Relegation in soccer is a process where a team is demoted to a lower division than the one they are currently competing in. This happens when a team finishes the season at the bottom of the league table, with the lowest amount of points. Relegation is a big part of European and South American soccer, and it is not present in American sports such as baseball, basketball, and American football. In soccer, the promotion and relegation system is the norm, and it is based on sporting merit.

The promotion and relegation system is a way of sorting clubs, where the best team(s) in lower leagues get promoted to a higher league at the end of a season, and the worst team(s) from the league above them are relegated to the lower division for the next season. The number of teams exchanged between the divisions is almost always identical, except when the higher division wishes to change the size of its membership or has lost one or more of its clubs.

Relegation is a huge deal for a team and can affect a team’s long-term future in many ways. When a team is relegated, it means they are knocked out of the top tier of soccer and start the following season in a lower league. Relegation can hurt a club’s reputation, and it leaves teams vulnerable to potentially losing elite players or sacrificing major money from sponsorships to highly lucrative broadcast television deals. However, a relegated team can still be promoted back up into the top flight by either winning its division or winning its division playoffs.