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It is often percieved that there is a battle between La Liga and the Premiership for the best league in the world. I will decide what league is the best in the world using five different factors.
Players and teams quality
It is fair to say that many of the world’ best players ply their trade in La Liga; with the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing in this league.
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Barcelona and Real Madrid arguably have the world’s best teams; but it would be untrue to say that the quality is confined to these two teams, with the likes of Atletico Madrid, Malaga and Valencia all having very good teams.
Further down the league though, the teams are weaker, with the likes of Racing Santander and Rayo Vallcano having vastly inferior squads.
The Premiership, like La Liga, has a number of teams of an outstanding quality. This is shown by the number of world-class players plying their trade in the league; with Nemanja Vidic, David Silva, Robin Van Persie and Juan Mata all playing in the Premiership.
Lower down the league, the teams are significantly stronger when compared to other leagues due to them being able to spend a good amount of money in each season on improving their squads.
La Liga: 9/10
Premiership: 9/10
Competitiveness
La Liga is often referred to as a “two-team league” due to Barcelona and Real Madrid’ superiority over the other teams in the league. However this season’s battles for the final two Champions League places and to avoid relegation have been very exciting and unpredictable.
The Premiership might be a brilliant two-horse race between the Manchester clubs, but there are a number of sides who could challenge them next season; this is shown by the battle for the last two Champions League place. The relegation battle is also as exciting and unpredictable as ever.
La Liga: 7/10
Premiership: 9/10
European success
La Liga sides supposed European domination in recent years has been exaggerated. The league has only been represented twice, both times by the twice-victorious Barcelona, in the last five seasons (including this years.)
The Europa League has only seen three La Liga representatives in five seasons, including two in this year’s final, but this could be seen as unfair because the league has provided an abundance of finalists in the years previously.
The Premiership however is the league that has provided the most Champions League finalists in the last five seasons with five Premiership representatives (including Chelsea).
However only one English club has won the tournament during this time-span, with this being Manchester United’s win over fellow English club Chelsea. The Europa League proved to be less fruitful, with Fulham being the only team to reach the final of this competition in the last five seasons.
La Liga: 8/10
Premiership: 8/10
Goals
This season in La Liga has seen 998 goals scored in 360 matches, with an average of 2.77 goals a game. This season has also seen Barcelona and Real Madrid get a staggering 223 goals between them, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo getting 46 and 44 goals respectively.
This year’s Premiership has seen 1028 goals scored in 368 matches, with this producing an average of 2.79 goals a game. There has been a number of high-scoring games this season, such as Manchester United’s 8-2 win over Arsenal and the latter team’s 5-3 win over Chelsea.
La Liga: 8/10
Premiership: 8/10
Attendances
Despite the average attendance this season in La Liga being just over 30,000, this figure is largely thanks to Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose attendances drag the rest of the division up. In fact, only seven of the league’s 20 clubs get more than the average attendance.
The Premiership’s average attendance is 34,000, but only eight of the 20 clubs get more than this figure. However, only three clubs get below 20,000 people due to stadium capacity, unlike La Liga which has eight teams getting below 20,000 people.
La Liga: 7/10
Premiership: 8/10
Conclusion
While La Liga might have the world’s best teams’ and players’, it is the Premiership that is the superior league. I gave the Premiership a score of 42/50, while I gave La Liga a score of 39/50.
This is because the Premiership has a more even playing surface, with this being shown in the respective abilities of the teams’ and player’s when compared to La Liga.
They also edge out Spain in terms of attendances and goals per game, but even though they have had more finalists in Europe, La Liga have had more European victories in a five year time-span.
To become better than the Premiership, La Liga needs a “third force” to rival Barcelona and Real Madrid and also to make the weaker teams stronger through greater financial backing. Until these things happen, the Premiership reigns supreme.
Follow Josh Ilan on Twitter: @footyatjoshilan and be sure to check out joshilanblogs as well.
