La Liga 'officially' Europe's best league

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Seems to have gone a bit under the radar.

According to UEFA's co-efficients table, Spanish La Liga has overtaken the English Premier League. Serie A is a country mile behind the top 3 though so no realistic prospect of the Premier League losing the 4th Champions League spot.

As of last night:

Spain 77.311
England 72.535
Germany 67.471
Italy 54.814
France 52.500
Portugal 52.334
Ukraine 45.591

Quick, someone tell Martin Tyler! :pac:

Seaneh

Co-efficients are a load of balls, if fairness.

mike65

Doesn't mater how big the balls are they are what counts in seeding.

GavRedKing

Well look at the last 5 years for example in both the UCL and Europa league Spain has had :

Atletico Madrid x 2 Europa Leagues
Sevilla Europa League

Barcelona x 2 UCL

Next, England have had :

Man Utd & Chelsea UCL.

Fulham have made the final of the Europa league and Utd have lost a final to Barca but by and large the Spanish sides have dominated Europe the last few seasons

Rekop dog

Spanish teams take the Europa league most seriously which helps a lot obviously. Serie A teams barely ever field strong teams in the competition which along with the dwindling quality in the league explains their alarming fall in the rankings.

PhlegmyMoses

GavRedKing wrote: »

Well look at the last 5 years for example in both the UCL and Europa league Spain has had :

Atletico Madrid x 2 Europa Leagues
Sevilla Europa League

Barcelona x 2 UCL

Next, England have had :

Man Utd & Chelsea UCL.

Fulham have made the final of the Europa league and Utd have lost a final to Barca but by and large the Spanish sides have dominated Europe the last few seasons

We lost two finals to Barca. Two.

GavRedKing

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

We lost two finals to Barca. Two.

Oooohhhhh ya.

citytillidie

Its been like that since the summer even with Chelsea winning the Champions league

ArmaniJeanss

Is there any practical difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd or is it that they are all effectively joint 1st? (Possibly more Europa League places, I don't know)

Seaneh

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Is there any practical difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd or is it that they are all effectively joint 1st? (Possibly more Europa League places, I don't know)

top 3 get equal places in both comps, I think.

Maybe a difference in which rounds of qualifying teams enter though?

citytillidie

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Is there any practical difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd or is it that they are all effectively joint 1st? (Possibly more Europa League places, I don't know)

No difference at all between the 3 for spots in Champions Leauge or Europa League

Kess73

Seaneh wrote: »

Co-efficients are a load of balls, if fairness.

But if they were in favour of the EPL you can be damn sure that Sky Sports would be all over it.:)

kitakyushu

Because the top two in Spain are so far ahead of the rest I think there's this false perception among some that La Liga overall is a "weak league"

Whilst I'd still guess the prem has the strongest "bottom half teams" of any league I think Spain has the edge over England and elsewhere in terms of Top 8 or so (ie the teams who qualify for Europe) which is what matters for calculating these numbers.

In terms of the OP's thread title it'd be interesting if there was some way to put an accurate single number on a collective division of teams and say "this is how strong that division/league is".

Guy:Incognito

Seaneh wrote: »

Co-efficients are a load of balls, if fairness.

Did that view coincide with whenever Serie A dropped to 4th by any chance?:)


Seems a fine system to me. You do well, you get points.

eagle eye

kitakyushu wrote: »

Because the top two in Spain are so far ahead of the rest I think there's this false perception among some that La Liga overall is a "weak league"

Whilst I'd still guess the prem has the strongest "bottom half teams" of any league I think Spain has the edge over England and elsewhere in terms of Top 8 or so (ie the teams who qualify for Europe) which is what matters for calculating these numbers.

In terms of the OP's thread title it'd be interesting if there was some way to put an accurate single number on a collective division of teams and say "this is how strong that division/league is".

Agree with most of this except I think La Liga is stronger all around even at the lower end.

dreamers75

System works if you win matches in a 5 year period you go up, if you dont you go down

I like being the 211th best team in Europe

dulpit

dreamers75 wrote: »

System works if you win matches in a 5 year period you go up, if you dont you go down

I like being the 211th best team in Europe

209th according to this: http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

dan1895

dulpit wrote: »

209th according to this: http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

Sporting Fingal 371st on that list :eek:

dreamers75

dulpit wrote: »

209th according to this: http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

Bert has us at 211, 209 is better tho

Sounds about right in fairness.

LuckyLloyd

Now I'm not saying I agree with the EPL side of this debate, but the argument for the EPL being better than La Liga has never been that the top 8 EPL sides are superior to their Spanish counterparts. It's that the worst 10 EPL sides are superior, and the league as a whole has far more depth.

The co - efficient is an undeniable measure that the top Spanish sides outperform the top English sides consistently in European competition, but that doesn't mean the league as a whole is superior...

Tox56

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Now I'm not saying I agree with the EPL side of this debate, but the argument for the EPL being better than La Liga has never been that the top 8 EPL sides are superior to their Spanish counterparts. It's that the worst 10 EPL sides are superior, and the league as a whole has far more depth.

The co - efficient is an undeniable measure that the top Spanish sides outperform the top English sides consistently in European competition, but that doesn't mean the league as a whole is superior...

Nobody on this forum seems to side with the EPL whenever this debate comes around, which is strange when you consider the vast majority of people here watch more of (and know more about) the EPL than La Liga.

kitakyushu

Tox56 wrote: »

Nobody on this forum seems to side with the EPL whenever this debate comes around, which is strange when you consider the vast majority of people here watch more of (and know more about) the EPL than La Liga.

I reckon it's because to do so would mean inadvertently/reluctantly giving praise to rival teams that they generally spend the entire season hating/criticising.

LuckyLloyd

Tox56 wrote: »

Nobody on this forum seems to side with the EPL whenever this debate comes around, which is strange when you consider the vast majority of people here watch more of (and know more about) the EPL than La Liga.

In my case I genuinely don't know which is better. It's definitely close, but it will be impossible to ever know for sure because there will never be a common and objective measuiring stick to compare the bottom two in either (like the coefficient can compare the top few over a five year period for example). The context of either league is also staggeringly different in terms of climate, club income, ability of smaller clubs to hold onto players, etc, etc.

I just don't know, and I always wonder how those with trenchent views on either side reach their conclusion.

Seaneh

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Did that view coincide with whenever Serie A dropped to 4th by any chance?:)


Seems a fine system to me. You do well, you get points.

Nope, I've always thought it.

England will drop too because English teams, by and large, don't take the EL seriously, which is exactly why Serie A fell, Italian teams fielding primavera squads in the EL because they saw it as a bull**** tournament (and still do).

grenache

Premier League 18 points a better league than Serie A.

Nonsense.

carlop

Seaneh wrote: »

Nope, I've always thought it.

England will drop too because English teams, by and large, don't take the EL seriously, which is exactly why Serie A fell, Italian teams fielding primavera squads in the EL because they saw it as a bull**** tournament (and still do).

To be fair it's not the only reason Serie A fell. Bar Inter in 2010, Italian teams have has very little presence in the latter stages of the CL. Even this year it's looking very possible that no Italian team will get out of their group.

Juve have a very good side but majorly messed up at Nordsjaelland, while for Milan's sake it would probably be best if they didn't make it out of the groups when you consider what a good team would do to them.

Furthermore, Spanish clubs may take the Europa League more seriously, but that doesn't mean they play their best XI in it. Atleti last night started without 5 first team regulars and did the same against Hapoel, yet came away comfortably with the points.

Napoli tried the same against PSV and Dnipro and were hammered.

EdenHazard

Both aren't that great, at this stage they are just boring tbh. I don't really bother watching matches for them anymore, whereas at the weekend I watched Dortmund vs Schalke I prefer the teams in Bundesliga, it seems more fresh

grenache

carlop wrote: »

Furthermore, Spanish clubs may take the Europa League more seriously, but that doesn't mean they play their best XI in it. Atleti last night started without 5 first team regulars and did the same against Hapoel, yet came away comfortably with the points.

Napoli tried the same against PSV and Dnipro and were hammered.

PSV and Dnipro are much better teams than Hapoel and Académica.

You're not comparing like with like.

carlop

grenache wrote: »

PSV and Dnipro are much better teams than Hapoel and Académica.

You're not comparing like with like.

That's a fair point, but overall I think Serie A is down in fourth because overall their teams are not as competitive as those from the other three leagues above them, not because they fail to take the EL seriously.

Big Pussy Bonpensiero

IMO La Liga is marginally a better league, but the premier league is far more exciting. There are 5 teams genuinely capable of beating anyone, and then the likes of Everton, Liverpool and Newcastle who can give the better teams a run for their money.