A friend who is a soccer fan says that some of the best games* of the season are when the teams near the bottom are fighting to keep from being dropped to a lower league at the end of the season, unlike last place teams here which coast through the last two months.
*"best games" for soccer still rank around paint drying for my entertainment.
I do not think soccer fans really care about the game, as much as getting stone-drunk and creating violence afterwards. That is the real draw in these games.