Laravel Eloquent nesting

I'm trying to return a nested JSON response, multiple tables need to be connected, but while I'm just trying with 3, the levels can go deeper. My models are as follows:

Update # 1:

class Sport extends Eloquent {

protected $table = 'sportovi';

protected $fillable = ['id', 'sport_eng'];

public $timestamps = false;

public function liga(){
    return $this->hasMany('League', 'sport_id');
}
}

class League extends Eloquent {

protected $table = 'lige';

protected $fillable = ['league_id', 'liga', 'sport_id'];

public $timestamps = true;

public function mec(){
    return $this->hasMany('Match', 'match_id');
}

}

class Match extends Eloquent {

protected $table = 'mecevi';

protected $fillable = ['match_id', 'home', 'away', 'kotime', 'day', 'kolo', 'sport_id', 'league_id', 'date', 'long_id'];

public $timestamps = false;

public function liga(){
    return $this->belongsTo('Match', 'league_id');
}

}

      

        
        
        
      

    

If I do this:

$sportovi = Sport::with('liga')->get(); 
return $sportovi;

      

        
        
        
      

    

everything is fine, the children of "lige" are nested where they should be, as shown in the link here , but if I try to add a Match, like this:

$mecevi = Sport::with('liga.mec')->get();

      

        
        
        
      

    

I get a "mec" node, which is an empty array as shown here , instead one level deeper as in the previous example.

I have also tried to make a few conditions () which cause the error Call undefined method Illuminate \ Database \ Query \ Builder :: mec ()

Update: still the same mec:[]

, empty array.

I am using Laravel 4.2.