With English teams failing to reach the finals of the Champion’s League last two seasons and English teams not doing particularly well on the European stage, we wonder whether the English game is not at par with other top Leagues in Europe. The thrashing that the Chelsea got to Athletico Madrid in the Champion’s League Semi-Finals, opened our thoughts to some questions. Is the Spanish game too quick for the English teams? We have teams the likes of Arsenal with their fast paced attacking football which works so well in the EPL but rarely seem to reach the last four in the Champion’s League. So are these the indicators to the supremacy of a particular league?
Head-to-head:
Let’s take individual teams out of the equation and compare them on a common ground – the Champions League. Spanish teams have won 14; English teams have won 12, Spanish teams finishing as runners up 10 times as opposed to 7 by the English. But looking deeper into the numbers, we see that only 2 Spanish teams have won the honour while 5 different English teams have. This shows that there is a greater variety in the EPL as compared to La Liga. The difference in points of the top two teams in Spain and the closeness in finish of the top 5 or sometimes 6 in the EPL, suggests monopoly in the Spanish game. Spain boasts of a passing game coupled with fast counter attacking football, while England believes in a strategic and more planning based game.
Individual glory:
When we look at the people in the Leagues, we see that Ronaldo won the player of the year once in 2008 while playing for Manchester United. Other than this, there has never been a player winning the award (or Ballon d’Or as it is now) while playing for a team in the EPL. Whereas the Spanish League has hosted a number of players and awards for the player of the year – Messi, Cannavaro and Ronaldinho when in Barcelona, Zidane, Figo and Ronaldo while in Real Madrid.
Financial Figures:
The EPL is the largest revenue generating league, while the Spanish league comes in at third (after the Bundesliga). Barcelona and Madrid together alone generate about 50% of La Liga’s revenue, while in England, the revenue spread is much more healthily divided over the top 9 -10 teams. Transfer spending crossing £100Mn and salaries crossing the £4 Mn mark, are evenly matched for top teams in both leagues.
Decision?
How can they be judged - is it statistics, or the attractiveness of the game, the number of goals scored, the creativity, the strategy, the people the Leagues attract, the revenues generated? Well, there is a list of criteria that come into the equation, and the performance of a team on a certain day is no basis for passing these judgments. So maybe we could come up with a way, of an analytical hierarchy, for qualifying the leagues. But till then, this will remain a hanging, unanswered question……
This Video might be old, but we felt it truly brings out the differences in styles of both Leagues
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