Why the Premier League is the best league in the world

You keep padding fuzz. I'm guessing you don't have an answer to your PPP stuff up then? No one else will be reading fuzz, so spare me the insults. Face facts, China is not the largest economy in the world by a long shot. whats even worse is I actually don't think you quite understand what I'm talking about with PPP?

I love you guys.

@Rick Disnick So it took you 5 days of Googling to come up with that nonsense? You obviously have no formal qualifications - just the usual internet professor. Judging by your Username, you are a fan of asinine comedy that pokes fun at Non-Anglo cricketers' names - a true sign of the Aussie bogan intellect. As I've said before... your knowledge of football and anything outside the non-Anglo sphere is embarrassing.

With regards to your India comments. The reason I know you have no idea what your are talking about is India is the 3 rd largest economy taking PPP into account, not 10th. This just highlights you do not actually understand what you are talking about and are selectively choosing data to back up a false argument. Secondly, India has one of the lowest scores in the QLI each year released by the UN - hence my third world comment. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You are an embarrassment to this site with such comments.

Been away a few days. Well now I do know what level of educational you have fuzz. You do realise that in Raw terms China is nearly 7 trillion US dollars less per year than the Usa? You are talking about one bit of data from the Imf which uses PPP, which takes things such as average wages being less. This does not mean it's a bigger economy and shows your limited education levels when it comes to business and macro economics. This is precisely why it is pointless conversing with a person of your intelligence.

Rellum - Catenaccio, an Italian word describing a tactic brought to it's ultimate fruition by Herrera at Inter Milan in the early 60's actually has it's roots before the 40's the original idea of basing a tactic purely on a defensive structure is thought to have been introduced into the game by an Austrian coach called Rappan who,upon being given the Swiss national team is thought to have recognised that his players were not of the standard of their likey opposition,Austria,Germany or Italy to name a few,and so altered his structure to resemble a 1-3-3-3 formation. The tactic was given the name "Verrou".The basis of this tactic was to have what would be described today as a sweeper,3 central defenders, and 3 hard working midfielders expected to curb the attacks of better qualified players.The tactic is then thought to have been further developed in Russia during the wartime years (with the same reasoning as Rappan's) and was given the name "Volga Clip" but it is not until the early fifties the football world sat up and took note for by then it had been adopted by one of the world's football giants Italy.Some noted Italian coaches Viani and Pozzo to name two,who had played football in Switzerland are thought to have introduced the tactic while managing lesser teams in the Italian leagues,but it was not until Herrerra moved to Inter the tactic blossomed into what many would describe as a scourge on the game.At first the tactic had involved what would be described as "heavy body contact play" but Herrera introduced a more subtle,what could be described as "psychological" approach using minor infringements to halt the build up of promising moves by any opposition.At Inter he had class players who adopted his instructions and to watch the game played in this manner was for the "football intelligencia" only,it drove thousands away from the game as it spread it's tentacles across Europe.That lasted until around 1967 when Celtic,with speed and aggression, ran an ageing Inter "off the field" in Lisbon.Since then it has become a side issue in the game only being seen now and then when a team is facing impossible odds and it has been christened that ridiculous title "parking the bus". Let us hope it never again raises it's ugly head. jb

Fair enough. I must admit that I we only had the highlights in Australia on SBS and an edited 25 minute game so some of the aspects that attracted derision were edited out.

He also doesn't remember AC Milan with Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkard, Baresi, Maldini and co. I remember Milan in consecutive weeks destroying Roma and Napoli with Maradona in consecutive weeks 4-1 each time. They were only a mid table team but I remember the irrespresible Foggia with Shalimov, Petrescu and Koyvanov. Mighty was their attacking play and mighty was their fall in the final game of the season when they lost 7-2 to Milan. No there were plenty of goals. I'm just guessing because they kept the ball on the ground in Serie A it just didn't register with people in Australia like the 1st division/EPL does.

I didn't assume you were from Europe, that is not what a Eurosnob is. Usually it's an Australian who loves Manchester United or Chelsea etc, with no connection to the team in anyway, and adores them, but won't 'belittle' themselves to watch the A-League when its on their doorstep. Some people I know love both an EPL team, or other team from a top league but also love the A-League. That's not a Eurosnob. You seem to raise the point how bad the A-League is by yourself with no one raising it with you. I have seen that list. I also saw a list last year where the A-League was ranked around number 30. Do you honestly think in your heart of hearts that with the infrastructure, transport for events, fan safety, attendance levels, that the A-Leage is really number 99 in the world? really Rick? But don't pretend the EPL is the highest quality in the world. It's not. That obviously cuts deep. And that's ok. But you aren't a better class of person because you turn your nose up at the A-League, assuming you are in Australia, and only dine on Manchester and Chelsea. I'm curious on why no truly great footballer goes to England in their prime to play football. Del Piero even snubbed England in his older years.

@George The claim was "EPL is the best because it is the most watched football league in the world". It is clearly not the most watched football league in the world. 170 million people watched the opening round of the Indian Super League. 160 million in the UK watched the entire EPL season in 2013/14. Sure there will be significant numbers watching overseas, but we're talking 1 round of football in India vs the entire EPL season. That's the lure of engaging in business across Asia ... it's the power of raw numbers that Europe can never match.

How do you talk stats regarding raw numbers between 2 countries of which they have a difference in population of about 900 million.....

He also mention Europa League The general criticism is that Top 2 La Liga sides are great and the rest are mediocre. However if that is true than they would do poorly in the Europa league which is essentially the best team rank 5-7 in the domestic league Yet the Spanish record in the Europa league is pretty good as well including the recent winner Sevilla (so Spain took out the champions league and Europa league trophy). Perhaps Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate because of the quality of their team and not because of the weakness of their competitors. Of course some people may argue that EPL side don't take the Europa league seriously but if you don't take it seriously you can't exactly prove that your league has depth.

I agree with the writer that matches are much more interesting to see than other leagues. English teams play offensively, like there was a 30-second shot clock. Spanish and German teams play much more slowly, and Italian teams much worse.

No they're OUR clubs, which we built up with our support over a century and gave the clubs our culture. We wouldn't dream of supporting some random team on other side of the world, unless we actually lived there Like I did in melbourne and yet you seem to think it's acceptable? Now the local fans pay the price because foreign glory hunters snap up all the tickets at inflated prices for their "once in a lifetime" trip to old Trafford, Anfield or Stamford bridge etc. Clubs have recognised that foreign fans are more willing to waste money on preseason tours and annual merchandise and so they have abandoned the working class base in their local community that actually built these clubs. If people want to get involved in football, they can and good on them. But they should go support their own clubs rather than ruining football for us.

What do you mean "have no right to support these clubs"? That sounds very parochial and small minded. The more people who get involved in football the better.

Ha! I can't stop laughing at your dismissal of consumer market information relating to China & India. China which is now the world's biggest economy, having just moved above USA. And India the world's 10th biggest economy & with a middle class that it is projected to be 1/2 billion people by 2025 (Source: 2007 McKinsey article http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/In_the_news/Next_big_spenders_Indian_middle_class). I can't stop laughing at the ignorance of Aussies, who don't explore beyond the Anglo culture.

Okay Fuzz - you keep sticking to that super story you have going there on those extremely RELIABLE figures you have from a communist nation and a border line third word country that can't even count official crowd numbers at cricket games, let alone TV audiences.

"you resort to ridiculous comments like these" You suggested "EPL is the best because it's the most watched football league". You fail to understand that the football world is a big world and there were more people watching 1 week of the Indian Super League than watched the whole season of EPL. And, I would expect the Chinese Super League would have more viewers than the Indian Super League.

"George Graham years". What has this got to do with being an Arsenal fan? "Aussie backpacker" What has this got to do with anything we are discussing or have discussed? When you can't answer those two questions, you may understand why so many people have issues with you on pretty much every forum I have been on Fuss. It is also the reason there is no point in discussing things with you, because when things don't go your way, you resort to ridiculous comments like these.

No problems, Rick. I've no interest in engaging with you. But, I will constantly expose your ignorant comments - and, by heavens, your comments about football are incredibly ill-informed and ignorant. This is not surprising for an Aussie backpacker who tries to make out he's now a football aficionado because his wife allegedly follows Arsenal .. most likely a post-Wenger fan, who couldn't name a single player from the George Graham years.