[Wil H]

In England, the League and Cup are separate competitions. The League, where you play everyone in your division at home and away, is regarded as the National Championship, the FA Cup the other major domestic trophy, is a sudden death knockout competition where every goes in the hat together, so in your Detroit analogy, they could win the cup even though they were in a lower League division.

700 clubs entered the FA Cup this year!.

Last season, lower division Barnsley dispatched both Liverpool and Chelsea from the competition and the Final was contested by a lower division side (Cardiff) and was won by Portsmouth - not one of "The Big Four".

Even though "The Big Four" boss the Premiership there are other clubs making inroads and there are frequent upsets too. Arsenal lost to newly promoted Hull City at home this season. Middlesbrough beat Man Utd, Stoke City were leading 1-0 at Chelsea with two minutes to go before losing 1-2 so it doesn't always follow the form book.

As for being world champions, you are confusing being (arguably) the best in the world with being "World Champions".

The best team doesn't always win the title, for example, the Patriots last year..

To be "World Champions" you have to win a World Championship, and that needs to be a competition that is open to World Wide Competition. Of course, if there is no foreign competition to compete against anyway then your sport is not a world sport and your World Championship just died on the vine before it ever got started.

There are components to competing in a foreign country than can affect you performance, none of that is part of The NFL competition.

You can call them "World Champions" (of the NATIONAL Football League..LOL) if you like, but it's a hollow claim.

I have competed in World Championships on several continents, it not the same as competing at home.

[Hawk1976]

I don’t know. Soccer seems to be played pretty much the same everywhere I’ve seen it.

A hostile crowd is hostile pretty much whether they speak the same language or not.

Also, the MLB club that wins the world championship most likely has four different nationalities on it’s roster.

The Patriots may or may not have been the best team. They have been a very good team the last few years, but they have also had a lot of luck regarding injuries, and that particular bug caught up to them last year. They’re bench isn’t the deepest in the league.

Thanks for your description of how the league and FA work. I’m a long way from a soccer fan. Even if I played it, I wouldn’t be able to watch it.

Yes the big four were put out last year, but they are back in force this year. I listen to BBC radio a lot out here, the rest of the stations are awful.