- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The question has been asked several times, which league is the best in Europe and, arguably, the world?
Deciding the best league in the world will be personal and that’s why I feel such topic will never be settled. But I’ll base my argument on certain factors.
How does each country perform on the biggest stage, the UEFA Champions League? What is the level of competitiveness in the league? The number of international audiences? The transfer power of each league?
In terms of European competitions, La Liga has dominated in the last 20 years. They have won six times, while England and Italy have won four times respectively.
This doesn’t prove that the Spanish league is better than any other European leagues. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the only Spanish teams to have won the Champions League. People claim that because the Spanish clubs dominate European competitions, it is the best league.
But besides Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid recently, are there any other Spanish clubs capable of competing at a high level in European football? The simple answer is no. The Italian clubs are also not as strong as they used to be.
Financially, both La Liga and the EPL attract the best players. An argument for La Liga is that they have the two best players in the world.
Although Barcelona’s best players are from their renowned football academy ‘La Masia’, while Real Madrid use their financial muscle to get the top players. Only recently has France had the spending power to attract players and compete with the best clubs in the world.
What makes a league are the teams and the players. Most clubs in La Liga are affected financially by the power of Madrid and Barcelona, as they share a huge bulk of the TV rights. Meanwhile, the TV rights in the Premier League is almost evenly spread among the clubs.
I believe the Premier League is more competitive than any other league. La Liga has forever been dominated by the wealth of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Only recently has Atletico Madrid punched above its weight to break this duopoly.
The top two has always been Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. In fact the last time it wasn’t either winning the league was when Rafa Benitez’s Valencia won it in the 2003-04 season.
The Bundesliga, although dominated by Bayern Munich, hasn’t been a monopoly. Borussia Dortmund, among others, have won the Bundesliga in the last 10 years.
The Premier League is quite similar to Serie A in that they have a number of quality teams capable of winning the league. Only recently has Juventus taken full control of the league.
Manchester United and Sir Alex Ferguson have controlled the Premier League, but it has been won recently by other teams such as Chelsea, Arsenal and most recently Manchester City.
The Premier League boasts the largest international audiences of most leagues. Only during an ‘El Classico’ match would La Liga garner more viewers than the Premier League. The Premier League boasts interesting fixtures such as the North-West derby, and various London derbies. Serie A have the Milan derby and the Derby d’Italia.
In my opinion, the whole package is needed for a league to be crowned the best in Europe. That includes competitiveness, at the top and bottom, excitement, passion, top players and rivalry.
The English Premier League has that whole package.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.