La Liga.Best League in Europe?

[WATFORD zero]

I'm only going to whisper it, but for year on year competitiveness and unpredictability I think the English Championship is the best

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Although apparently this helped by some geographical luck which La Liga are quite bitter about. The time difference means that Premier league games are shown at prime time in Asia in a Saturday night.

This is a huge bonus. The English language also helps. The Prem is without doubt the most in-demand league but it's not just down to the actual games being played.

 

[Bold Seagull]

A league is more exciting if you know the teams.Know the players.Read about them in the papers.See them in TV news reports.Read the stories and controversy every day.You grow up with these teams.Therefore regardless of how good a foreign league is why is someone watching a game in Barnsley going to be interested in Seville v Granada.He will say it was boring.For the same reason the spaniard watching Watford v Everton will probably say the same.That's why foreign leagues will always have limited interest abroad.Always amazed me how Serie A survived on a main terrestrial channel for so long and was only scrapped because the big games were switched to Sunday evenings instead of 2/3pm when C4 showed a game.

That is why the worldwide audience is the benchmark. Asian, US, South America, African, Indian subcontinent, China etc. etc. all have their pick of which leagues to follow and the figures confirm the PL as the overwhelming favourite. In terms of worldwide social media, there are more tweets and Facebook shares regarding the PL than La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A combined. None of these viewers have grown up with a team - they've picked the most exciting league to watch. If the PL was unexciting for a few years or suffered the controversies and Serie A like demise, then a fickle worldwide audience would no doubt turn to another product. They won't be after this year though, expect figures to jump yet again.

Serie A was amazing when it first came on C4. The stadiums from the World Cup were still fresh in our minds, the top Serie A teams had the best players in the world, Milan and Juve were winning European Cups, Maradona, Gazza, Madini!!! It succeeded for a few years until Sky really started saturating the market and more people got Sky. You'd have to remember that in 1992 Sky wasn't reaching that many households, so Serie A was the only live game you could see without a Sky dish regularly.

 

[Bold Seagull]

This is a huge bonus. The English language also helps. The Prem is without doubt the most in-demand league but it's not just down to the actual games being played.

Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, second to Chinese. Not sure what language has to do with it either, as with Serie A as long as you have good presenters, does the language make any difference? It is surely about how exciting the product is?

 

[beefypigeon]

I would have La Liga and the Premier League as being the best two leagues, although the German and Italian leagues aren't bad.

In La Liga, the top three teams are streets ahead of the rest, 20 points ahead of 4th to be exact. The gulf in quality from these top three teams to the bottom three teams is absolutely massive. I think the money distribution over there is partly to blame for this, the top three get a massive amount of income from TV rights compared to the lesser sides.

The premier league by comparison is so unpredictable. Who would have guessed Leicester would win the league? We've had Newcastle go and win at Spurs, and massive clubs like Chelsea and Man Utd look set to miss out on Champions league football. There are literally no easy games, and the money distribution over here is far more even.

So it depends on what you constitute the most important aspect to judge which is the better. The Premier league is more competitive, more unpredictable, and usually more enjoyable to watch. La Liga by contrast have the best teams in Europe. I prefer the premier league personally, but love watching a match up between two of the top three in Spain!

 

[surrey jim]

Not sure how one judges best league but it has a good case for sure. Their's is a two horse race, Germany is two at best, apart from this year England is a 2-3 horse race*. Who knows.

But, they are consistently turning out a fantastic international team (1 WC and 2 EC) as well as dominating European football.

* and only because some Arabs bought Man City.

One would argue a three horse race including Atletico Madrid

 

[Maldini]

That is why the worldwide audience is the benchmark. Asian, US, South America, African, Indian subcontinent, China etc. etc. all have their pick of which leagues to follow and the figures confirm the PL as the overwhelming favourite. In terms of worldwide social media, there are more tweets and Facebook shares regarding the PL than La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A combined. None of these viewers have grown up with a team - they've picked the most exciting league to watch. If the PL was unexciting for a few years or suffered the controversies and Serie A like demise, then a fickle worldwide audience would no doubt turn to another product. They won't be after this year though, expect figures to jump yet again.

Serie A was amazing when it first came on C4. The stadiums from the World Cup were still fresh in our minds, the top Serie A teams had the best players in the world, Milan and Juve were winning European Cups, Maradona, Gazza, Madini!!! It succeeded for a few years until Sky really started saturating the market and more people got Sky. You'd have to remember that in 1992 Sky wasn't reaching that many households, so Serie A was the only live game you could see without a Sky dish regularly.

My hunch is that La Liga is bigger in South America which unlike the other places you mentioned is a proper footballing continent.

Part of why a league is popular in a certain place I believe is due to the marketing/tours from that league and not always because of the clubs.

Serie A started off in the UK on Sky then C4 took over.They showed games on Sunday 2/3pm then Serie A for TV swapped the big games to Sunday evening.Therefore instead of for example the Milan derby you would have Napoli v Verona so viewing figures dropped.It wasn't scrapped as a result of anything Sky did.

 

[dangull]

I don't know how Atletico Madrid have managed to be competitive in the last few years, great manager, Leicester type spirit?

In the long term in terms of competiveness, its not much different to Scotland, Celtic v Rangers.

There is maybe 5 or 6 clubs who can win the premier league? Leicester have showed, that even maybe Brighton could win it in the future.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I might be biased but the best league to drink shit loads of lager and smoke Malboros in view of the pitch is the Bundesliga.

 

[Simster]

So the Premier league's ninth best team absolutely crushes la Liga's 4th best team then.

I'm surprised the people keenly telling us how rubbish our league is compared to Spain's haven't been on here swallowing their pride.

Oh wait, I'm not.

Barca and Real are a different class, certainly. Simeone at Atletico is working wonders to sustain his side as a competitive force, and hats off to Sevilla for two Europa league titles. But the rest of the league? Doesn't seem that strong to me.

 

[surrey jim]

I might be biased but the best league to drink shit loads of lager and smoke Malboros in view of the pitch is the Bundesliga.

Wouldn't happen in Germa..... oh

 

[surrey jim]

I might be biased but the best league to drink shit loads of lager and smoke Malboros in view of the pitch is the Bundesliga.

Incidentally is it still possible to smoke in German football stadiums? I thought there was an EU wide smoking ban in public places.

 

[Maldini]

So the Premier league's ninth best team absolutely crushes la Liga's 4th best team then.

I'm surprised the people keenly telling us how rubbish our league is compared to Spain's haven't been on here swallowing their pride.

Oh wait, I'm not.

Barca and Real are a different class, certainly. Simeone at Atletico is working wonders to sustain his side as a competitive force, and hats off to Sevilla for two Europa league titles. But the rest of the league? Doesn't seem that strong to me.

How is the 'rest of the league' in the Prem doing in Europe putting to one side the total failure of the 'big' clubs?

La Liga's '4th best team' are dwarfed in comparison to Liverpool in terms of the size of the club/city,money,history,players.For them to get to the semis and beat teams like Napoli was a massive achievement.We have also seen in the past teams from the 'rest of the league' excelling in Europe.Celta Vigo,Valencia not to mention when A.Bilbao tore Man U to shreds a few years ago.

Yes Liverpool are 9th but we all know they should be much higher and probably will be next season.

La Liga is way in front of the Prem.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Incidentally is it still possible to smoke in German football stadiums? I thought there was an EU wide smoking ban in public places.

There is legislation but there is room to move. Many bars, clubs and music venues here still allow smoking. It tends to be below a certain size though. Same in Spain I have found. As for football you can definitely smoke in the Olympiastadion here in Berlin.