One Game, Two Names: Comparing American Soccer and European Soccer

While more and more of y'all are watching American football nowadays, it'll never replace your first love, soccer. We know, we know, that’s not what you folks call it over here, but that's what we call it in the USA, since American football is a different ballgame entirely.

See, American football isn’t your classic English-style football game just played on US soil! Nuh-uh. One of the most popular sports across the pond, American football is closer to rugby, with full contact rules and all the gear to boot, so to save confusion, Americans call European football 'soccer'. 

Wanna know if there are more differences between American soccer and European football? We got you. With our proud American heritage – and plenty of know-how of the UK – we've got you covered with everything there is to know about the two games. 

Come on in to find out how the beautiful game compares across the pond, including stadium sizes, player wages and more. 

Playing rules 

Let's get the ball rolling with the basics. Luckily the same rules are used in American soccer and European football, so they're easy to get to grips with. 

Games last for 90 minutes and are split into two halves. Each team begins with 11 players, with nine more as substitutes. Five of these can replace starters, but coaches only have three stoppages to make them. This means they could lose out on the chance to use subs if they make a single change in each window, for example. 

The aim of the game is to score more goals than the opponent. League victories are worth three points and draws give each side one point. 

The leagues and number of teams 

While Major League Soccer (MLS) looks to keep adding teams, the PL went the other way back in the 1990s. When the league replaced what was known as the First Division in 1992 it had 22 clubs, meaning 42 games per season. Before the 1995/96 season, it was reduced to 20 teams to try and make the league more competitive. 

On the other side of the pond, the MLS is still growing. Six new clubs have been added in the past five seasons, and San Diego FC will take the total number of teams up to 30 in 2025. And the growth doesn’t stop there! The Major Soccer League hasn’t ruled out a possible expansion to 32 teams in the coming years. 

With so many teams in one league, the MLS is split into Eastern and Western Conferences. Fans of American sports will be no strangers to this system, which is also used in the National Football League, basketball and baseball to name a few. Each club plays teams in their conference twice, with only one game against rivals in the other. 

Meanwhile, here in the UK, there are four professional divisions. The Premier League (PL) is at the top, followed by the Championship, League One and League Two. These leagues aren't tabled geographically, it's all about performance. 

If your team is beating the others, then they'll have a shot for promotion or the league title. Not doing so well? You might end up facing relegation. Who knows in the world of football? 

Season schedules 

The soccer season in the UK recently kicked off again, but the final whistle will soon be blown on the league back in the US. British fans can watch their teams in competitive fixtures between August and May, with each club playing home and away against the others for a total of 38 games in the Premier League. 

In the MLS, the regular season runs between March and October, and the play-offs follow in November, partly because there's no safe way to play soccer in parts of the US in January. The Chicago Fire soccer team would face temperatures well below freezing, and would be better off calling themselves Chicago Ice. Plus, the MLS would also have competition for viewers from basketball and American football, and those are not battles they'd win. 

Here's the good news about the US schedule being different - no matter what time of year it is, you can always tune in to some soccer on either side of the pond!

Crowd capacity 

While almost everything is supersized in the States, that doesn't apply to soccer stadiums. The biggest capacity in the MLS is Atlanta United's 42,000, but, on this side of the pond, eight Premier League teams attract plenty more fans to their home games. 

Many MLS clubs play their games in stadiums built to house matches from the National Football League, often with reduced capacities. These teams include Atlanta United, plus Seattle Sounders and Charlotte FC. The number of fans is limited because the arenas are normally only half-full at kick-off time, so it's easier to close certain sections. 

Here in the UK, though, y'all need to compete to score tickets for Premier League games! Unless you’re a club member, landing a stadium ticket is not small task. Old Trafford is routinely sold out for Manchester United's home games, with a capacity of 74,130. Liverpool, Arsenal, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur all have grounds capable of hosting north of 60,000 supporters, too.  

Even with these huge grounds in the UK, 98.7% of them were full in the 2023/24 season, which is a figure that the MLS is unlikely to ever get close to. 

TV audience 

It's not just inside the stadiums where the Premier League gains a significant advantage on the MLS. More than 35 million people either watched live football or highlights in the UK in the 2023/24 season, making up over half of the total audience in the UK. That's how much you guys love soccer in Europe!

The Premier League also has an enormous reach away from home. It's broadcast in 189 countries, and 900 million homes can tune in whenever a game kicks off. Add that to 1.87 billion people who interact with the league through media, and the Premier League has a truly global product. 

In the US, the game isn't as popular. With all the competition from other sports, soccer struggles to pull in as many viewers. The record for a single game is less than two million, a number the Premier League regularly beats, even with a much smaller population. 

Player wages 

Fan of American sports? You won't be surprised to hear that soccer players earn much less money in the US than across the rest of the world. MLS clubs have to have to abide by salary budgets, which prevents them from coughing up big bucks to potential stars. The league does have one trick up its sleeve to attract the best players, though. 

Each club has a roster of 30 players, and no more than three of those can be inked as a Designated Player. This means they can be paid outside of the $5.7 million limit the team has to work in and earn wages closer to those paid in Europe. 

If you want an idea of how small the cap is for MLS clubs, check this out, buds - the top 25 highest earners in the UK's Premier League all take home at least double the USA's $5.7 million limit. In fact, the biggest contract alone pays four times as much, and is worth over £20 million a year! The average salary in the English top flight is said to be worth more than £3 million annually. 

With the salary restrictions in the US, the league has a long way to go to catch up to the top divisions in Europe. Due to this, it has a reputation as a retirement home for ageing stars. Still, there are worse places to hang up your boots, right? 

Revenue 

How do Premier League clubs afford to pay incredible wages to their players? It all comes down to their revenue stream, and the league is making almost four times as much as their North American counterparts. 

Studies from the 2022/23 season showed the English top flight made £6.1 billion, while the MLS could only muster £1.57 billion. This mostly comes from the league’s international TV deals, and the scary part is this number is only going upwards. Clubs who qualify for the Champions League can expect more money over the coming seasons due to the competition's expansion, with at least two extra matches per season being played. 

Sponsorship deals are supersized in the Premier League, too. Adidas and Nike paid Manchester United and Chelsea more than £900 million respectively to make their kits in recent years. Teams in the MLS collectively made $600 million in sponsorship in 2023, so you can see how far they have to go. 

Which sport is most popular on each side of the pond? 

It's clear for all to see that soccer is a much bigger game in all aspects over here in Europe. You've got more reputable teams and more fans, plus there's a ton of money in the game that America can't match with the current limits in place.

Sure, American football still reigns supreme as the game to watch in the USA, followed by the likes of baseball and basketball, but soccer is on the up with American fans. Along with our buds in Canada and Mexico, the USA is hosting the next football World Cup in 2026, plus the MLS is adding more teams, and more star names are signing up to play.  

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