World Football: Why Relegation Makes Soccer More Enthralling Than Other Sports

Imagine a world of professional sports in which the Charlotte Bobcats, the laughing stock of the NBA, head into the home stretch of the season with their standing among the best professional basketball teams in the nation is at stake.

If they finish at or near the bottom of the standings, they'll be cast out of the NBA and into the D-League. Such a drop would rob them of a significant income stream (including television revenue), trigger deep, automatic cuts in the players' salaries and leave the cream of their rotting crop vulnerable to plucking by the powerhouse teams (i.e. the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics).

The Bobcats could gain re-entry into the NBA, but only if they finish at or near the top of the D-League with what little of a roster they'll have left after the offseason.

Imagine the same for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Kansas City Royals in MLB, the Cleveland Browns and the St. Louis Rams of the NFL and the Columbus Blue Jackets and the New York Islanders of the NHL.

The thrill of a fight for survival. The agony of a top team's inevitable collapse, the ecstasy of a peasant breaking into the aristocracy, the relief of a club on the brink staving off cruel fate for another year, the roller coaster of emotions captivating fans and players alike.

The Last Rites of Spring

This is precisely what the world of club football (a.k.a. soccer) plunges itself into every spring. The excitement of the battle for league titles and berths in European competitions at the top is equaled, if not outpaced, by the sheer drama of squads being pushed so dangerously close to the brink and trying, with every ounce of energy they have, not to fall over.

That moment in the English Premier League is near, with all 20 teams scheduled to close out their respective seasons on what's known as Relegation Sunday. Each of the 10 matches will kick off at 10:00 a.m. EDT, as much to avoid giving any team a competitive advantage as to build up a frantic fervor as fans at home flip from channel to channel, hoping to catch the human element of sport hard at work.

Two of the three relegated teams to make the embarrassing journey down to the npower Championship, the second tier of English football, have already been decided, with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers earning the dubious distinctions that accompany mediocrity on the pitch.

The third will be decided on Sunday, with either Queens Park Rangers or Bolton Wanderers stepping out of the EPL. What makes this year's relegation scrum more enthralling, though, is the way in which it's so closely tied to the title race. While Bolton battle for their Premiership lives against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium, QPR will be crossing their collective fingers amidst a melee with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

If QPR pick up any points against City by either victory or draw, they will, on the one hand, secure their Premiership survival regardless of what the Trotters do (thanks to goal differential) and, on the other, create an opening wherein Manchester United, who are currently tied atop the table on points with their "noisy neighbors," may steal the EPL crown for themselves.

Agony and Ecstasy

But, if the Hoops should lose—which they figure to do against Roberto Mancini's oil-funded juggernaut—and the Trotters top the Potters, then it will be down to the Championship for QPR and another day in the EPL for Bolton.

In other words, QPR can either be accomplices to a league title theft or bound for the shame of relegation.

A dramatic swing, is it not?

As for those on the way up, Reading and Southampton have already locked up lifts in the football elevator to the Premiership by way of finishing first and second, respectively, in the Championship.

The third and final promotion won't be determined until May 19th, when West Ham United and Blackpool, both of whom were relegated from the Premier League just last year, meet in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium in London.

The winner will return to the top flight and inherit the riches that come with inclusion in the EPL's lucrative television contract. The loser will be condemned to yet another year in purgatory on the pitch, deflated from falling short after peering into greener pastures but hopeful of a better day yet to come.

The triumphant jubilation of climbing into the penthouse, the disappointment and remorse of slipping out of English football's Garden of Eden, the easing of anxiety when a club's run at the top flight is protracted by the slimmest of margins.

It's these raw emotions, these displays of pure humanity, that are magnified by the pressure of relegation and promotion and transform the season finale into a theater of empathy.

What If...

Never would sports fans in America witness such a spectacle from the Bobcats or the Browns or the Pirates or the Blue Jackets, perennial doormats in their respective leagues.

Their membership in the top professional conglomerates (and the exorbitant salaries that such membership entitles) are all but guaranteed. Desperation is a sensation reserved for those vying for glory at the top, not those tanking their way to the future at the bottom.

Remove those guarantees, add that element of delicacy to the proceedings, and watch the tenor of competition shift. Watch as the efforts grow more spirited as history becomes a matter of real consequence to everyone involved, even those concerned solely with their twice-monthly paychecks.

Strip away the veneer of invincibility and pay attention as professional athletes become both heroes and Average Joes, treading the razor's edge all the while.

Flip over to football—the kind the world plays, not the "throwball" that so enthralls the American masses—that's precisely what you'll get this weekend.

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