Next year's best league? That must be Chanmingoren's C1-League. There are thirty teams total across three divisions, 10 teams each. You might have guessed that the lower two tiers are called the C2 and C3. The C1-League is the pinnacle and at just ten teams, it can more or less match the bigger leagues of the Constellation in skill and quality of play. It can be argued that Meia-Armadoren's league is (and likely will continue to be) better, and the top of Ndugutisaoren is better as well, but Chanmingoren is reducing that gap. Of course, Chanmingoren's 20th best team is no match for the 20th best of either of those other two territories, but just a decade ago it would've been wild to suggest these leagues would be in the same ballpark in any way. Chanmingoren's 10th best team - in the C1-League - isn't terrible, but relegation still hamstrings teams badly. The money in the C2 isn't even half of what it is in the C1 so good players, upon relegation, must find new teams quickly. Then again, money in the C2 is rising faster than money in the C1 so the expectation is that in due time, relegation isn't the death sentence that it is now.
Chanmingoren doesn't have one or two major cities like most other territories, so there tends to be one club per city. The exceptions are Shirendian, Wuxingpu, and Yanzhituo, all having two teams in the system. Starting with those three: all three have one big team and one smaller team. The bigger team is one of the three traditional heavyweights of the league: Shirendian Tiancai, Wuxingpu Heiyi, and Qiaoliang Yanzhituo. Those are the teams favoured by city governments, so they're the ones getting dibs on government resources. Fast tracks for permits for training grounds, help from city hall to organise events to hype up the team, that kind of thing. That's just how Chanmingoren works, and other cities do the same for their teams.
Qingshuzhi Yingxiong is the biggest challenger of the three, and one of the older forces in the league. The bad boy reputation of the team and its fans make local government tie-ins difficult, though, and the team's drifted down the ranks as a result, but still manage to surprise every now and again.
A few teams have local business buy-ins and have started to call themselves after the industry (hoping to attract neutral fans from all over Chanmingoren). These company-like teams are Dajiarui Kezhan for hospitality, Lichicun Buyuwang for fishing towns that are somehow still the backbone of Chanmingoren's cultural conscience, Xindianbu Baihuo for transport and infrastructure, Yuanluku Youzheng for deliveries and postal services. As you can see, they're all fairly traditional businesses, and that's a conscious choice, as that's what Chanmingorenites expect from something community-oriented, even when the economy is dominated by way larger corporations. They would rather invest in the Ndugutisaoren league than their own local one, because it brings in more money and more international attention so they can grow overseas, but also because the C1-League still has a folksy image - and it being propped up by municipal governments doesn't help.
For now, the clubs are inconsistent as can be and even the top dogs have bad and even relegatory seasons. Largely immune to that are the Five Paragons of Football, five clubs - yes, helped by their local governments - that have been in the system for a long time, have had minor successes, tend to be able to give the top three a run for their money, and are seen as 'sensible' options for neutral fans. Chanmingoren central planning even aimed for those clubs to be important football schools, but nobody really knows if that programme is still operational. It would explain the teams' above-average performances: Yufufang Haitan, Tushantai Yetu, Heiqiaolin Qingting, Yijiatang Tiancai, and Yaoluoping Xiangliao.
There's thirty clubs in total so we can't mention them all, but there are the Gaota Juren, a club with huge local investments (from not-so-big Gaota), who have fallen on hard times. Where teams win, others must lose, and the Juren represent that, and were a tough lesson for the municipal planners who thought this was a safe, community-connecting investment. It wasn't. Other teams celebrate wins over Gaota because of their hubris, even if their actions are nothing compared to the outright arrogance seen in other leagues - looking at you, Meia-Armadoren and Ndugutisaoren. A handful of clubs are community-run, such as Beitucheng Men, Qingjiaoliao Youke, and Xiafangxiang Lanhua. They're likeable and nice, but tend not to punch above their weight. Lastly there are the Two Rural Forces, Xiaojialu Chanchu and Shibigou Dizhen, who have given big clubs a run for their money and are the usual dragonslayers of the league and their home venues are castles.
