Most Powerful European Football (Soccer) Leagues
What league has Europe's most greatest Football teams?Best league in the world. You can see teams like Watford beating Arsenal or City losing to Aston Villa. This league puts strength and pace at the core of its competition. Also, you never know who is going to win the league, unlike La Liga with Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Atletico Madrid. Bundesliga is okay, but the Premier League is another level ahead.
The home country of football has the most professional clubs in the world, and its first division, the Premier League, has names like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool.
With two of the most dominating teams in the entire football world, which have a classic face-off, La Liga breaks records every year. Only La Liga players have won the Ballon d'Or since 2008 (Ronaldo with Manchester United), clearly stating that this league is the most dominant on the planet. Both Merengues and Cules have won 16 Champions League titles. This clearly means that this duopoly (or whatever it is called) is stronger than all the Premier League teams. We have all seen that these teams don't ever lose when they face the Bavarians or any Premier League teams.
You can't go past Serie A. With the likes of Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma, and SS Lazio, it's got to be the best league!
The league with teams like AC Milan, Juventus Torino, Internazionale Milano, Fiorentina, and AS Roma is considered the most powerful in the world.
Aside from a poor few years this past decade, Serie A should be at least in the top three.
For a moment, I thought that maybe the Premier League is better than Bundesliga. But La Liga? Definitely not. Bundesliga has much more competition than La Liga. Added to that, Bundesliga teams have a better average success rate in European competitions according to statistics. Hands down, deserving at least second.
This has got to be the second-greatest league behind the Premier League. I would much rather watch any random game from the Bundesliga than from La Liga. The Spanish league is a league of show ponies. This is a league for decent football.
Guys, seriously. Paris and Monaco are the biggest spenders worldwide, with players like Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Thiago Silva, Falcao, Pastore, Lucas Moura, Moutinho, Verratti, etc. Paris has one C2 cup and one final, and several Champions League semi-finals. It was in the quarter-finals last year. Monaco has one Champions League final a few years ago and several semi-finals too.
Marseille represents one Champions League win, one final, and several semi-finals. It also has two UEFA Cup finals, 10 championships, and 10 cups. It dominated Europe's football during the 90s along with Milan AC. And it was again in Champions League quarter-finals only two years ago. It might be one of the hottest publics in Europe too.
Lyon won seven times in a row in Ligue 1 and reached Champions League quarter-finals five times in a row these past years!
If you add Bordeaux, which was in Champions League quarter-finals three years ago, Lille, which was in the last 16 also three years ago, and mythical clubs like Saint-Etienne and Reims, which both reached the Champions League finals several times, Ligue 1 might not be the greatest championship in Europe, but it's seriously not far from being it! In my opinion:
1. Premier League
2. La Liga
3. Bundesliga
4. Ligue 1
5. Serie A
6. Liga Sagres
And forget about the rest. Eredivisie was good 30 years ago and Superliga is not worth it. And I don't even mention Nantes or Lens.
A very underrated league. The Turkish Super League is the fifth wealthiest league in the world. It has produced some wonderful homegrown talent, as well as being one of the pioneers of introducing some fantastic African players to the Turkish league and, consequently, on to some of the other major leagues of Europe.
Galatasaray are the royalty of Turkish football, with a proud history in various other sports too, such as basketball, swimming, and much more. Fenerbahce is thought of as the people's team and is probably the wealthiest Turkish football club. There is also one other Istanbul giant, namely Besiktas. In the shadows of their bigger city rivals, they are nevertheless able to mix it up once in a while with the bigger boys. There are lots of medium-sized teams too, such as Trabzonspor, etc. All in all, as regards standards of stadiums, training facilities, expertise of personnel, etc., well, the Turkish Super League is more than equal to the best in the world.
Let's not forget the achievements of the national football team and, in my opinion, one of the best-ever club and national coaches in the world without a shadow of a doubt, Fatih Terim.
Statistically, the 5th best league in Europe. There are always 3 contenders for the title, even though the rest have only a slim chance. On the international stage, we are rather successful, also taking into account that we don't have rich clubs like the other leagues.
Porto: 2 Champions League winners, 2 Europa League winners and 1-time runner-up, 1 UEFA Super Cup winner and 3-time runner-up, 2 International Cups.
Benfica: 2 Champions League winners and 5-time runner-up, 3-time Europa League runner-up.
Sporting: 1 Europa League winner and 1-time runner-up.
Special mention to Braga: 1-time Europa League runner-up.
All of these teams and others have also participated in countless semi-finals as well. In particular, these 4 clubs are very competitive internationally, more so than the French league can say. They only have PSG and Monaco now.
Instead of big clubs at the moment who buy every player, they create talent themselves. Ajax was the best club in the world before every club started spending so much money. Even 6 times a club from the Eredivisie won the Champions League!
Laudrup, Cruyff, Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie, Van der Vaart, Ronaldo, Romario, Ibrahimovic, Afellay, Van der Sar, Farfan, Makaay, Van Basten, Gullit, Huntelaar, and so on have all played in the Eredivisie. Who has played in Romania?
Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV - everyone who likes the game knows these three clubs!
The league, with small attendance, but in recent years, their clubs are producing great results in European competitions. With better results in Europe, and without corruption and nationalism, Serbian Super League could be in the top 12, if not top 10. With great teams like Red Star, Partizan, and the new team that is producing great results in the league with great potentials, Radnicki Nis. The only thing that this league needs is money and no corruption. That would be perfect.
Red Star Belgrade, 1991 European champion... enough said!
This league is a victim of the success of the EPL. Money launderers, the so-called most successful club in the world, have never won the major European trophy and were liquidated in 2012. The Scottish football league, with a newcomer director on board, decided they could keep titles won, even those where players were improperly registered for ten years. It's felt to be a corrupt association not fit for purpose.
The atmosphere is real in Scottish stadiums, with so many ecstatic fans ready to cheer their beloved teams.
The Newcomers
Valletta beat Juventus in 2008. Birkirkara held West Ham 1-0 for 120 minutes (due to a 1-1 aggregate). The league was decided in the final two weeks in 2010 and on the final matchday four times in the past seven years. Always competitive!
After the leagues of Spain, Germany, Italy, and England, by far one of the best leagues of Europe. A big candidate to be called the best of the rest.
A very underrated league. The two big rivals are Steaua Bucharest and Dinamo.
It should be in the top 9 in the league order. Good fans and stadiums.
Steaua Bucharest, one of the best champions of the European leagues!
Come on, Steaua Bucharest and Kolozsvar!
It has its problems, but despite all of them, it's a pretty good league. It has historical teams, for example, AEK Athens, Olympiakos, PAOK, and more. Some of them participate in European competitions.
One of the best leagues in Europe despite the economic problems. There are a lot of good teams: Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, PAOK, AEK, Aris.
Underrated league. Great up-and-coming talent from Belgian youngsters, Africans, and some Eastern Europeans.
A lot of shocks, high-scoring matches, and teams going from the bottom to the top.
Come on, 13th? The Ukrainian league has amazing clubs that appear in the Champions League a lot, such as Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar, and Dnipro.
Ranked the 8th best league in Europe, Ukraine gives us such wonderful clubs as Shakhtar (winner of the Europa League in 2009), Dynamo Kyiv (3-time Champions League semi-finalist), Dnipro (2-time Europa League finalist), and Metalist Kharkiv (Europa League finalist).
The Croatian league has great clubs with bigger success than the Serbian league. I respect the Serbian league, but the Croatian is better.
Beersheba, Pot 4 team, beats Inter Milan, ties Southampton, and makes it out of the group. Who thought that? Also...
5 times since 2000, Israeli teams have made it to the Champions League group stages.
5 teams made it to the Europa League group stages.
3 times reached the round of 32 in the Europa League.
Better than Austria.
The atmosphere and the passion - it's like a baby Premier League.
With 40-time Champions League winners Gillingham F.C. and World Club Cup winners AFC Wimbledon.
Wow, has no one ever heard of Bradford City? League 2 deserves a spot here, undoubtedly.