John Micklethwait & Simon Kennedy, Columnists

Ted Lasso Knows: Relegation Is Real Competition

US sports teams should emulate the European model: Losers get exiled, not coddled.

Ola Aina of Nottingham Forest.

Photographer: Michael Regan/Getty Images Europe

Look around the world and you can find poetry and beauty in sporting rivalry.

Witness what Don DeLillo and Philip Roth wrote about baseball in New York. When Juventus hosts AC Milan, the two Italian teams play with the Alps glistening behind them. The prize at stake when Australia and England compete at the longest form of cricket is a simple urn.