"What kind of team is Sutton United?"

There are still ten days left before the warm-up match. When Chu Zhongtian didn't have to go to Kings Ranch for training, he worked in the Duns Bar. Unlike before, Emily often comes to him now.

For example today.

Emily had a glass of beer in front of her. She was sitting on the bartender, discussing with bartender Chu Zhongtian about the opponent of AFC Wimbledon's next game. The drinkers were all old acquaintances, and after they came, no one came to disturb them.

Chu Zhongtian knew nothing about the opponents they were about to face. This may be a common problem in amateur games. These teams are too unfamous. As opponents, they don’t know who the most threatening person in their team is, what tactical styles they are good at, and how they are in their state in the past few games. This is not like the professional league, where there are dedicated scouts responsible for collecting this information and then handing it over to the coaching team for analysis and researching countermeasures. Even without scouts, the exposure of professional teams is enough to allow their opponents to obtain some useful information from the news. However, now, they have a dark look and know nothing except until they are called Sutton United.

"It's a team that is one level higher than us. Their most famous moment was in the 1989 FA Cup thirteen years ago, when they defeated Coventry, the sixth-ranked top league team at the time, 2:1 as an amateur team that had not even participated in the league. You should know that Coventry just won the FA Cup two years ago. But now Sutton United won't have any balls to play - we play in the ninth league in the new season, and they play in the eighth league." Emily said.

Chu Zhongtian got a headache when he heard about the ninth league and the eighth league. England's league system was complicated and there were many names. He was an outsider, and he was dizzy just by looking at the list of names of those leagues. He couldn't figure out what the ninth league is and what the eighth league is. "God... Emily, you told me that the ninth league is, but I still couldn't understand the eighth league at all. What is the ninth league and what is the eighth league? Also, which ninth league are in these ninth leagues? I don't know at all..." Chu Zhongtian spread his hands, looking distressed.

Seeing Chu Zhongtian like this, Emily felt that she was a little unconsidered before. She was naturally very clear about the league system in England. But her understanding does not mean that others also know it, let alone a foreigner...

"Okay, let me teach you a lesson today, Chu." Emily made a gesture of pushing her glasses, although there was nothing on her nose. But this action showed her identity as a teacher.

Emily planned to introduce the English league rating to Chu Zhongtian so that he would not be confused in the future. But after thinking for a long time, he didn't know how to talk about it, because England's league system is too large and too complicated. Just by saying it, I'm afraid that it would be wasted half a day of saliva, and it might not be able to explain the rating of this song clearly. She thought about it and decided to draw a picture to explain it, which was simple and intuitive, and it was clear at a glance.

"Uh, Chu. Simply put, our league is like a pyramid." Emily took the pen from Chu Zhongtian's hand, pulled a piece of paper and drew it on it. "The top of the pyramid is the Premier League (the_fa_premier_league). You must know this, right?"

Chu Zhongtian nodded. How could he not know that the Premier League is so famous? If he doesn't know, is he really a fan?

"Below the Premier League is the English Football League (the_football_league), which includes three levels of leagues - English A (the future championship), English B (the future championship), and English C (the future English B)."

Chu Zhongtian also has a rough understanding of this, after all, Wimbledon plays in the League One.

"These three leagues and the Premier League combined are collectively called 'League Teams', all professional clubs. The other teams are collectively called 'non-League Teams'. Do you know the League Cup, Chu?"

Chu Zhongtian nodded. "It's the third largest cup of English football."

"Yes, the League Cup is actually a cup game specially set up by the English Football League to compete against the FA FA FA. So the teams participating can only be 92 league teams. Unlike the League Cup, all teams that have participated in the competition can participate, whether it is a professional or amateur team. Therefore, the FA Cup will be called a 'unpopular hotbed' by the media."

In the past, Chu Zhongtian really didn't know the difference between the FA Cup and the League Cup. He only thought that the FA Cup has a long history, and the League Cup was like a waste. Now after hearing Emily say that even amateur teams are qualified to participate in the FA Cup, a light suddenly flashed in his mind and he interrupted: "So we have the chance to fight against those strong teams in the Premier League?"

Emily glanced at Chu Zhongtian strangely. Why did this person's idea run so far? Before the ninth level league started playing, she first thought about fighting with the Premier League team.

"In theory... it's OK. But we can't participate this year."

"Why is this?" Chu Zhongtian completely regarded the beautiful girl in front of him as the encyclopedia of British football. He asked if he didn't understand anything, and Emily did not disappoint him.

"Because we haven't played any match that the FA considers 'acceptable'."

"We can play against Sutton United right away..."

"That was just a friendly match, not in the scope of what the FA thought was 'acceptable'." Emily tapped Chu Zhongtian's head with her pen holder. She did this move very naturally, but after doing it, she felt something was wrong. Why did she do this kind of intimate move so naturally?

However, Chu Zhongtian didn't care about her actions, but continued to consider the FA Cup: "What qualifications do you need to have to participate in the FA Cup?"

This question helped Emily clear the siege. She fiddled with her hanging hair and explained to Chu Zhongtian: "When we participate in the league, we can participate in the FA Cup. Or we can play a FA Cup for a match in the English FA Bottle (fa_vase) game, and we are also eligible to participate in the FA Cup." Emily turned her fingers to Chu Zhongtian. "As early as next year, from the 2003 to 2004 seasons, we can participate in the FA Cup!" (Author's note: In fact, we need to participate in the FA Cup before we can participate in the FA Cup. Shili's AFC Wimbledon participated in the FA Cup after participating in the FA. In the 03-04 season, they competed in the FA Cup for the first time in the 2004-05 season. However, in order to consider the plot progress of the novel, I made some modifications and adjustments. Anyway, it is a novel. It is a fictional story, and it is a real background. There are no need to be too serious about some details. Everything is based on the plot development. Everyone doesn't want to watch Chu Zhongtian spend three seasons in the ninth league?)

Chu Zhongtian was not as excited as Emily. He felt a little discouraged when he thought he would have to wait for a year. So he waved his hand: "Okay, there's no need to count on it now. You continue, Emily."

"What did you say?" Emily was interrupted by Chu Zhongtian just now and forgot where she was talking about.

"You just finished talking about the ninety-two league teams." Chu Zhongtian reminded.

"Oh, yes." Emily clapped her hands. She continued to draw the lower layers of the pyramid on paper. "The Football League has four levels, and the next is the Football Association. It contains two levels, the higher level is the National League, which is the fifth level. Below it is divided into two tiered groups, namely the National Northern League and the National Southern League, both the sixth level. There are 66 clubs in total, with a small number of full professions and most of them semi-professions."

While explaining, Emily wrote to Chu Zhongtian on paper. Chu Zhongtian nodded frequently and remembered Emily's words in her heart.

"The Football League is the lowest-level national league, and the regional league is the seventh-level league. The three regional leagues with tied positions are divided according to geographical location, but sometimes there are overlaps. The Northern League covers northern England, the Southern League covers central England, some Wales, and the south, but not the southeast. The Ismian League covers the southeast, and London is in the Ismian League."

"Strange." Chu Zhongtian, who had always been listening, found a problem. "Other regional leagues are named after the areas covered, such as the Northern League and the Southern League. Why are the leagues covering the southeast of the UK not called the "Southeast League", but the name "Ismian"? Isthmus League?"

Emily shrugged: "It is said to be to commemorate an ancient Greek Games called 'isthmian'. But I don't know why it was named like this."

"Oh..." In fact, Chu Zhongtian still didn't understand. But this question is not important. Love can be called anything. The name is just a code name. What matters is what the name represents, not the name itself.

"These three leagues have lower leagues respectively. Northern Premier League, Northern League One, Southern Premier League, Southern Premier League, Southern League One Western League, Southern League One Eastern League, Ismian Premier League, Ismian League One, Ismian League Two."

The pyramid is still extending downwards.

"The Northern Premier League, Southern Premier League and Ismian Premier League are all seventh-level leagues, while the Northern League, Southern League One Eastern League and Southern League One Western League, and Ismian League One are all eighth-level games. Our warm-up opponent, Sutton United, is in the Ismian League One."

"And Ismian League Two is the Nine League, and there are fifteen other regional leagues in the same class. L) are also among them. So we are the Nine League teams."

The pyramid has not been finished yet. But Emily played a string of ellipsis under the ninth level.

"There are still the tenth and the eleventh level leagues. But the more you go down, the more complicated it becomes. I can't explain it clearly to you for a while. I can't remember some things myself..." Emily shook her head and looked at the pyramid she drew. "Anyway, from the fifth level to the eleventh level leagues, they are collectively called the "national league system" (national_league_system), and are directly under the jurisdiction of the FA. Further down, they are all under the management of the local FA."

After she finished explaining, she did not hear Chu Zhongtian respond. She looked up at her a little unhappy and found that Chu Zhongtian had been staring at the pyramid on the paper and was silent.

Looking at the huge pyramid with distinct levels in front of me, Chu Zhongtian suddenly thought of Chinese football. People always say something like "Can't even eleven of us know how to play football?", but they never thought that there are no 1.3 billion people playing football in China?

There is no top-down league system, everyone is fighting on their own. When they think of organizing a game, it’s fine if they can’t remember it. Although there are many football lovers in China who love football and will gather with friends to play football on weekends, the lack of unified and effective management makes the already scarce resources wasteful. Another problem with no effective and unified league management is that those children and parents who like to play football and are ready to treat football as a profession cannot see a hope of success.

In England, even amateur teams can participate in fixed leagues, and as long as they play well, they can be promoted one level and eventually become a professional player. If you have the opportunity to play against Premier League teams in the FA Cup and perform well, you may become famous in one goal, attracting a large number of professional team scouts, and bringing a turning point to his life path.

In China, there will be no such opportunity. If you want to take football as your profession, you can only participate in the echelons of professional football clubs, or uneven football schools. The echelons and football schools that monopolize the market will naturally speak out to parents who send their children to play football. The tuition training fee itself is ridiculously high. If you want to play in the team and have the opportunity to show yourself, you have to give money to the coaches. You must respect the coaches during the holidays. If you don’t take out the money, no matter how good your talent and level you have, you can only fall on the bench and you will not get the opportunity to join a professional team, and waste more than ten years of youth. Spend more than one million at home to cultivate a professional player. How many people can afford it at a huge price? Those young people who are talented but have no money and no way can only get further and further away from football. Chinese football talents are gradually withering.

People who also like football, why is the gap between being born in the UK and being born in China?

Perhaps, when will China's amateur league, city league, and student league be vigorous, and there will be so much hope in Chinese football?

※※※

"Chu?"

Emily reached out and shook her hand in front of Chu Zhongtian's eyes.

"Ah, Emily...sorry, I'm distracted."

Emily shrugged, she didn't ask why Chu Zhongtian was distracted.

"Suton United is one level higher than us, and its strength should be stronger than us. And we are a newly formed team, and they have been playing together for a long time and have a more tacit understanding than us. Has Mr. Eames practiced tactical cooperation during this period?" she asked.

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "No. It's just physical fitness and technology, and there are very few tactics."

Emily didn't understand what Eames was going to do, "Anyway, it was just the first game, and the opponent was better than us, just do your best. Can you play at that time, Chu?"

Chu Zhongtian continued to shake his head. He felt that Emily asked this question a lot: "How do I know now? I am not the head coach or something..."

"It can be seen from your own performance. If you perform well in training, you will have the chance to play for the team..." Emily curled her lips.

"Uh..." Chu Zhongtian suddenly didn't know what he should say. He and Russell were angry with each other during training. He never mentioned to Emily that if Emily knew that she would be left to accept punishment after every training, she would definitely not ask questions like "Will you appear?"...

Seeing the head coach torture Chu Zhongtian so much, she would definitely think that Eames and Chu Zhongtian have a grudge. When they play, don’t even think about it!

"Where are you?" Emily asked again, "Do you want to play in the game yourself?"

"Of course I hope anyone is not here to play football for the sake of the game?" Chu Zhongtian asked Emily.

If it weren't for that shameful 0:5, he hadn't played a football game seriously in three years. After this month of training, he really, really, really eager to participate in the game, not just training.

Run and have a merciless physical collision with your opponent, and experience the tension and excitement that only the game can bring to him. If your team scores the goal, then rush over and hug and cheer. If you lose the goal, you have to try every means to repay the color.

This is the football game. The lack of confrontational training cannot be compared, although he and Russell accept punishment on each other on the training ground is also a confrontation...

※※※

"Tomorrow is the game, so today I won't punish the group that performed the worst in training." Eames said, glanced at Chu Zhongtian and Russell.

"I'll confirm first, who can compete tomorrow?"

All thirty-five people on the training ground raised their hands.

"Okay, no problem." Eames nodded and asked them to put their hands down.

"In order to save money for the club, I really want to ask you to drive or take a car to the competition venue tomorrow, but I'm afraid you won't find it, so I gather here at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, and then we will take a car to the competition venue together. Bring your sneakers, and the jerseys will be sent to you when you arrive."

Eames said this and looked at everyone, and found that everyone was still looking at him with anticipation. He knew what those people were looking forward to.

"I won't announce the starting list here."

The light in everyone's eyes dimmed.

"Stop some of you from sleeping well at night. Have a good rest tonight. Tomorrow is your first game. Let's keep me energetic! That's it, go home now."

Almost everyone was full of expectations for tomorrow's game when they left the stadium. They seemed to have seen goals one after another, and after the victory, they were surrounded by many fans and returned home with great reputation.

How wonderful...

※※※

ps, because this chapter mainly introduces England's league system at all levels, so that everyone can understand the level of Wimbledon's current league and the gap with the top league, so there is a lot of information.

Taking this into account, we will post two complete chapters in the two updates today so that everyone will not see some information after waiting for a day.

Therefore, the afternoon update is still a complete chapter~~~

How about it, Lin Hai is very interesting? So everyone is also interested! Recommended, favorite, clicking on one can’t be missing~~~~~~!!!
Chapter completed!