Which Is the Best League in Europe: Serie A, La Liga, or the Premier League?

Since 1980, Spain has harboured five Champions League winning teams whilst Italy and England have each seen one of their clubs lift the trophy on seven occasions (although taking into account the ban on English clubs from European competition for five years during the late 1980’s, following the tragic incident in Belgium’s Heysel Stadium during the European Cup final of '85 involving Liverpool fans). The English league is now proving to be a dominating force in Europe once again, having had a representative in the final for the last four consecutive seasons including last year’s all-English final between Manchester United and Chelsea. For the last two years three English teams have reached the last four of the competition too. Italian success in the competition in recent years has very much been that of Milan’s.

The current supremacy of English clubs can most likely be directly linked to the staggering finances available to them. Annual revenue rankings produced by accountancy firm Deloitte list three English clubs in the top five, four in the top ten. Manchester United top the list with Arsenal and Liverpool sitting third and fourth respectively. Real Madrid and Barcelona are still the only teams to represent Spain whilst Italy has seen a fallout of teams in the last five years. Italian teams have consistently held at least three places in the top ten. Milan is an ever-present and this year they have been rejoined by Juventus who fell from grace and the list after the match-fixing scandal of 2006. However, Roma has dropped out, ironically along with Inter, Italy’s most successful club of recent times.

The figures produced by Deloitte of course are only based on the annual income of club earnings generated through ticket sales, merchandise and prize money and does not include the personal wealth of their respective owners. If that were the case, Roman Abramovich’s £10.2b fortune would put Chelsea top at the time of the report, but now even that has been surpassed by Man City’s new owners worth an estimated £14.4b. With this kind of wealth and the number of English clubs being taken over by overseas investors, Sacchi’s concern for the future of Italian football is understandable.

This however does not detract from the wealth of players attracted by clubs in Italy or Spain and the continuing success of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Milan in European competition, plus their ability to invest in top players is testament to the quality of their respective leagues. Premier League football is a physical game played at a frantic pace, particularly in comparison to their mainland counterparts. The continental game is arguably more technically adept. Tactics and formations are more diverse and astute in the peninsula, taking a more significant role in games and their outcomes. The success of the national teams in part reflects the respective countries differing styles and approaches to the game. Italy are World Champions, the Spanish are Champions of Europe and the England team are booed every time they play at Wembley.

Wealth, club success, technical aspects of the leagues, the number of world-class players in the league, their ability to attract talent to the country, the national team’s successes - all these factors have to be taken into account when comparing the leagues of Italy, Spain and England.

Each come out top in different areas and so it leads to the question,

Which is the best league in Europe?

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