How many League levels in your country?

[alko]

I can think, that in England, there are tons of leagues.

Here in Slovakia it is :
Fortuna liga (top level)
2. league (all-country league)
3. league - 4 Regions
4. League - lower league in specifics regions
5. league
6. league

And after that the really funny leagues, played between villages. Lot of fun, lot of hate, lot of rivalries.
1. class
2. class
3. class

Click to read more...

 

[Ducks76]

Germany:
1. Bundesliga
2. Bundesliga
3. Liga
4. Regionalliga(North,Northeast,West,Southwest,Bavaria)
5. Oberliga(14 Regions)
6. Landesliga/Verbandsliga(35 Leagues)
7. Bezirksliga
8. Kreisliga A
9. Kreisliga B
10. Kreisliga C
11. Kreisliga D(In some Regions)

*In Westphalia are 12 Classes(Behind 5. Oberliga are 6. Westfalenliga 7. Landesliga etc.).

This is a rough overview!
There are some regional specialites. But i can t mention it(Then i must to write a "book" )

 

[Albatros]

Common is also to have a few levels of Kreisklasse still below the Kreisligas, and above Kreisliga can be Kreisoberliga. I think 14th level is the lowest regular competitive league in existence in Germany.

Bigger clubs often have teams on many levels, so for example the lowly 2. Kreisklasse Leipzig 3 in the state of Saxony includes both the fifth team of Roter Stern Leipzig as well as the first team of Leipziger FC.

 

[Ducks76]

Common is also to have a few levels of Kreisklasse still below the Kreisligas, and above Kreisliga can be Kreisoberliga. I think 14th level is the lowest regular competitive league in existence in Germany.

Bigger clubs often have teams on many levels, so for example the lowly 2. Kreisklasse Leipzig 3 in the state of Saxony includes both the fifth team of Roter Stern Leipzig as well as the first team of Leipziger FC.

Looking! I wrote: There are some regional specialites. But i can t mention it(Then i must to write a "book" ). I can t regard all regions,cities etc.. This is a rough overview!

 

[Albatros]

Yeah, just to answer the question "how many levels" specifically.

 

[S E P H]

I am more interested in which divisions' for specific countries you can cut off from being truly terrible football. Like for Poland, it is super top heavy that not even sure I would classify the top teams of division III of being good football compared to England for example.

 

[Savi]

The Belgian system has been restructured recently, there were too many fully pro teams who could not survive long term so now it's been scaled back to just 24 pro teams, followed by the amateur levels.

League 1A (top division, 16 teams)
League 1B (2nd division, 8 teams)

Every year, 1 team from 1A is relegated, 1 team from 1B gains promotion

Tier 3: 1st Amateur Division (16 teams)
Tier 4: 2nd Amateur Division (32 teams divided into 2 conferences)
Tier 5: 3rd Amateur Division (32 teams divided into 2 conferences)

Standard promotion/relegation rules still apply for these leagues as well, so it's not a "closed" league system like the Netherlands for instance.
So that's 5 tiers of national leagues. After that, it's regional/provincial leagues. All 10 provinces use the same system:

Tier 6: 1st Provincial Division (1 conference)
Tier 7: 2nd Provincial Division (2 conferences; A and B)
Tier 8: 3rd Provincial Division (3 conferences; A, B and C)
Tier 9: 4th Provincial Division (4 conferences; A through D) - this is the lowest level of football in the country, we're really talking beer league level here

It's fully possible to make your way up from Tier 9 to League 1A but I don't think it has ever happened tho

 

[Ducks76]

The Belgian system has been restructured recently, there were too many fully pro teams who could not survive long term so now it's been scaled back to just 24 pro teams, followed by the amateur levels.

League 1A (top division, 16 teams)
League 1B (2nd division, 8 teams)

Every year, 1 team from 1A is relegated, 1 team from 1B gains promotion

Tier 3: 1st Amateur Division (16 teams)
Tier 4: 2nd Amateur Division (32 teams divided into 2 conferences)
Tier 5: 3rd Amateur Division (32 teams divided into 2 conferences)

Standard promotion/relegation rules still apply for these leagues as well, so it's not a "closed" league system like the Netherlands for instance.
So that's 5 tiers of national leagues. After that, it's regional/provincial leagues. All 10 provinces use the same system:

Tier 6: 1st Provincial Division (1 conference)
Tier 7: 2nd Provincial Division (2 conferences; A and B)
Tier 8: 3rd Provincial Division (3 conferences; A, B and C)
Tier 9: 4th Provincial Division (4 conferences; A through D) - this is the lowest level of football in the country, we're really talking beer league level here

It's fully possible to make your way up from Tier 9 to League 1A but I don't think it has ever happened tho

2nd Division with 8 Teams? This is crazy!

 

[Savi]

Used to be 16/18 teams with half of them being terrible. Now it's down to 8 and the quality has been much higher and the team that gains promotion is ready to compete in 1A immediately because of it.

The system is set up like this: in the first round of matches, teams play eachother twice and at the end, the first placed team qualifies for the promotion playoff final. In the second round of matches, teams play eachother twice again, and again the first place team qualifies for the promotion playoff final. If one team finishes top in both rounds, there is no playoff final but that team gains direct promotion to League 1A.