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EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or the Serie A – which was the best in the last 5 seasons?There have been endless debates about which league is the best in the world, and that is something that cannot be determined very easily. It has been taken for granted that Europe has the best leagues in the world based on support, the lure of top players and past glory. The top five leagues have been rated in this piece, and the criteria on which they have been judged is given below. 1) Match Attendance2) TV Viewership and deals3) Competitiveness4) League Quality5) Club Competition FormNote: All statistics that have been used are from the last 5 seasons (2010/11 to 2014/15) unless specified.
#1 Match Attendance
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Criteria: Average match attendances have been calculated
The English Premier League has the highest total match attendance among all the other leagues, with almost 13.75 million spectators attending games during the 2014/15 season. It is closely followed by the Bundesliga in second place with 13.3 million spectators, despite the average attendance being consistently higher than the Premier League. But over the course of the last five seasons, the German league has entertained an average crowd of 43,484 as compared to 35,729 for the Premier League.
La Liga comes in third place with 10.2 million spectators during the 2014/15 campaign, and the Spanish league has considerably less match attendances as compared to the top two, with 28,581 being the average over the past 5 seasons. Ligue 1 in France comes in last place, although it is threatening to overtake the Serie A in this round, as noticed in their average match attendance in the recent campaign.
| League | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 5 seasons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga | 42,653 | 45,134 | 42,609 | 43,497 | 43,527 | 43,484 |
| EPL | 35,283 | 34,601 | 35,931 | 36,657 | 36,175 | 35,729 |
| La Liga | 29,128 | 30,548 | 29,329 | 27,042 | 26,859 | 28,581 |
| Serie A | 24,031 | 23,459 | 22,796 | 22,212 | 22,149 | 22,929 |
| Ligue 1 | 19,912 | 18,665 | 19,392 | 21,108 | 22,356 | 20,268 |
Winner: Bundesliga
Source: ESPN
#2 TV Viewership and Deals
Criteria: The average television audience and the value of the TV rights are the parameters used to judge this round.
The Premier League has the best television viewership in the entire sport, with an estimated 12.3 million people tuning into every match. This dwarfs all the other leagues put together and also explains why the TV rights of the highly marketed Premier League have the highest value.
Serie A have the next biggest viewership with 4.5 million viewers and is followed by La Liga and the Bundesliga. The Italian league also has a fairly high television rights value, and a new contract for the 2016/17 season is reportedly worth $1.28 billion.
The La Liga doesn’t have television rights for its league but allows the teams in the league to negotiate their own TV rights with the broadcaster. This means that the money earned by the clubs in Spain is fairly uneven, as compared to teams in England, Germany, Italy and France.
| League | Average TV Viewership per match (as of 2012/13) | Value of TV Rights (as of 2014-15) | Value of TV Rights (2016-17 season) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga | 2 million | $790 million | $880 million |
| EPL | 12.3 million | $2.63 billion | $2.7 billion (only domestic) |
| La Liga | 2.2 million | - | - |
| Serie A | 4.5 million | $1.12billion | $1.28 billion |
| Ligue 1 | - | $739 million | $858 million |
Winner: Premier League
Source: Forbes
#3 Competitiveness
Criteria: Competitiveness of the league was decided by calculating the average points difference between first and last place, and first and fourth place. The average points per season can be viewed as the minimum points required to finish in a mid-table position.
Ligue 1 was the most competitive with the least difference in points between first and last place (55.6 points). The EPL is the second most competitive of the five leagues, as pointed out by its fairly decent statistics. Top teams and mid table teams do succumb to upsets often, which says a lot about the competition in the league. In the past five seasons, the Premier League has managed an average top 4 points difference of just 14.4, which is the least among the leagues.
The Bundesliga is quite competitive as well, although the scenario is quite different in La Liga. Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the scene in the recent past, with Atletico Madrid winning the league once in between, and the three teams have been dominating Spain. Though the competition between the three teams is quite fierce, they have left all the other teams behind in the league, and this is evident from the statistics.
The Serie A has a slight issue as well, with Juventus being much stronger than their rivals.
| League | Difference between 1st and last place | Difference between 1st and 4th place | Average points per season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga | 60.8 | 18.6 | 46.5 |
| EPL | 57.6 | 14.4 | 52.1 |
| La Liga | 68.8 | 29.4 | 52.6 |
| Serie A | 66 | 23 | 51.6 |
| Ligue 1 | 55.6 | 17 | 51.4 |
Winner: Ligue 1
#4 Quality
Criteria: Average Goals per game and Yellow/Red cards are taken into consideration when judging the league’s quality.
Goals Scored
The Bundesliga is intense and entertaining and boasts the best quality of football, despite having two fewer teams than the rest. With an average of 2.92 goals per game over the last five seasons, the league has produced an impressive 4467 goals.
The technical La Liga and the thrilling Premier League are very close in this regard, with the Spanish League being just a tad better in terms of goals scored.
The Serie A surprisingly outscored all the other leagues with 1024 goals in the last season. But over the past 5 seasons they are only fourth best in this category. The Italian League along with the French Ligue 1 are lagging behind in terms of goals scored, but that gap is getting smaller with every passing season.
Winner: Bundesliga
Yellow Cards and Red Cards
La Liga and Serie A have a total of 231 and 242 red cards respectively over the course of the last five seasons, but Ligue 1 tops the list with 274 red cards! In comparison, the Premier League’s card collection is on the lower side, albeit there being a very slow rise in the numbers that might harm the league in the long run.
Clean Sheets
The Ligue 1 has the most number of clean sheets, followed by the Serie A. The La Liga and the Premier League are next up, with the Bundesliga having the least number of clean sheets over the past five seasons.
Winner: Ligue 1
| League | Goals Scored | Avg Goals per game | Yellow Cards | Red Cards | Avg clean sheets per season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga* | 4467 | 2.92 | 5665 | 145 | 151.2 |
| EPL | 5219 | 2.75 | 6334 | 189 | 199 |
| La Liga | 5237 | 2.76 | 10547 | 231 | 209.2 |
| Serie A | 4993 | 2.63 | 8922 | 242 | 212.2 |
| Ligue 1 | 4689 | 2.47 | 6697 | 274 | 213.4 |
* Bundesliga has only 34 games a season
#5 Performance in European competitions
Criteria: The number of times teams from a league that have reached the knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League or Europa League starting from the Round of 16 to the finals has been calculated.
La Liga have the most consistent showings in the Champions League and the Europa League with its teams reaching the final on 8 occasions over the last 5 seasons. Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid have reached Champions League finals recently while Sevilla have won the Europa League twice in the past two seasons. Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao have also won the Europa League and reached the final respectively, making the Spanish league one of the best in Europe.
The Bundesliga have the second best record in Europe with Bayern Munich actively leading their contingent. The Bavarian club has made it to the semis of Europe’s premier cup competition four times in the last five seasons, reaching two finals in the process.
The Premier League has been struggling in this respect, with its teams featuring only three times in finals, and their Europa League record has been incredibly disappointing as well.
The Serie A had Juventus representing the league in the Champions League final in the previous season but they have struggled in Europe with the Turin club’s appearance being the only appearance in a final for the Italian League in the past 5 seasons.
Ligue 1 has been anonymous in both of Europe’s premier competitions, with only PSG threatening to make an impression in Europe.
| League | Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Finals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bundesliga | 15 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| EPL | 22 | 9 | 4 | 3 |
| La Liga | 25 | 20 | 17 | 8 |
| Serie A | 21 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Ligue 1 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
Winner: La Liga
