The Best League in the World?

Over the past decade or so, if you were to ask any football fan anywhere which league they believed to be the best in the world, they would say the Premier League without hesitation. The fast paced, exhilarating action that the English game has to offer creates entertainment not seen in other leagues. I’m sure people don’t need reminding of Manchester City’s dramatic final day capture of the Premier League title. However it may have reached a point where the Premier League’s time at the top may be coming to an end.

Let’s take last season’s Champions League. Undoubtedly the most prestigious tournament in club football. Clubs from Europe’s top three leagues (England, Germany, and Spain) faced off against one another regularly. Chelsea were the only English team to avoid playing a German or Spanish team. Arsenal were unable to beat Schalke in the group stages, losing once and also drawing against them. They crashed out to Bayern Munich after being roundly beaten at the Emirates, although they were victorious at the Allianz Arena.

Manchester City faced Spanish/German opposition in the group stages in the shape of Dortmund and Real Madrid. Out of a possible 12 points, the then Premier League champions only picked up 2.

Victorious Bayern in the CL Final

Manchester United were (whether you deem it to be fair or otherwise) beaten by Real Madrid at the last 16 stage. So all in all Germany and Spain came out victorious against England’s elite. In all but one match you couldn’t really argue that the English team were hard done by or were unlucky to lose. In addition, 3 teams from Germany (Bayern, Schalke and Dortmund) and Spain (Real, Barca, Malaga) made it out of the group stages whereas only two English teams (United and Arsenal) managed to qualify only to be knocked out by Spanish and German opposition respectively. The semi-finals of the competition went on to be dominated by the Spaniards and the Germans and it culminated in an all German final. When you look at this kind of evidence it becomes harder and harder to make a case for the Premier League being the best league in the world. Years ago we watched an all English CL Final which saw Manchester United triumph over Chelsea. It looks like it’ll be a while until that happens again.

Muller scoring during Germany's demolition of England
during World Cup 2010

On an international scale England’s shortcomings are well documented, whilst Spain and Germany continue to occupy the top two spots in international football (the only part of the FIFA world rankings that is actually accurate). The national teams of the three countries are heavily dominated by domestic players, so the fact that England is so far behind the other two in terms of quality again suggests that the Premier League perhaps isn’t the force in European football that it used to be.

One thing the Premier League does have over the other two leagues is competition. La Liga has no more competition in it than the SPL before Rangers were relegated. The German league has been shared by Bayern and Dortmund recently and Bayern’s astounding winning margin last season highlights perhaps the lack of genuine title contenders in the Bundesliga. However in the Premier League every season there are 4 or 5 teams that could realistically mount a title challenge and this creates an excitement unrivalled by La Liga or the Bundesliga. The Bundesliga had a thrilling relegation battle last season but that was about as good as it got.

The Premier League is still amazing don’t get me wrong. And perhaps it’s slightly premature to say it’s on the decline based on one poor showing in the Champions league. But if things continue in the same vain, the English game faces a struggle to uphold the remarkable reputation it has built up for itself.