Ted Lasso Finale: What's The Difference Between The Championship And Champions League?
Full spoilers for the third season finale of "Ted Lasso" to follow.
"Ted Lasso" is done, and whether or not we see more of AFC Richmond in the future, or if this is the end of the road for all the characters, it has been one hell of a journey. Sure, season three has been messy, unfocused, overly long and meandering, but it still gave us some phenomenal moments the Lasso Way. There was Colin's coming out story, Sam once again delivering painfully poignant moments that reflect the real world, and Jamie Tart becoming the best part of the show.
Though the show has long since stopped being all about football, the beautiful sport is still very much a key part of the story in the final episode, with the fate of Richmond in the Premier League and the title on the line. In the end, the team did not win the league — that honor went to Manchester City, which makes sense since they just won in real life).
AFC Richmond did get two major victories (in addition to remaining in the Premier League), however. For one, they defeated West Ham, Rupert's team, and also, they won a slot in the Champions League.
But wait, you might say, didn't we just get out of the Championship last season? What is the Champions League, and why does that matter for Richmond? Well, the answer is both simple and complicated, as all things in English football tend to be. Fret not, however, because we can explain.
What it all means
The English Football League (EFL) Championship has confounded Ted for three seasons now — and for good reason. Despite the name, the Championship is a tier below the Premier League, which Richmond didn't win. You see, the Championship used to be the top-level football league in England for almost a century, when it was called the First Division. Things changed in the '90s when the top teams decided they wanted a bigger piece of the pie and broke away from the English League to form the FA Premier League, which is separate from the EFL and its many, many tiers but is still connected in that teams can be relegated and promoted from one into the other.
As for the name, well, the EFL Championship is still technically the First Division, but since the Premier League has the "top" teams, it wouldn't make much sense to be called "first," would it? Besides, Championship sounds cooler.
What's the Champions League then? Is it an in-between of the Championship and the Premier League? Not really. Whereas the Championship and the Premier League are both English competitions for English-only teams, the UEFA Champions League, previously known as European Champion Clubs' Cup, is a tournament comprising the champions of several European national leagues. However, it doesn't include all of them, since a few of the leagues enter several teams at once (because of money), with the Europa League as its second-tier competition.
So what does this mean for Richmond? Well, they can always come back and try to win the Premier League next season, though that seems unlikely given Manchester City has won three years in a row. But for now, they'll also get to compete against the very best clubs in the continent, like Barcelona, Real Madrid and more.