Football can feel unfair at times. Your rival in the relegation battle might play against the already-certain, hungover champions; your team goes through a streak of injuries right before the most important matches of the season; or the referees simply screw you over. All those things are annoying; however, the system is the same for everybody. But do you know that some smaller leagues actually use a completely different, league format? Here’s a look at the main league formats and how they affect teams that end up on the wrong side of luck.
The Standard European Football League Format
Most football leagues have the same golden standard for the league format. They use the double-round robin format, so each team plays every team twice, once at home and once on the road. In my opinion, this is the optimal league format. The Top 7 leagues according to the UEFA Association club coefficient all use this format, with minor differences such as the number of teams (18 vs. 20) and tiebreaker rules.
This setup works well for bigger leagues. The formula ‘Games = (Number of Teams – 1) x 2’ gives you 34 or 38 games, which makes for a full and interesting season.
But smaller countries often don’t have enough teams or money to use this format. After about 10 or 12 teams, the financial gap gets pretty big. That’s why places like Croatia, Austria, Switzerland, and Scotland have come up with other, sometimes unusual, ways to run their leagues.
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Split League Format in Football
Dividing the league into two groups is an interesting concept. The Scottish Premiership started doing this in the 2000/01 season. Each team plays the others three times, and after 33 games, the top six teams go into the Championship Group, while the bottom six play in the Relegation Group. This adds up to 38 games, just like the English Premier League, though Scottish fans might not love that comparison.
One big advantage of this format is the entertainment factor. In regular double round-robin leagues, midtable clubs don’t really have anything to play for. Often, teams know 10 games before the end that they won’t get relegated, while also not having any chance to fight for international spots. In Scotland, you always have to fight for each point, because getting 6th or falling down to 7th makes an immense difference.
More than 20 years later, in the 2023/24 season, the Swiss Super League switched to this format too. Right away, they set a new attendance record, so fans clearly like the change.
The Danish Superliga has 12 teams and splits into two groups after just 22 games, which is much earlier than the other leagues. This means a few bad games early on can knock you out of the race for the top spots.
After the split, each team plays 10 more games, bringing the total to 32. The season is shorter than in Scotland or Switzerland, but it’s even more exciting. Plus, teams get the same number of home and away games, which is a nice bonus.
The Unfair Austrian Football League Format
It’s a real mess. As an Austrian, I follow the Austrian Bundesliga closely. On paper, the format is just like Denmark’s: 22 games, then a split. But there’s a big catch. After those 22 games, all the points are cut in half, which feels unfair. Wins and draws in the first part of the season count for less, so those early games don’t matter much, while the last 10 become way too important.
Halving the points caused many problems. The idea was to make the league more exciting and, unofficially, to slow down Red Bull Salzburg so they wouldn’t win the title too early. But this change hurt many clubs. In 2021/22, SCR Altach started the season poorly but finished strongly, climbing to ninth place. Without the points halving, they would have been relegated. The same thing happened last season: Altach would have gone down, but instead, Austria Klagenfurt was relegated. They almost went bankrupt in this process.
Also, Sturm Graz benefited in 2023/24, beating Salzburg, while in a regular league format, they would’ve finished second.
Fortunately, the Austrian Football Association decided to drop this format. Starting in the 2026/27 season, Austria will use the same system as Denmark.
Alternative Formats
Many smaller leagues have switched to the split league format, but some, like the Croatian HNL, have not. With 10 teams, the HNL uses a quad-round-robin system, meaning each team plays 36 games. This format is fair and doesn’t create artificial excitement, but it can get repetitive playing the same opponents four times, especially with only one relegation spot. With Dinamo Zagreb dominating and another team often struggling, the league isn’t very exciting. This reflects in the low attendance in this football-crazy country, where the national team regularly punches above its weight.
Yet there is an even crazier system: the one in Belgium. The Belgian Pro League doesn’t just split the league into two parts; it splits it into three groups. After 30 games, the top six enter the Championship Playoffs, teams 7-12 go to the European Playoffs, and the bottom four fight in the Relegation Playoffs.
| Team | Strength |
|---|---|
 ArsenalArsenalArsenal | 90.1 |
 Paris S-GPSGPSG | 90.0 |
 Bayern MunichBayern MünchenBayern München | 89.5 |
 Manchester CityManchester CityManchester City | 88.9 |
 BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona | 87.5 |
 LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool | 86.6 |
 Real MadridReal MadridReal Madrid | 86.2 |
 ChelseaChelseaChelsea | 84.9 |
 InterInterInter | 83.7 |
 Newcastle UtdNewcastle UnitedNewcastle United | 83.3 |
But here’s where it gets really strange: in the Championship and European Playoffs, all points from the regular season are halved (and rounded up), so a great first half of the season can almost disappear. On the one hand, teams that finish 7th can qualify for Europe by winning a few playoff games. On the other hand, a team that was in first place for months can lose the title at the end. The system was supposed to make things more exciting, but it turned into a confusing mess. However, starting in 2026/27, they’re going back to a simple 18-team league with no playoffs. Sometimes, the traditional way really is the best way.
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