English Soccer Regular Season Permeated with Tournaments

I had written before about how I was surprised that soccer in England isn't just about the various teams going through the regular season, but that the top teams are also involved in the European soccer championship series, the advancing rounds of which are interspersed between regular season league games.  As it turns out, I was only scratching the surface of the presence of soccer tournaments within the regular season.  For there are two other very prominent championship tournaments ongoing in English soccer, and they involve the English leagues themselves: the Football League Cup and the FA Cup.

In the Football League Cup, all 92 teams within the top-four tiers of English soccer (Premier League, Championship, League 1, and League 2) face off in a series of knockout rounds to produce a final champion.  Although the Premier League teams are obviously the heavy favorites here, there are many instances of a lower-tier club defeating a higher one.  In fact, tier-four Bradford City actually made it all the way to the championship game in 2013!  I thought it was cool that lower-level teams got to play against the "big guys"...that is, until I discovered the FA Cup...

In English soccer, there are many, many levels in the league structure.  In the top ten tiers, there are over 700 teams.  And in the FA Cup tournament every year, each and every one of them has a shot at winning it!  Yes, theoretically, a 10th-tier team could win the whole thing...but it's highly unlikely, as you might imagine.  Still, I'd like to keep up with the FA Cup, as well as the Football League Cup...not to mention that heretofore mentioned UEFA Champions League dealing with the overall European team championship...