Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Football, who's the best?

Well I've been hearing and reading a lot recently about which league is the best in the world. The loudest group championing themselves is of course the English. Perhaps rightly so seen as their four representatives in the champions league are still there. The counter argument here is that the 'top four' are simply masking the fact that the rest of the Premier League is of a sub-standard what with Everton and Spurs just being knocked out of the UEFA Cup. Then again you could argue that Spain, Italy, Germany and Turkey only have one team each left in the Champions League and in truth it is the only way we have to compare leagues by comparing the top teams.

My point I want to get at here though is not about the Champions League it's about the best domestic league. How exactly is the best way to judge a league and say without a doubt which is the best? Is it on the number of teams in European competition, the style of play in the league, whether it be skillful, attacking, fast paced, etc. Is it all about TV coverage and sponsorship? Or is there more to it, is it about the fans? Perhaps it's the quality of players that grace these leagues. Or maybe just maybe it's about how those 18 or 20 teams compete against each other week in week out. I mean apart from the fans who wants the Bayerns' and Reals' of the world racing away with an eight point lead with over ten games to go.

If I have a quick glance around the European leagues many of them are as good as over, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Portugal it's for the leaders to throw away. Only England and Turkey seem to have leagues where teams are still competing for the title. The Premier League has Arsenal, Man Utd and even Chelsea are back in with a shout. In the Superleague you've got the top four all within a point of each other which is rarely seen in Europe at this time of year. Looking at it this way I suppose you can say the Premier League is the best this year if you take into account the superior players they have compared to the Superleague.

But then again I'm tired and hungry and want to wrap up this post for now. I want to discuss the other aspects of European leagues such as derby matches and mid table mediocrity. Please feel free to comment on what factors you believe make up the best league around and is it all all fair comparing leagues when budgets are so massively different. Until then your friend and mine, Deano.

P.S.
Fuck Man Utd.

3 comments:

Mark Orford said...

Good post Dean-Ross.
It's interesting to think about how a league could be "the best". And I reckon it's simply about how it's presented to the rest of the world. The marketing of the Premier League is second to none, if, for example, La Liga had the same amount of marketing clout behind, would that be considered "the best"? I reckon so, simply because the teams in both leagues seem to be of a fairly similar standard, and the passion of both the leagues fans are similar enough it's just that the Premier League has a shit load of money behind it.
In some ways maybe La Liga could be considered "a purer" league because it has less interference from billionaires trying to brand the fuck out of teams and fucking over the regular fan.

Ahh the beauty of a quiet Friday in work.

Unknown said...

san marino has a pretty competitive / exciting league. different clubs have won the league in something like the last 20 years!

Medb said...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ARSENAL!
Clearly the best London side of all. It's in the history, innit.