Football in Estonia is governed by the Estonian Football Association (Eesti Jalgpalli Liit). The EJL controls the domestic club championships (Meistriliiga, II liiga, III liiga, IV liiga; Naiste Meistriliiga, Naiste Esiliiga, Naiste II liiga[1]), the Estonian Cup, Estonian SuperCup, Estonian Small Cup and the national teams (Estonia national football team, Estonia women's national football team, all youth teams).
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The Estonian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Estonia. Reserve teams play in the same league pyramid as their feeder clubs, but, like in most other leagues, can't be promoted to the same division. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, and allows even the smallest club to dream of rising to the very top of the system. There are currently 146 teams in 12 leagues, although the exact number of clubs varies from year to year as clubs join and leave leagues or fold altogether.
Clubs participate in the Estonian Cup, an annual knock-out club competition.
Meistriliiga and Estonian Cup winners go head to head in Estonian Super Cup, annual one-game competition.
The table below shows the current structure of the system. For each division, its official name, its name in English and number of clubs is given. Each division promotes to the division(s) that lie directly above it and relegates to the division(s) that lie directly below it.
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Level |
League(s)/Division(s) |
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1 |
Meistriliiga |
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2 |
Esiliiga |
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3 |
II liiga Ida/Põhi |
II liiga Lääs/Lõuna |
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4 |
III liiga Ida |
III liiga Põhi |
III liiga Lääs |
III liiga Lõuna |
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5 |
IV liiga Ida |
IV liiga Põhi |
IV liiga Lääs |
IV liiga Lõuna |
The Estonia national football team took part in the qualifying campaigns for the 1934 and 1938 FIFA World Cups in Italy and France respectively. And then, from the 1994 FIFA World Cup, in all qualifying campaigns for both the World and European Championships, although they have, so far, failed to qualify for any major competition. The country has given the international goalkeeper star Mart Poom. Estonia advanced to the UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying play-offs against the Republic of Ireland.
Estonia's highest FIFA ranking (58th) came in September 2011.
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