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The Candelaria And Marquez Soccer Championship, most commonly known as the CMSC, is a six division football league, and the governing body thereof, based in Candelaria And Marquez. Since a lower-league restructuring prior to the XXVIII season, the top division has been formally known as the CMSC1, though CMSC is still used colloquially.
Now into its thirty-sixth season – though many pundits and supporters dispute the validity of the earliest three or four titles – the CMSC was formed to replace the defunct NFBL. Since then, the CMSC1 has expanded to eighteen teams and become the most watched sports league in the Candelarias and Rushmore, thanks in part to the heavy financial backing of the country’s government, particularly in recent times. Foreign players have been permitted since XXV and the start of what has become known as the 'International Era', and the league has since been home to extraregional nationals from well over fifty countries. From the start of the XXXI season, the CMSC2 also took a major step forward in the integration of foreigners by electing NAPPC and Tenderville United, both of Nethertopia, to join the division.
Since early in XXVIII, CMSC clubs have participated in global football via the Champions’ Cup and related competitions, and have been ranked as high as second in the formal global rankings system, with Albrecht FC and Albrecht Turkish having lifted world titles, and Caires City ranked for a time as the top side in international club football.
Competition format
Having included sixteen clubs since the CMSC V season, the CMSC1 expanded to eighteen prior to XXIX, with each team now playing thirty-three league fixtures per season for a total of three hundred and six matches. League standings are determined by points, then goal difference, goals scored and games won, before an end-of-season one-off play-off – though this latter option has yet to be needed to resolve the league title, ICC qualification or relegation.
Finances and sponsorship
Compared to other organisations in C&M the league is an extremely wealthy entity, though most of that wealth is tied up in the clubs rather than the communal pot. Though the league enforces a luxury tax on big-money transfers and high wages, and provides financial assistance to certain clubs looking to bring in expensive, big-name foreign stars; those clubs with significant financial backing still have a major competitive advantage – be it those such as Arrigo Portuguese, Caires City or KT Hotspur who have a single major benefactor or company behind them, or those such as Green Island and Candelaria-Allemali who are effectively owned by a conglomerate of businesses. Turks’ Club are a rare example of a fan-owned side, though in practise they too operate at the whims of a millionaire chairman. Albrecht FC, whose financial might was previously based on sponsorship, gate receipts and merchandise, are now owned by Han company Samseong – one of a growing number foreign-owned clubs in the CMSC1.
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