League
A competition in which a fixed set of teams plays over a season, with standings decided by accumulated results.
Definition
A league is an organised competition in which a fixed group of teams plays a series of matches across a season, earning points for results, with cumulative standings determining the final order. The classic format is the round-robin, where each team plays the others a set number of times — often home and away — so the table reflects performance over many games rather than a single knockout.
The word also names the governing organisation that runs such a competition; a 'league' can be both the tournament and the body administering it. Leagues are frequently arranged into tiers or divisions connected by promotion and relegation, and many crown a champion either by finishing top of the table or through end-of-season play-offs.
Scope: Depending on context, 'league' can mean the season-long competition itself or the organisation that administers it.
Where you’ll hear “league”
Sports that use this term:
Football
The world’s most popular team sport — endless running, teamwork and community in one game.
Basketball
A fast, dynamic team sport of running, jumping and quick decisions on court.
Cricket
A bat-and-ball team sport where sides take turns to bat and to bowl and field, scoring runs.
Rugby
A physical team sport of carrying, passing and kicking an oval ball toward the opposing line.
Baseball
A bat-and-ball team sport where two sides alternate between batting and fielding to score runs.
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Scoring systems
- Volleyball scoringVolleyball uses rally scoring, in which a point is won on every rally, and matches are decided over a best-of-five sets.
- Badminton scoringBadminton uses rally scoring to 21 points per game, with matches decided over the best of three games.
- Tiebreak scoringA tiebreak is a short deciding game used in racket sports to settle a set that has reached an even number of games, scored in simple numbers to a fixed target.
- Football (soccer) scoringFootball is scored by goals, with each goal worth one point and the team scoring the most goals winning the match.
Disciplines
- SprintSprint is a short-course race format decided over an individual qualifier and knockout heats, skied in either classic or skate technique.
- Poomsae (Forms)Poomsae is taekwondo's forms discipline: a set sequence of blocks, kicks, and strikes performed in a fixed pattern and judged on accuracy, power, and presentation.
- Traditional (Trad) ClimbingA lead format in which the climber places removable protection into the rock while ascending, and a partner removes it afterward, leaving no fixed gear behind.
- Speed ClimbingA timed format where climbers ascend a route as fast as possible, most recognizably as a head-to-head race on a standardized competition wall.
- KataKata is the solo karate discipline of performing set sequences of blocks, strikes, kicks, and stances against imagined opponents.
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- Content type
- Term
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
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- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-09-01
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