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Best league in the world?

European Football
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The Premier League is crowing and has every right to do so.

All four Premiership clubs topped their Champions League group, and the chances of the big pot coming to England must surely be pretty good.

Does this prove the Premiership is the cock-of-the-walk as the strongest league in the world, or is it too early to count chickens?

To stretch the domestic fowl metaphor almost to snapping point, could the chickens could be coming home to roost to justify the vast amounts of money splashed out by Premiership clubs seeking success?

The Premiership is the goose laying all the golden eggs. It is now the richest league in the world, wallowing in cash from thumping great television deals.

Sheikh Maktoum is the latest to apply to join an ever-growing club of foreign zillionaires wanting to run English clubs as he attempts to buy Liverpool.

It's all good, surely, isn't it?

Okay, other countries have more than one representative going into the various pots for a knockout stage draw which will keep England's quartet apart.

But is any challenge as strong as the English one?

Once the crowned head of the European game, Italian football is a fading beauty, attempting to powder over the blemishes of corruption and scandal.

Of the Italian trio, only AC Milan topped their group, with Inter and Roma coming through groups which were hardly punishing tests.

There is an irony lurking there somewhere that as Italy laud it as world champions, the country's domestic football is on a downward spiral.

It wasn't all that long ago that Serie A was the world's strongest league, and the fears expressed then that the Stranieri playing in Italy would affect the national team are being echoed by those branded as nay-sayers in the Premiership.

Of the three Spanish clubs in the knock-out stages, you might not have expected Valencia to be the only table-toppers.

Spain's Primera Liga probably now sits in second spot behind the Premiership, having elbowed Serie A into third place.

Real Madrid were always going to qualify from their group, but would they have expected to have been beaten so soundly into second place by Lyon?

Real are still living on past reputation which Fabio Capello is doing his best to restore.

Barcelona certainly did not display the pedigree expected of holders as they limped past Werder Bremen into second place in Group A.

France's Championnat has been a one-horse race for five years. No surprise that Lyon qualified, but at least they've got Lille for company as they proved the best of the rest of a pretty ordinary bunch behind Milan in group H.

Porto are Portugal's only representative, while PSV shows that their money talks loudest in Dutch football.

Ajax and Feyenoord once kept European football firmly under the clog in the days Dutch clubs could keep their players, but without the financial clout that Philips-backed PSV enjoy, they are second-class citizens, confined to Uefa Cup action.

German football plays to big crowds as the love-in from the World Cup continues, but even mighty Bayern lack the financial muscle to stop their best players being tempted away.

We haven't forgotten Celtic. The first British winners of Europe's top club prize deservedly take their place in the knock-out draw.

But the weak competition they face on a weekly basis is hardly the ideal preparation to steel them to face Europe's best.

The line-up of the usual suspects for the knockout stage does underline that the power and clout in European football still remains in the west.

Despite the influx of oligarch cash in Russian football, neither of the Moscow clubs qualified. Former European Champions Steaua Bucharest were just happy to be in the group stages, and the Greek clubs flattered to deceive.

If it is true there is safety in numbers, then England's four-pronged attack will surely fork the big prize, and bring it back to Blighty?

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comment by seattle92 (U5340999)

posted Dec 17, 2006

comment by raheem786
posted Yesterday

The heavyweights of football

English football has ..
Liverpool,Chelsea,Arsnel,Man U

Spanish football has..
Barcelona Real Madrid

Italain football has..
Ac Milan

Germany football has..
Bayern munich

and inter milans team is the same quality as middlesbrough

-----------------

One of the stupidest things i've ever saw on 606

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comment by THE DON(Off to Milan!) (U1651874)

posted Dec 17, 2006

Agreed Seattle 92..


If you played each team against its equal standing team in the respective leagues I think you would find there is far more quality through out The Dutch, German, Spnish and Italian Leagues, team for team.

Anyone who think AC Milan are the only players in European or World football is obviously an idiot too!

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comment by THE DON(Off to Milan!) (U1651874)

posted Dec 17, 2006

Agreed Seattle 92..


If you played each team against its equal standing team in the respective leagues I think you would find there is far more quality through out The Dutch, German, Spnish and Italian Leagues, team for team.

Anyone who think AC Mila are the only players in European or World football is obviously an idiot too!

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comment by futbolcritic (U6846093)

posted Dec 17, 2006

The defination of best is rewriten as Internacional, winner of copa Libertadores beaten Barcelona, the European champion and this is the second time around copa Libertadores winner beaten European champion. How is best defined if we have not really followed football league of the rest of the world outside Europe?

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comment by Ritser (U6908170)

posted Dec 17, 2006

Apart from the fact I don't agree that the premier league is the best of Europe,this has to be the worst article I ever read on the BBC sport site.

Barca were in a though group and had several players injured, but still outplayed Werdrem Bremen at home and earned more against Chelsea. Limped into the next round?

PSV do not swim in Phillips-money,in fact they are relatively poor to European top teams standards and not even the richest club in Holland. They earn their succes thanks to a good scouting system and partnerships with teams in South-America and with Chelsea.

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comment by SubhankarMondal (U3451686)

posted Dec 18, 2006

The la liga is the best domestic league in the world. the apertura and the clasura championship in Argentine come in a close second and the Serie A and the Premiership battle it out for the third place. the popularity ought not be counted for judging which league is the best:the premiership is the most watched league in the world no doubt but money is there floating like gossamer in England and so the coverage is great. Had the la liga been covered in HD too,then of course the Premira Liga would have been there sitting pretty comfortably at the top.

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comment by Signori (U2743601)

posted Dec 18, 2006

seattle92

thats the most rediculous post ever!

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comment by SuperPoolMike13 (U6744240)

posted Dec 19, 2006

Inter Milan and Middlesbrough level par? I don't think so! Inter are one of the best teams in world football at the moment, but they underperform!

Best league in the world? Who knows? Don't claim you know if you going to say the Apertura or Clasura! It's the same league, just in 2 parts! Plus, there are only 2 team that can even compete in that league! Boca and River! Thats like saying the MLS is the best league in the world! It's not as the quality isn't there but when the standard of football in the US improves, because of the way it is run with all teams on a level playing feild, it could be!

Spanish football has 3 teams that are good enough to compete in a super league, the Prem has four, Germany has maybe 2, France one, Italy 2, Brazil has maybe 2 or 3, the argies have 2, portgual have maybe 3, russia has 1 scotland has 1 maybe 2. The fact is that European football has the highest quality leagues because of the money invested in them! The Primera Liga gets just as much as the Premiership, so don't even bother saying that's not the case! Real just signed the biggest TV Sponsoship deal ever with mediapro, a catalan company, so just as much is being invested in Spanish football, if not more!

1.1 billion Euros isn't much is it?

the Italian league is high quality because they tend to use there own players rather than bringin in too many foreign players, which is the way the Prem and Primera are going, watching EPL or Spanish football is like watching the European elite play the rest of the world elite!

It's not right!

Thanks

Mike

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comment by tottino (U4563909)

posted Dec 19, 2006

I think the English league IS the best in the world, and I-ll tell you all why... look at the UEFA cup. That's where you see a league's quality... where clubs like Blackburn and Newcastle can win their groups easily whilst struggling in their domestic leagues while Palermo fail to qualify despite lying 3rd in Italy sums it up for me... England's league has more strength in depth, and although they may leave European football empty-handed (there isn't much to choose from Man U, Chelsea, Barca, Valencia, Lyon, Roma, and Inter... the contenders for the cup), they have undoubtedly the best league in the world at the moment...

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comment by SuperPoolMike13 (U6744240)

posted Dec 21, 2006

I'm sorry I've just seen the funniest thing in this thread! Roma, one of the favourites for the champions league title, ahead of AC Milan!!! I'm sorry and I can tell you are probably a Roma fan, but they are one of the underdogs, along with Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Lille, PSV, Bayern, Inter, Celtic, Porto... The only teams who have enough quality to compete really are Man Utd, Chelsea, Barcelona, Lyon and AC Milan... An I'm a Liverpool fan! I'm hoping we win, I know if we can hold Barca at the Nou Camp, we have a chance, but getting past them will be the hardest challenge!!!

Thanks

Mike

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