La Liga Is Better Than the Premier League, Really!

La Liga and the English Premier League have battled against each other via pundits and football lovers across the world to see whose league is the best.

The debate continued midway through last season and hit it's peak when Sky Sports News featured a live debate between two of it's pundits, ex Arsenal man Ray Parlour arguing the toss for the Premier League and Spanish reporter Guillem Balague representing La Liga.

Both men where fervent in their praise and defence of their respective leagues, but it was as clear then as it is now that the Spanish league is the dominant force in Europe.

Fast-forward eight months. The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has quantified and proved what many have known for the past few seasons.

Their methodology has placed La Liga at the top of the world charts for the first time as well as a marked EPL decline in performance over the past few months. The full criteria and results can be viewed on the IFFHS website .

La Liga boasts the best players on the planet, a better style of play (unless you like people running around a field, impersonating headless fowl as they kick each other), and a freedom that the Premiership of ten plus years once had, but has since lost.

As a result, it has become really hard for me personally to get excited about the up coming English season.

Money rules the game and the fear of losing precious points has scared the chairmen, which in turn, has had a chilling effect throughout the rest of the club. This fear of being relegated/not qualifying for Europe/not being in the top four has stifled play.

Do you think we would see stale defensive systems if every team was guaranteed £100 million regardless of where they finished?

Imaginary 4-3-3 formations on Super Sunday's fool some watchers into thinking they're in for an exciting match up.

“Ooh look, Villa and Sunderland are lining up 4-3-3, should see loads of action” only to find 4-5-1 being deployed as soon as the first whistle sounds.

Not the case down in sunny beautiful Spain, oh no. 4-5-1 is deployed by many teams in Spain but the contrasting attacking mindset is refreshing. Build up play consists of more than five passes, a punt up field and a 60 yard chase. Players are not afraid to get men into the box or counter attack.

True, at least for now, criticism from staunch EPL fans is that only two teams can win the league.

But what beautiful teams they are to watch.

Maybe even two of the greatest club squads ever assembled? I'm reaching a bit , I know, but there is certainly no question that the current Barcelona team is one of the best in the last 30 years.

Many people were happy to see Inter Milan defeat Barcelona in the Champion's League. They should be ashamed of themselves. Barcelona didn't play well, but Inter's tactics, effective as they may have been, were shameful and rightly described as anti-football.

If two teams were to play like Inter did in the second leg, who would win the game? Who would have the ball?

Next season José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola will do battle to see who has the best team over 60+ games. Each team will fight on all fronts, no game taken lightly, especially after the record breaking seasons both teams have had last time around.

I, and many more fans, will look forward to El Clásico next season. And maybe even a Champions League final between them both at Wembley.

For the foreseeable future my energy and focus will be on La Liga, and I urge all of you to do the same. Really, who every weekend doesn't want to see Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Messi, Forlan, Aguero, Javi Martinez, Daniel Alves, Navas, Juan Mata, Banega, Higuain, Sergio Ramos, David Villa, Iker Casillas, Xabi Alonso, Iniesta, Pedro, Kaka...