Lower division football in the limelight 

While most coverage of club football focuses on the elite, the majority of competitions around the world are played at a lower level. In its endeavours to make the sport truly global, FIFA has taken a look at the status of second- and third-tier competitions around the world. 

The FIFA Comparative Analysis of Second and Third Divisions is a landmark study of how second- and third-tier competitions and the participating clubs are run. The report offers an overview of the current state of play in these leagues, whether professional or not. 

From the competition format and the number of spots in each league table to naming and broadcast rights and the varying implementation of solidarity mechanisms, this snapshot of each of these competitions builds up a picture of worldwide trends in professional football away from the big money of the top leagues.

The report covers the leagues in the top 25 FIFA member associations, based on the men’s FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in April 2020, when the project kicked off. A total of 51 competitions were analysed: 25 second and 26 third divisions. All the member associations featured have both second and third divisions. 

The 51 competitions comprise a total of 1,316 clubs, with 464 (35%) playing at second-division level and 852 (65%) in the third tier. The largest second-division competition (the USA) contains 35 clubs and the smallest just eight (Belgium), while the largest third-tier competition (Spain) has 102 clubs and three member associations (the USA, Chile and Denmark) have the joint-smallest third divisions (12 clubs each). 

While professionalism is common in second divisions (23 out of 25, i.e. 92%), with the remaining two competitions played at semi-professional level, third tiers are more diverse: ten competitions (39%) are professional, five (19%) are semi-professional and the other 11 (42%) are amateur. 

Patterns spotted in formats and schedule analysis

Among the more immediate findings are that a clear majority of competitions are played across two years (e.g. August to May) and that the number of participating clubs in third divisions is significantly higher (almost double on average) than it is in second divisions. Meanwhile, the most popular competition format is a home-and-away league structure followed by play-offs to determine the champions and promotion spots.  

Competition organisers of second divisions tend to be leagues (52%), while the majority of third divisions (73%) are run by the national association. A hybrid set-up exists among second divisions, whereby the national association organises the competition and assigns all marketing rights to a league.

Commercial review: disparity in broadcasting rights

Second-tier competitions fare better than third-tier competitions in assigning broadcast rights, with 79% of second divisions having national deals and 52% selling rights internationally. Third divisions, perhaps naturally, also have significantly stronger domestic rights sales (58%) than abroad – just 15% of those competitions sell international broadcast rights, and there are only four countries (England, Sweden, Uruguay and the USA) whose second and third divisions sell rights both nationally and internationally. 

Still within the broadcast rights realm, there are three scenarios that can take place: 1) rights are only sold nationally; 2) rights are sold nationally and internationally; and 3) rights are not sold nationally or internationally.  

In this sense, the breakdown for the second division is, respectively, 25%, 54%, and 21%, whereas in the third division it is 42%, 16%, and 42%.  

Sponsors, naming rights and revenue 

There is also a greater appetite among sponsors to pick up the naming rights to second divisions (56%) than to third divisions (19%), and they are most likely to come from the betting sector. 

In this context, it is interesting that 64% and 46% of second and third divisions, respectively, have solidarity mechanisms for participating clubs. Perhaps the largest disparity is in the average revenue per club, with second-tier clubs bringing in USD 8.5 million and those in the third tier earning USD 1.8 million, representing a drop of 79%.

Key performance indicators

Throughout the report, the following indicators and elements are explored and contrasted, providing a thorough, industry-first overview of these divisions.  

Thanks to the visual representation of the data behind each key performance indicator, readers can more easily see the differences between the second and third tiers in each country, as well as between nations. 

Reflecting on the analysis and its impact, Ornella Desirée Bella, FIFA’s Head of Professional Football, explains the aim of the report: “We hope that the visualisation of data and the accompanying analysis in this study will help readers build their understanding of the state of professional football today and provide inspiration for the further development of second-and third-tier competitions throughout FIFA’s 211 member associations.”