti de Oliveira, also known as Tuca Ferretti, is a Brazilian-Mexican professional football manager and former player who currently works for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico as an analyst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indios de Ciudad Juárez</span> Football club

Club de Fútbol Indios de Ciudad Juárez, commonly referred as Indios de Ciudad Juárez or simply Indios, was a Mexican football club. Founded in 2005 when CF Pachuca moved its Pachuca Juniors to Ciudad Juárez, it was promoted to the Primera División de México after the 2007–2008 season, with Pachuca divesting its shares upon promotion. However, the team was relegated back to the Liga de Ascenso following the 2010 Clausura and folded in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala</span> Association football league in Guatemala

Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala, officially known as the Liga Guate Banrural for sponsorship reasons, formerly known as LigaMayor"A" is a professional football division in Guatemala, the highest one in the country. It is sanctioned by the Federación Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. The champion and runner-up teams of the Liga Nacional's official tournaments qualify to participate in international competitions within their regional confederation. Twelve teams currently compete in the league. Comunicaciones and Municipal are the most successful club in the league to date, having won 32 tournaments each.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matías Almeyda</span> Argentine footballer and manager

Matías Jesús Almeyda is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of Greek Super League club AEK Athens.

The Mexican football league system is organized by the Mexican Football Federation, except for the Liga MX and the Ascenso MX that are organized independently; The tournaments consist of five levels, male and female professional levels. In addition to having the Copa MX which is also organized independently to the FMF.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Football in Mexico</span>

Mexico's most popular sport is football. As of 2020, the top-tier leagues in Mexico are Liga MX for the men and the Liga MX Femenil for women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C.F. Pachuca</span> Football club

Club de Fútbol Pachuca is a Mexican professional football team based in Pachuca, Hidalgo, that competes in Liga MX. Founded by Cornish miners from Camborne and Redruth in 1892, it is one of the oldest football clubs in the Americas, and was one of the founding members of the Mexican Primera División.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liga MX</span> Association football league in Mexico

The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico. Formerly known as the Primera División de México, it is contested by 18 clubs and is divided into two tournaments – "Apertura" and "Clausura"– which typically run from July to December and January to May. The champion of each tournament is decided via a playoff ("Liguilla") system. Since 2020, promotion and relegation has been suspended, which is to last until 2026.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C.D. Guadalajara</span> Mexican association football club

Club Deportivo Guadalajara, often simply known as Guadalajara and by their nickname Chivas ("Goats"), is a Mexican professional football club based in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, Jalisco, Mexico. The team competes in the Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Primera División and is one of seven teams that have never been relegated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Pulido</span> Mexican footballer (born 1991)

Alan Pulido Izaguirre is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a striker for Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City.

The 2012–13 Liga MX season was the 66th professional top-flight football league season in Mexico, and the first under the league's current identity as "Liga MX". The season was split into two competitions: the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura—each of identical format and contested by the same eighteen teams.

The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coinciding with a Liga MX club.

The 2021 Liga Profesional de Primera División season, also known as the Campeonato Uruguayo de Primera División 2021, was the 118th season of the Uruguayan Primera División, Uruguay's top-flight football league, and the 91st in which it is professional. The season, named "Dr. Tabaré Vázquez" after the late former President of Uruguay and chairman of Progreso from 1979 to 1989, started on 15 May and ended on 7 December 2021, with the starting date having been pushed back from early 2021 due to the late conclusion of the previous season owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.