Best League in Europe

Spain and Germany have dominated the Champions League in recent seasons, after England had a golden period with United, Chelsea, Liverpool and ourselves commonly reaching the quarters and beyond.

It seems Italy is having a bit of a resurgence, but remain behind England, Spain and Germany.

Is Manchester United's champions group a key indication of how the leagues stack up against each other?

United are dominating the group, despite being in fairly poor form domestically. They beat Bayer Leverkusen 5-0 in Germany with them 2nd in the table, and finishing 3rd last season. Meanwhile, Real Sociedad are rock bottom of the group.

Does this confirm that apart from the top 2 teams in the Spanish and German leagues, England still dominates in terms of an overall quality league?

In terms of dominating the Champions League then Spain/Germany are on top right now. Those two leagues have the best 2 or 3 teams in the world. But unless Barce/Real are playing I don't watch a lot of La Liga as every single year one of those two will win the league, and that lowers the excitement/standard of it for me. The same could probably be said about the Bundesliga (Munich/Dortmund replacing Real/Barce) but there is a lot I like about the German league over La Liga such as how they treat their fans, and the atmosphere in games, which puts it ahead of La Liga for me personally.

Though some say it is on a downward spiral I still think the Premier League is the best. If not the best technically then the most interesting league at least. It is the most exciting with top four/relegation battles usually going on until the final day, more than 2 teams have a chance of winning each year, I am fairly certain it is the most popular worldwide and with the biggest tv audiences, so probably the most revenue too etc Recently Ozil said he loves the league as it is 'so balanced, so even, and the competition is so fierce. There are a lot of clubs playing at the same level'. I agree with him. If the other top leagues had more balance in terms of who could compete for the title than they'd probably edge it but for me the Premier League has that factor which makes it the most exciting/interesting and therefore the best.

The two leagues I watch the most by quite a way are the Premier League and Ligue 1 (more due to personal reasons I watch French league so doesn't have to be as exciting lol). Then the Bundesliga and La Liga after those two. Serie A fifth. I do like the Serie A and it is slowly getting better again. I like again how more than a couple teams there seem to be able to compete for the league. But the matches can be a bit slow and more tactical, which I have to be in a certain mood for.

I was watching Real smash someone the other day and it was really boring, even with the goals raining everywhere. The Premier League is still the best. I'm not too sure about the German teams dominating anything in Europe. Dortmund didn't do too well in the Champions League until last year and they could easily go out in the group stages this year, so it was only Bayern.

A key question is by what criteria do you judge the 'best' league.

Certainly, having 1-3 of the best teams in the world is not enough. It is about a league, rather than 1-3 teams.

Quality of the teams is obviously the key, across the whole league.

Lesser criteria could include ability to attract top players, popularity, commerciality/value, crowds, TV audiences.

By "best" I mean most watchable. I am a fan and I want entertainment. Real easily scoring 6 every game is not so pleasing on the eye because you already know the outcome of the game. I tried watching a Seria A game a while ago and I fell asleep. I don't watch too much of German games but I think that would be fun.

Vanig Bostanian wrote:By "best" I mean most watchable. I am a fan and I want entertainment. Real easily scoring 6 every game is not so pleasing on the eye because you already know the outcome of the game. I tried watching a Seria A game a while ago and I fell asleep. I don't watch too much of German games but I think that would be fun.

In terms of being watchable, having a competitive league where anything can happen is key. The Premiership is so good how a finger tip save from a brilliant volley (by an Australian defensive midfielder no less!) can save the top team from dropping points against the bottom team. It also makes the odd 6-0 result astonishing rather than predictable.

Attacking football is also important, and across European leagues, we are in a golden age of attacking football, where most of the top managers play good football, and only a few go into games to defend (eg. Mourinho vs Man United).