Aberlour10, on 2013-March-13, 09:52, said:
It works. The league system without relegations works only on play off base, but here is not a single football league in Europe based on these US sports systems
Soccer, maybe not, rugby union in the UK is very similar to a US system, as is rugby league (in fact RL uses a slightly different Australian model for their playoffs). Both have tinkered with a no promotion model
The lower divisions in England have a playoff system to find the final promoted team (2 up and 3-6 play off for the third promotion place), and some leagues have done this with 2 up 2 down plus the third bottom team in the higher division and the 3rd-5th teams in the lower one playing off.
In the summer in England only, cricket comes up in conversation. Also in areas of the country, the two rugby codes are at least as popular as soccer.