Premier League is often described as the most exciting football league in the world and rightly so looking at 2015-16 crazy season which had so many surprises from top to bottom of the league. Since it was rebranded as the English Premier League back in 1992 it has be an absolute financial success on every scale and if premier league was not exciting it would not be raking all this financial windfall. Having said that is premier league the best football league in the world ? well jury is still out on that and we take a look at some of the top leagues around europe and in the world, ranking them according to several factors.
UEFA has a coefficients system according to which they rank the european leagues and that solely depend on the performances of clubs from a certain league in europe. Spanish La Liga is the highest ranked team according to UEFA co-efficient with 101 points as of april 2016 while German Bundesliga is second with 79 and Premier League is third with 75 points. But thats one way to look at the leagues there are several other factors like excitement level, average attendance, tv viewing numbers, quality of football. average number of goals and we can go on and on with so many more statistics.
| NO# | LEAGUE | POINTS |
| 1 |  Spanish La Liga |
48 |
| 2 |  Premier League |
47 |
| 3 |  Bundesliga |
42 |
| 4 |  Italian Serie A |
37 |
| 5 |  Portuguese Liga |
35 |
| 6 |  French Ligue 1 |
31 |
| 7 |  Dutch Eredivisie |
27 |
| 8 |  Argentine League |
21 |
| 9 |  Brazilian Serie A |
20 |
| 10 |  Major League Soccer |
20 |
But we decided to take 6 major factors into account and rank the top leagues around the world. Every factor has 10 points.
- Excitement
- Competitiveness throughout the league
- Quality of football
- Star Power
- Success in continental football
- Average Attendance
So collection such data from 20 top leagues around the world we have narrowed down the ranking to top 10 leagues in the world and this is how they rank.
Spanish league came out top with overall 48 points. (10 points each for qualify of football and success in europe, 9 for star power, 6 for average attendance, 7 for excitement and 6 for competitiveness)
Premier league narrowly missed out with 47 points (10 points each for Competitiveness and excitement, 6 for quality of football, 7 for star power, 6 success in europe and 8 for average attendance)
# 10. Major League Soccer
Still growing as a sport in United States, MLS has come alongway since 1994 when USA hosted the world cup. Now “Soccer” is pretty much a mainstream sport in the states and MLS has gone from strength to strength in last couple of decades. The exciting levels have increased and some of the top clubs in MLS have developed loyal fan basis. Although one downer is the fact that top players from europe uses MLS as their last destination to end their careers.
#9. Brazilian Série A
Brazlian league has the flair, the samba touch and some very exciting games but the quality of football is way below the standard of European top leagues. 2015 league winners Corinthans had 81 points while the 20th place side Joinville had 31 and thats massive 50 points gap. But as far as Copa Libertadores is concerned Brazil had atleast 4 teams in each of the last 3 season knockout rounds.
#8. Argentine Primera
Probably the best league in South America at the moment both in terms of quality and star players. Argentina clubs has won the last two Copa Libertadores (River Plate 2015, San Lorenzo, 2014). Carlo Tevez has returned to Argentina and guided his Boca Juniors side to title victory in 2015. Unlike the other top leagues, Argentina has 30 teams in top division divided into two zones of 15 teams each.
#7. Dutch Eredivisie
Ededivise has long been a second string league behind top european domestic competitions. Ajax and PSV are two power houses who most often than not compete for the title. Ajax has won 4 league titles in the last 5 years. Interestingly dutch league has the highest goal to game ratio in top european leagues but also a most red cards. Ajax and PSV has best academies in the world providing youngsters around europe. So many great players learned their trade here you talk about Ronaldo (Brazlian), Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Bergkamp, Van Persie, Huntelaar, Luis Suarez and Arjan Robben to name just a few.
But their failure to hold on to talent is also their downfall in European competitions. Last time a Dutch side made it to the champions league final was back in 1995 when Van Gaal guided Ajax to their fourth champions league title.
#6. French Ligue 1
Back in the 90’s French ligue 1 was the most unpredictable league in the world where they have 7 different champions in 9 years. But Olympic Lyon dominated 2000’s 7 consecutive titles from 2002 to 2008 than another short period of unpredictability lead to 4 different champions in 4 years. Than came the oil rich Paris Saint Germain who has been absolutely dominating French league having won 4 back to back titles and that has kind of lead the overall appeal to the league suffered. French clubs are still losing talented players to other t0 European leagues and only PSG has had some success in European football.
#5. Portuguese Liga
FC Porto and Benfica has long dominated Portugese football and they are also two of the most consistent teams in champions league. Quality of football is pretty similar to that of Spanish La liga but Portugese clubs has the same dilemma as Dutch league as they can’t afford to hold on to talented players for long. Just like La Liga, Portuguese league is dominated but two top teams and last time a team other than Benfica and Porto won the league was back in 2002 when Sporting pipped Porto for the title.
#4. Italian Serie A
A decade ago, Italian Serie A was by far the most exciting league in the world with so many top teams full of star players dominating european football. But than came that 2006 match fixing scandal which rocked the league and it has yet to fully recovered since than. Although Juventus has somehow recovered some of the value back by reaching 2015 final and poaching some great talented players but overall excitement, attendance, viewing figures and social media presence has gone downhill since 2006.
In 2015-16 season however Napoli took Juventus all the way down to the final few games for the title race while teams like Fiorentina, Inter Milan and Roma are slowly becoming more competitive and closing the gap to Juventus who has won the league for 5 successive seasons.
#3. German Bundesliga
Best average attendance, competitive games and overall excitement levels has increased in last decades. Bundesliga has also sold extensive tv rights deals worldwide giving more exposure to german clubs around the world. Bayern Munich is widely considered as the best team in the world alongside Barcelona. Dortmund has been consistantly good in Europe and teams like FC Schalke, Wolfsburg has added overall value to the league. Having said that Bayern Munich are head and shoulders above most of the clubs in the league and they would probably win the league even with their second string side.
#2. English Premier League
We can have a debate about top 10 leagues in the world but there is no argument which are the top 2 leagues. Premier League and Spanish La Liga are by far the best football leagues in the world and fans often compare the two and result differ from person to person. On excitement level, average attendance and competitive nature premier league tops the bill. 2015-16 is the best example of premier league’s competitive and intense nature where Leicester City are about to the win the league. Defending champions Chelsea struggling in 10th place. Any team can beat any other in the league. However the points where Premier League loses against La Liga are the quality of football and European success, Both critical points.
NBA of football ?: Having said that with all the top managers heading to premier league and the financial windfall about to open on premier league clubs from 2016-17 season we can only assume Premier league clubs are going to get stronger by the year and its not too long from now when Premier League will be the NBA of football. Leicester City has made a name and given themselves a platform to really excel at top level, tottenham has one of the best young squads in europe, West Ham are moving to new stadium and had a good season to build on from, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have loyal fan basis across the world. Man City are improving in European level and if you look at teams like Southampton and Everton they have solid competitive squads thats atleast 10 qualify teams who can beat anyone.
See Also: Premier League vs La Liga
Personally I would put Premier League as the best league in the world but right now its unfair to overlook spanish clubs success in europe but its not too long before Premier league medal weighs more than even champions league.
#1. Spanish La Liga
Barcelona vs Real Madrid and Messi vs Ronaldo has been the selling point for La Liga for the best part of last 10 years. They have the quality, star players, money and they carrying the league at the moment. But Atletico Madrid has really given La Liga a new dimension and join the top two while clubs like Sevilla and Villarreal has improved over the years. La Liga’s quality of football is often praised worldwide and they also had major impact in european competitions. The also signed a new equal tv rights deal which will help bottom clubs to get a fighting chance against the traditional top 4 or 5 in the league.
But La Liga do have a concern over plan B once Messi vs Ronaldo rivalry die down or the interest in Barcelona vs Real Madrid calms down a bit. Nobody cares about Villarreal or Sevilla outside spain, how they are going to keep hold of players when even bottom premier league clubs can outbid top european teams for talented players ?
I would love to hear your thoughts on the best leagues around the world, did I miss any top league ? let me know your thoughts by using the comments below.
La Liga is
by far the best League in Europe. To say the opposite is belittled envious
denial. When you look at the UEFA-ranking-points La Liga has 103.713 point.
Premier League only has 75.909 point – and is also behind Bundesliga with
79.891 point.
La Liga
leads Premier League by more points, than Premier League has achieved in 2015
and 2016 combined!!!
Moreover, in
the last 48 games with a Spanish team against a non-Spanish team, the Spanish
teams have won 45 out of 48 matches! This year La Liga has four teams in the
semifinals, and all the other Spanish teams Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao was
sent out by another Spanish team.
So, La Liga
is by far the best league in Europe, and Premier League is not even number two.
It is unbelievable that we are having this discussion at all. I will call it “belittled
envious denial” from people who do not want to see the facts and reality.
You got a fair point. But La Liga is not by far the best league, their top 5 teams are the most competitive in europe. No Doubt!. Do you know only 2 spanish sides have ever won the European Cup/Champions league ?
But Premier League as a package brings alot more to the table than all other top leagues combined.
Excitement, competitive nature, marketability, viewership, stadium attendance, money and most importantly unpredictability makes Premier League the most unique league and I am fairly sure Premier League will become “NBA of football” in next three years.
Alright. I correct myself – La Liga is team-by-team by far the strongest league. But when it comes to marketability, viewership, stadium attendance and most of all – Money! – then Premier League is perhaps “the best league” – although I prefer Bundesliga when it is a question of taste 😉
I am agree with totalSPORTEK. You can see any team beat any team in PL. in La Liga, only top 3 team enjoying bully other team. Look what happen to Pep, he struggling in PL now
the serie A of ecuador… where do you rank that?
Thats true
You are right, Spanish teams dominate in Europe while English teams preform poorly. The fact that a team that just came from second division (Leicester) wins your league doesn’t make it the best. If something, it shows how weak are the other teams in that league.
MLS # 10? Could it be that an American wrote this? Top 30 possibly. You only have to look south of the border to find a far better league right under your nose, as proven by the fact that Mexican teams always trash MLS teams in the CCL. Then you just keep on going south. Chile, Colombia and Uruguay are likely all better, and a there may be others in South America too. Then head across the Pacific to Japan and S.Korea, arguably the A-League too, then keep on going into Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, etc. etc. There are probably some African leagues that are better too. Unlike the author of this article I am not actually pretending to have sufficient first-hand knowledge to accurately assess the relative strengths of all these leagues, but they all have qualities that are lacking in the MLS. For starters, they have heritage. They have all been going for several decades, and in some cases over a century. Also,none of them function as a pensioners league for has-beens. Several of them have clubs that regularly compete in Champions League, and sometimes upset some of the top teams in the world. Can you name an MLS club that could do that? The thing of it is, I want to see soccer thrive in the USA. I want the league to grow in strength and popularity, and I want to see America developing quality players, but hype is not enough to achieve that. I understand that pumping money into a strong advertising campaign can go a long way toward achieving one’s goals in America, but it won’t work here. There is no substitute for growing a soccer culture over time, and there is no other way for MLS to start playing with the big boys. If the league is still prospering in 20 years, it will be time to start this discourse, but it just isn’t ready yet.
Your opinion may be fair but it seems the English used in this article is from someone who speaks it as a second language. The need for attacking others on some personal level when opinions differ is just not necessary.
I never did that, nor did I make any observation about the quality of prose. Do you not understand my English, or have you attached a response to the wrong thread?
Sure.. the MLS shouldn’t even appear in top twenty. Must be an American.
EPL should be the first.
La Liga: in the last 3 years
3 champions leagues (Real Madrid 2014, Barcelona 2015, Real Madrid 2016)
3 europa leagues (Sevilla 2014, Sevilla 2015, Sevilla 2016)
3 Ballon De ors (Ronaldo 2014, Messi 2015, Messi 2016)
3 Club World Cups (Real Madrid 2014, Barcelona 2015, Real Madrid 2016)
Premier League: in the last 3 years
0 champions leagues
0 europa leagues
0 ballon de ors
0 club world cups.
HOW ON EART IS THE BPL BETTER IDIOT!!!!
Champions in the last 10 years:
La Liga – 3
EPL – 4
Bundesliga – 4
MLS – 8
Maybe this competitiveness has something to do with the ranking?
Although you make several oversights (the use of “likely”, “may be”, “probably” is telling), the larger point is you’re only considering 2 factors (#3 & 5), whereas the author considers 6. MLS rates very highly on factors 2, 4 & 6, and pretty well on #1.
Who gives a toss for heritage in the stated criteria for ranking? It doesn’t factor in. “Pensioners” to you equals “star power” (#4) to the less informed American public, which translates to “excitement” (#1). (Besides which, MLS is rapidly moving on from this model.)
It’s totally valid to say the standard of play isn’t up to snuff yet, and point to lack of continental success. (In my mind, the authors certainly have to explain how MLS beat out LigaMX.) But MLS certainly isn’t lacking in any of the other 4 criteria.
You say “it just isn’t ready yet,” but I have to say, it comes off as though *you’re* simply not ready yet. If you truly want to see MLS succeed, as you claim, do some research – you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
La Liga has a 2 City and 3 team monopoly with only 6 other champions in 85 seasons… how can that EVER be the best football league in the world by any stretch of even the most biased or uninformed imagination?
The Premiership clearly ‘walks away’ with that prize… you only have to go to a local cafe on a Saturday in Burkino Faso, Papua New Guinea or even Outer Mongolia to find that out… seems to me only the author of this article and an FC Hollywood fan think they know better than everyone else around the world.
sure
La Liga: in the last 3 years
3 champions leagues (Real Madrid 2014, Barcelona 2015, Real Madrid 2016)
3 europa leagues (Sevilla 2014, Sevilla 2015, Sevilla 2016)
3 Ballon De ors (Ronaldo 2014, Messi 2015, Messi 2016)
3 Club World Cups (Real Madrid 2014, Barcelona 2015, Real Madrid 2016)
Premier League: in the last 3 years
0 champions leagues
0 europa leagues
0 ballon de ors
0 club world cups.
HOW ON EART IS THE BPL BETTER IDIOT!!!
What a dumb comment… read the crap article again… its not just about 1 criteria of success which you have listed like a child… its not just about those silly factors listed above either… best means most popular and EPL wins hands down DUMMKOPF!
where do you guys rank the SERIE A of Ecuador?
No way.. EPL should be first.
No Mexican league? Despite the fact that it’s worth twice that of the MLS and dominates CONCACAF, ridiculous!
what is the “quality of football” and how it is measured for the grades?
hello..la liga is the best league…bpl players all came where most of them from la liga..especially your chelsea diego costa..do you know real madrid 11 championship titles..from bpl??liverpool just 5times totasportek!!..the two planet’s best player ronaldo and messi playing where??la liga!!The richest club in the world??real madrid la liga!!..so next time dont simply put your own comment..its not sounds great
We are talking about leagues not individual teams. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona are the best teams in the world no doubt and La Liga is great in terms of technical style but only top 4-5 teams have quality players. Do you know ? no team from spain (apart from Madrid and Barcelona) has won the Champions League/European cup ?
6 of the top 10 richest clubs are in premier League.
Premier league TV rights deal worth more than Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A combined.
Combine shirt sponsorship deals of 20 premier league clubs (£230 million) is more than La Liga and Bundesliga clubs combined.
Premier league TV viewership numbers are unmatched. As a professional sport league “Premier League” is the most watched sport competition in the world (compare all sports not just football).
La Liga has had only 9 different league champions in 85 year history while premier league has had 24 different champions.
You know why most latin players prefer spain/portugal or even Italy ? because of language barrier. Specially at the start of their careers.
La liga teams are dominating Europe at the moment just like English teams did like 10 years ago or Italians did it throughout 1990s and early 2000s. Its a cycle and recent trend is moving towards premier league.
Yes and 6 titles from an era when hardly anyone entered the CL!
The Ronaldo and Bale that you always boast of,from which league did you buy them.Infact, what significant impact has Diego Costa had on the epl.Most of the stars in de la liga came from de epl,like Bale,Ronaldo,Nasri,Nani,Van Nisterooy,Beckham,etc
La liga may be technically best right now but real, barca apart it is dull and once you get past the top 6 teams the standard is like the English 2nd tier. If the EPL can handle it’s issues of too much money invested on too many average foreign players rather than grassroots and a greater focus on non-EPL matches (like the CL) the EPL will dominate for decades due to the excitement and money available.
MLS IS THE BEST!! We are just younger than the European Super teams, but just like anything else in the history of our existence, AMERICANS will eventually dominate the world of “football” as you tippy toeing euoropean sissy sum bitchs call it, we calls it SOCCER!! USA USA USA USA!!
Joke of the year
La liga and is more aggressive and exciting for sure! But la liga = Barcelona or Real Madrid where as BPL has become more like a drama, the competition is between the top 5-6 teams and the point difference is little between them and that’s what makes it more interesting. You cannot predict BPL! Look what happened with Leicester city!! Mls is a nothing but a joke, i don’t understand how it is in the top 10,I’d rather put the Scottish League on that position
LOSER. This a ranking of leagues not national teams. It is obvious that you don’t know anything about Football(soccer). Your team lost three times in the Copa America 2-0 vs Colombia, 4-0 vs Argentina, and 1-0 vs Colombia. Didn’t your team lose to dos a uno vs Mexico on home soil? Didn’t your team lose 4-0 vs Costa Rica. Isn’t your team in the last position of the weakest world cup qualifier?
MLS has never even won a CONCACAF Champions League. Even the Costa Rican teams destroy the American teams. MLS= Retirement League
Pura Vida
No way MLS should even be on this list.
uhmmmm, he is right.
La Liga? ooh it’s surely super league in the world ?
TL;DR: MLS is ranked too high! I don’t watch it, don’t know about other leagues, and don’t understand soccer. But I’m still upset!
The larger barrier to MLS success than that, is MLS clubs are expected to compete when they’re just coming off their offseason, while LigaMX clubs are in midseason form.
Not saying MLS clubs are better – they’re not yet. But neither is CCL an equitable yardstick.
Actually it kinda is. Think about it. More and more Liga MX teams are fielding first team players in the CCL and when they play in away from Mexico they don’t do as well. MLS teams regularly are making it further and shooting for championships.
The fact that Liga MX teams actually have to try shows a marked improvement in MLS. I would say the fact that MLS teams have a fairly low salary cap (soft as it may be) and are able to do what they do is actually fairly telling.
Right now you have a Canadian and American MLS team in the Semi Finals. Canadian teams regular go deep and a MLS team has played in the finals twice since it became the CCL. (RSL and Montreal)
So in many ways it is a bit of a yardstick. Just not the only one.
TV, Revenue, Attendance and DP age are also good qualifiers. TV numbers are slowly (very slowly) growing, Revenue is consistently growing. Attendance is growing slightly (but that has a lot to do with expansions in both teams and stadiums) and avg DP age is going down while the number of DPs in the League is increasing. (48 with an average age under 28) Plus the addition of other ways to bring in more expensive players with cap softening rules like TAM
Sadly I think most people don’t realize that MLS has gone through a bit of a transformation in the last 10 years. The best teams in the League in 2007 would barely be able to compete today. They would be bottom of the table with a significant gap.
Should it be in top 10 I don’t know, but MLS is doing pretty well.
You make a good case that MLS is improving compared to LigaMX, which I don’t dispute. My narrow point is CCL can’t be considered an equitable yardstick, due to the scheduling. (Midseason fixtures for both leagues is the only way to make it equitable.) Any improvements MLS teams have made in CCL performance are that much more impressive due to this disadvantage.
What a load of rubbish and envy.
Excitement, competitive nature, marketability, viewership, attendance, money, and unpredictability are standards (most of them subjective) that EPL fans use. This is because they are incapable of facing the fact that, even with massive amounts of money poured into it, EPL’s results are – compared to other top European leagues – way below the expectation. You should be ashamed, not proud of wasting so much money.
And even if we leave the financial standards aside, an unknown 3rd tier Moroccan league in which all teams end up with more or less same number of points and the winner changes every year may well be the best league in the world because it is exciting, competitive and unpredictable. Ridiculous.
As 2016-17 season draws to an end, only one team from the EPL reached to quarter-finals in the Champions. There is no sign of the promised upcoming EPL prowess.
At the end of the day, results are what matters. La Liga is the best one by far, followed by the Bundesliga. Then – way below – is maybe the EPL, although followed closely by the Serie A and Ligue 1 (who, as opposed to the EPL, is indeed showing upcoming power).
As the saying goes “do not throw pearls to pigs” The pig, in this case, is not a southern European country but the EPL.
la lila rules de world
gud evnin chatters, i bliv dat d best way to compare 2 ligs is by using the things dat ar associatd wt futbal nd nt those things dat ar outsid futbal. fifa has sed litle of dem but let me tak u foda.
1. greatest players of all tym hav playd in laliga nd nt premiershp. eg stefano of argntina/madrid, maradona(baca), delima/chris ronaldo(baca,madrd)
dinho(baca), messiful(baca), kaka, rivaldo etc
2. laliga has produsd d highest worldbest players
3. they hav won d highest nomba of uefa/europa league
4. laliga has bin corent in eufa league for d past 7 seasons nd at least 3 of their teams mak up to quarter finals nd upward.
5. u can easily predict first 4 in premier but u cant predict first 4 in laliga, dat shows dat it,s more compititiv dan premier.
6. they hav d only match dat can sit d whole world in one place, i.e barca vs madrid
7. premiershp plays futbal but laliga plays soccer, see, futbal is jst d round leather but soccer is d game itself. also, things like marketability, fame, highest paid etc are nt parts of real soccer but can only b associated wt futbal.
Let me giv u an instance, how can u compare 2 briliant students in a class? Is it by their popularity in school or by d compititions and trophies they have won? Is it by the numba of frends they have or by the position in their report card for d last four yrs? so how du u jurge btw premier nd liga? think very well guys.