Learners’ Podcast 18

On this week's show we look at relegation - going down to another division. You can download the worksheets, answers and transcripts here. Relegation With most of the European leagues approaching the end of the season the main talking point involves finding out who will become champions but there is also great interest in seeing which teams will go down to the lower divisions, will be relegated. Now, relegation means that the teams finishing in the bottom positions in the league must move down to a lower league the following season. So, for example in the English Premier League three teams each year are relegated, which is the same in Italy, Spain, France and Germany with the three top teams from the lower division then taking their place. This is called promotion. However, other countries have different systems with Argentina, for example, relegating the teams with the least amount of points averaged over three seasons. Now a club is affected in many ways if it is relegated. For example, the supporters suffer the pain of defeat and are taunted by rival fans. With their team also playing at a lower level the following season, it means there will be poorer pitches to play on, lesser-quality players to play against, smaller crowds to play in front of and much less TV exposure. But, as is the case with everything in football today, the main problem is money, or rather, the lack of it. Not only will the number of fans going to matches go down, which means that club revenues decrease, but the team misses out on the riches of the top division. With TV companies spending more and more money on football each year, the clubs need to be involved in the top divisions if they wish to get their share of the pie. For example, last year Chelsea received A£30 million for winning the Premier League title and Sunderland, who finished bottom, received A£16 million. For next season, those figures will rise dramatically with the winners receiving A£50 million and the team finishing bottom receiving A£30 million. No wonder the battle to avoid the drop is such a tense one. English for football Now todaya€™s English for football is battling for survival. Today we have talked about relegation battles and many teams will be battling for survival. Survival is from the verb survive - this means to live, usually in a difficult situation. Of course, to battle means to fight, to struggle. So, battling for survival means to fight to live, or in football to fight to avoid relegation.