Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

How would you guys rank the soccer leagues of the world, from best to last, without knowing too much i would go with

premier league
spanish
italian
argentinian
german
dutch
mls

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

rank the leagues based on overall talent or on the top teams?

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Argentinian league doesn't have more talent than the Bundesliga

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

yeah I think the top 4 are definitely:
1. England
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Germany


I think the gap between 1 and 2 are very close if not even. However both of those leagues are somewhat much better than 3 and 4. An argument could be made for Germany currently being 3rd.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

^^^ pretty spot on. mls somewhere between 6-7.

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J-League is better than the MLS easily.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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mls somewhere between 6-7.

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Wow.... so wrong. off top of my head, not necessarily in order
England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Holland, France, Mexico, Portugal... that's 10 leagues higher then MLS. I know nothing about leagues in Asia either and I don't think its all that much of stretch to consider other South American leagues being > or equal to the MLS.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

1. Spain
2. England
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. France

Next tier has leagues from countries like Belgium, Scotland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Eastern European and Scandinavian countries. I honestly don't know about these last two groups except that they produce credible but not great teams in the UEFA Cup and Champions League. The type of teams nobody wants to play in the earlier rounds but that don't usually get deep.

The next tier down after that is going to have the MLS, middle eastern and East Asian leagues as well as some of the South American leagues like in Chile, Colombia and Uruguay.

Finally, you would have leagues in central America and the Caribbean as well as the other smaller leagues in Asia and I guess Africa.

I'm not considering lower tiers in any country. I don't think anybody knows enough to really say how the Portuguese second flight compares with the league in Romania or whatever.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

MLS is closer to 17th than 7th, although I think the gap after the top 6 or 7 to the 20th best league isn't a lot.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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rank the leagues based on overall talent or on the top teams?

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I think overall a good way to judge this would be to think about how well teams in the leagues would do if they switched with the corresponding team in the other league.

I think Manchester United and Chelsea would do as well or better than Real Madrid and Barcelona if they switched but I think after that I would expect most teams in Spain to do better than their corresponding team. That's why I put Spain higher than England. It's pretty close though.

I think Italy is a notch down for a similar reason.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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rank the leagues based on overall talent or on the top teams?

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I think overall a good way to judge this would be to think about how well teams in the leagues would do if they switched with the corresponding team in the other league.

I think Manchester United and Chelsea would do as well or better than Real Madrid and Barcelona if they switched but I think after that I would expect most teams in Spain to do better than their corresponding team. That's why I put Spain higher than England. It's pretty close though.

I think Italy is a notch down for a similar reason.

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You realize you're saying that Man U and Chelsea would have an easier time with tougher competition in Spain?

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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rank the leagues based on overall talent or on the top teams?

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I think overall a good way to judge this would be to think about how well teams in the leagues would do if they switched with the corresponding team in the other league.

I think Manchester United and Chelsea would do as well or better than Real Madrid and Barcelona if they switched but I think after that I would expect most teams in Spain to do better than their corresponding team. That's why I put Spain higher than England. It's pretty close though.

I think Italy is a notch down for a similar reason.

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You realize you're saying that Man U and Chelsea would have an easier time with tougher competition in Spain?

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Sorry if I wasn't clear.

I think Manchester United and Chelsea would do better than Real Madrid and Barcelona did last year with that same league. I think they would get fewer points than they did in England. Similarly, I think Real Madrid and Barcelona probably would have gotten more points against the Premier League competition than in Spain, but not as many as Man U and Chelsea got.

The main reason for this view is that I think the top teams in Spain have significantly bigger problems playing consistently.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

Jared, I don't think MLS is closer to 17th than 7th. Plenty of coaches in MLS say its Championship or lower lever Premiership talent. That tells me a lot.

If I had to rank:

1. EPL
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Bundesliga
5. Argentina
6. Dutch
7. MLS
8. France
9. Portugal
10. Someone.


MLS is much better than people say and the top 4 in Europe are so much better than the other leagues it isn't even funny.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

1. wnba
2. all soccer leagues

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

dat, I rank you below anything thats ever been born.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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dat, I rank you below anything thats ever been born.

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i rank u below soccer

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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Jared, I don't think MLS is closer to 17th than 7th. Plenty of coaches in MLS say its Championship or lower lever Premiership talent. That tells me a lot.


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I don't know a damn thing about professional soccer and the various leagues so can't comment on that.
But the fact that the coaches are saying this doesn't really tell you much at all imo.
Coaches in inferior leagues make exaggerated claims about the quality of play there all the time it seems.
They always tend to stretch it.

In college sports it was always the MAC is closer to Big 10 caliber play than most people think.
In minor-league baseball, independent leagues like the Northern League or Can-Am League will call the quality of play there "about AA level" when it was truly barely single-A level much of the time.
But 3 or 4 guys on each team had maybe 1 year of experience at AA so the because they had more than 1 player with skills to hack it up there even temporarily they would call it AA-ball even though it absolutely wasn't.


I would guess this is similar to the claims made by MLS coaches. Most teams have maybe a handful of players who could make it in Premiership without looking way over their heads. So they start to exaggerate the quality of play in the league in their own mind.
Do you really think MLS teams...and I mean FULL MLS rosters not just hand-picking an all-star team...could pass as a lower-level premiership team?

Again, I simply don't watch that much soccer and really don't know. But my hunch is that such claims by not-very-objective coaches just aren't that close to reality.

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I'd just like to point out the Bayern Munich is omg [censored] ridiculously loaded.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

Where does the LA Galaxy's performance against Pachuca place them?

I know that LA isn't exactly the cream of the MLS and they were able to hang in there through regulation. But wasn't the skill difference in this match pretty obvious?
Pachuca was blasting away almost all game long.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

The issue with MLS versus many smaller Euro leagues like Scotland is that they have 1 or 2 ridiculously good teams thanks to the UEFA money, and then a bunch of also-rans. Obv the best teams in basically any Euro league are going to be better than the best MLS teams, they can spend 20x more on players.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

EPL and La Liga are like dead even I think, 1 can top the other on any given weekend. And given the current [censored] in Italy and the fact that the Bundesliga is on the rise (OMG Bayern is off the charts ill) I think those two are also close at 3/4.

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MLS is better than people thinK imo

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I'd just like to point out that Barcelona is omg [censored] ridiculously loaded.

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And echoing JaredL's sentiment about the top Spanish teams playing consistently... [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

STOP DRAWING ON THE ROAD hAhsjakdhakjdhaskjfhaskjfhaskj

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

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I think Manchester United and Chelsea would do as well or better than Real Madrid and Barcelona if they switched but I think after that I would expect most teams in Spain to do better than their corresponding team. That's why I put Spain higher than England. It's pretty close though.

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As I said, its close enough that arguing is silly.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

1. Spain
2. England
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. France

Those I think are pretty obvious though the order of 1 and 2 can be debated endlessly.

Then I would suspect the Brazilian league with endless of great talent would follow and the Argentinian league probably isn't that far below.
A league that hasn't been mentioned that I think would be in the top 10, is the Turkish league which has some very rich and powerful teams able to buy lots of talent.
Rest of the top 10 I think would be between the Dutch, Portugese then the Greek league.
The Czech, Russian and Ukranian leagues I think are stronger than the scandinavian leagues at this point.
Belgium used to be pretty strong but these days are probably only just ahead of the scandinavian leagues.
The Scottish league I guess have one and a half good teams but the rest is pretty pathetic and I would definitely not rank it very high.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

thanks for the responses everyone but microbob. a couple of thuoghts, i watched a fair number of european agmes, and bolivian games then watched a MLS game and was shocked at how bad they are. bolivia losses to other S. American countries, but when theyplayed the US recently they won.

also i heard japan was a surprisngly good country. what would you guys say are some of the shittier leagues in the world that still are legitimte leagues that want players and pay money. in other words whats ag ood pplace for a person to try and begn playing soccer proesffionaly?

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

huh? When did Bolivian teams play MLS teams?

I feel pretty confident saying the top MLS teams are better than the top Mexican teams. The Mexican league is pretty good too.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

"thanks for the responses everyone but microbob."


ummm, wtf?

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the world
 

1. EPL
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Bundesliga
5. Argentina
6. Dutch
7. MLS
8. France
9. Portugal
10. Someone.

What exactly are you smoking? France at 8 is LOL and MLS at 7 is more than lol. 1-4 is obv good. France is easily the 5th best, and then Holland. Then Argentina, then Portugal, then Scotland, then Brazil, then basically it doesn't matter. But I still think that the leagues of the smaller Eastern European countries >> MLS. Also, I'd think that the Japanese leagues would come right after Brazil cause they seem to be good. MLS is probably worse then like the Saudi Arabia leagues. ThaSaltCracka, I think you're vastly overestimating the MLS.

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MLS isn't even the best league on our continent.
La Primera División del Futbol Mexicano whay above MLS. I can't [censored] watch MLS. I've tried its just too slow and boring

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

Seriously, even the best MLS players = crap in other leagues. Landon Donavon being the best player in the league is pretty pathetic.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

MLS is much better than you guys think. Steve McClaren even said it was like low Premiership stuff.

Also, Dempsey is going pretty good right now in England.

I actually think the Mexican league is very overrated. They have some good players, but really only Pachuca is good from there. Chivas and America are just big names.


edit: Fine, you can put France ahead of MLS. I could really care less since we are talking about the 7th and 8th best leagues.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

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Landon Donavon being the best player in the league is pretty pathetic.

[/ QUOTE ]He isn't even close to being the best player in the league.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

1. Spain
2. England
3. Germany
4. Italy (until Juventus fully recovers)
5. France
huge gap
6-10 (alphabetically): Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey
11-15 (alphabetically): Mexico, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine
16-20 (alphabetically): Belgium, Bulgaria, Chili, Czech Republic, Greece

MLS... not even nearly up there.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

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1. Spain
2. England
3. Germany
4. Italy (until Juventus fully recovers)
5. France
huge gap
6-10 (alphabetically): Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey
11-15 (alphabetically): Mexico, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine
16-20 (alphabetically): Belgium, Bulgaria, Chili, Czech Republic, Greece

MLS... not even nearly up there.

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German league better than Italian?? Please...
You compare Argentinean league with the turkish one?? what soccer do you watch?


1- Spanish
2- Premier League
3- Italian
4- Bundesligue
5- Argentinean
6- Dutch
7- France
8- Mexico
9- Portugal
10- Brazil

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

imo, the majority of MLS clubs would be fighting to avoid relegation in the top notch euro leagues. Most MLS clubs would be competitive for middle of the table spots in almost any non-England/Spain/Italy league. MLS clubs would have virtually no chance of finishing top of the table in most "2nd tier" domestic league (ie France, Argentina, Dutch, Portugal). The Top MLS clubs could compete for league championships in the bottom rung UEFA leagues and equivalents around the world.

The striking difference between MLS and every other top flight domestic league which I am at least somewhat familiar with is parity. MLS is run very differently. There are differences between the league system which MLS has and the club system which most international "leagues" follow. MLS will never have a superpower team like we see in various league throughout europe. MLS will also never, contraction aside, have a top flight team relegated to a lower division, its just the way the two systems are.

So I think its unfair to compare MLS to other leagues based on the quality of the top teams in the league since this inherently discounts the overall parity and talent in the league. The best players in the MLS aren't necessarily concentrated on the top team or two, unlike in England, Spain, and Italy.

I don't think its far fetched at all to say that MLS is on par with any non Brazil/Argentina league in the Americas including Mexico as well as on par with leagues like Denmark, Belgium, Turkey, Scotland, and Greece.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

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Seriously, even the best MLS players = crap in other leagues. Landon Donavon being the best player in the league is pretty pathetic.

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The Australian league MVP from last year is a merely a solid role player in MLS this year. The MVP from MFL last year is a top 5 player in MLS this year.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

My first post in this forum. NB, I work in the football (soccer) betting industry.

What we're actually ranking here is a little bit open ended. Are we ranking on competitiveness, entertainment value, etc? I'm going to consider several factors and rank overall. I also assume we are only considering the top division in each country, as I would rank the England second tier above many including USA and Scotland.

My rankings (perhaps controversial):
1. England
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. France
5. Germany
6. Portugal
7. Brazil
8. Netherlands
9. Argentina
10. Russia
11. Romania
12. Scotland
13. Mexico
14. Ukraine
15. Turkey
16. USA
17. Czech Republic
18. Uruguay
19. Australia
20. Japan

In recent times, the soccer industry has ranked Spain as top, though I give England the nod this year as clubs are spending massively (in some cases in excess of US$160M) due to a new increased TV rights deal.

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

doesnt mls teams usually pwn the regional competitions with mexican and central/south american clubs?

Re: Rank soccer Leagues of the worldMLS isn\'t even the best league on
 

MLS clubs pwn the concacaf nations except for mexico. I know that the mexican clubs have the edge, but am not sure what the full break down is in competetive action.

of course, we have to remember that the MLS was only created back in 96, so a better idea of how strong it'll actually be is in another 10-15 years or so. THings are improving, and not just getting becks. Something that has gone under the radar was the MLS signing Denilson. Granted, this isn't the Denilson that looked like he'd be rivaling Rivaldo in the brazilian midfield for years to come, but, he is still a massive notch above what the MLS has had, and he provides a great creative spark that has been lacking. It's nice to see the MLS finally starting to sign more flair players that can hopefully jump start the american style of play