When is soccer season? MLS, Youth, Europe start and end date explained

There is no singular soccer season, with different countries observing different calendars. In the UK and central Europe, most leagues follow a 'winter season' (a season which kicks off around Fall and is played through winter into the spring months), but in some Scandinavian countries, where weather can be more severe during the winter months, they play a 'summer season' - the Swedish Allsvenskan is generally played from March until November, for example.

So in a sense, the soccer season never truly ends! However, there tends to be harmony in certain regions.

The elite European leagues, such as Premier League, Serie A and La Liga usually begin around late summer and end in late spring - around the end of May.

In the United States (US), soccer officially starts in Fall for youth soccer. District tournaments usually follow the youth divisions and school-sponsored league, through Autumn. In contrast, the Major League Soccer regular season generally starts in February and runs until October, with MLS playoffs following from October to December.

Youth leagues that are run through schools or local organizations are typically set to take place over a period of two months, between September and November but with majority of the fixtures slated for October.

While most of youth leagues end in Fall season, there are a few competitions such as those held at the district level that can run through Winter and into Spring of the next year. These leagues may be played until around February.

MLS is the top-flight professional soccer league for the US and Canada that typically begins by the end of Winter. However, it is just the regular season phase of MLS played across the Eastern and Western conferences that begins in February, running until October.

The CONCACAF Champions Cup also starts in February and runs through June, where teams' participate based on their positions in MLS, apart from cup competitions including the US Open Cup of the previous season.

Between mid-July and mid-August, when the Leagues Cup tournament - comprising of all MLS and Liga MX teams - is held, MLS takes a break. This is also when the MLS All-Stars team take on a selected international side or selected players from another league in an one-off annual encounter.

The second part of MLS or the playoffs begins its matches in October and winds up by December, leading to the MLS Cup tie.

So in all, MLS is held over the length of around nine months.

The Premier League, being the most sought after European soccer league, starts in August and spreads across a nine-month period including FIFA international breaks.

In the English top-flight, every season, three sides get relegated and three promoted teams from the Championship replace them.

Like every other European league, the cup competitions are usually scheduled alongside the main league.

La Liga in Spain, Serie A in Italy, Ligue 1 in France and Bundesliga in Germany - along with England's Premier League - are often referred to as Europe's 'Big Five'. All these soccer leagues will start in August and run through the spring or summer of the following year. Brief winter breaks are observed in some European leagues.

Unlike MLS, there is no regular season followed by playoffs. Instead, the final league standings alone are used to determine the champions, continental qualifiers and relegation/promotion. In the case of the Premier League, the final promotion slot from the EFL Championship is decided by playoffs.

The UEFA Champions League (UCL) has its own schedule. Although there are tiers in European club competitions organized by the governing body of soccer in the continent, such as UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League, nothing comes close to the UCL.

In particular, the Champions League owes its popularity to the sheer number of star names coming under one umbrella to battle for the ultimate prize.

While group stage spots are reserved for a specific number of teams in their respective domestic top-tier leagues, qualifying rounds usually start from June. The UCL league stage begins in August, with the final held around May-end or early June the following year.

Every soccer league has its own off-season period of about two months before the subsequent pre-season begins, but it will again vary from league to league depending on when it starts and ends.

And with international competitions such as the World Cup, European Championship and Copa America, or even soccer at the Olympics, or yet again age-group or women's world cup tournaments among others, there could be almost no off season for some of the participants.