The work here at ATD headquarters never stops.
Our staff of trained monkeys works around the clock pounding away at the keys of their battered Smith Coronas until they produce something that we consider “site worthy.” When this happens, we post it immediately and take full credit for it with no mention of our simian hirelings. For those of you worried that there might be some animal cruelty involved here, I assure you this is not the case. Each monkey is provided with an unlimited supply of Pall Malls, bananas, a set of cymbals, and a crisply-pressed bellhop uniform and cap. There is also an exercise area where they may ride their tricycles during their breaks. We are nothing, if not a progressive organization.
Here then, our highly unscientific and underinformed rankings of the world’s football leagues- the top twenty plus ties.
The Official ATD World Soccer League Rankings
1. English Premier League 78
La Liga (Spain) 78
3. Bundesliga 1 (Germany) 70
Serie A (Italy) 70
5. Ligue 1 (France) 63
6. Campeonato Brasileiro Série A 57
7. Eredivisie (Netherlands) 51
8. Argentine Primera Division 49
9. Portuguese SuperLiga 44
Russian Premier League 44
11. Ukrainian Premier League 38
12. Turkish Super League 37
13. Scottish Premier League 28
14. Super League Greece 27
15. Primera Division (Mexico) 24
16. Coca-Cola Championship (Eng.) 20
17. Belgian Jupiler League 9
18. Major League Soccer (US) 8
19. Swiss Super League 7
20. Danish Superliga 6
J. League (Japan) 6
Also receiving votes: Romanian Liga 1, A-League (Australia), Segunda Division (Spain), Serie B (Italy), Austrian Bundesliga, Primera Division (Chile), Primera A (Ecuador), and Primera Division (Uruguay).
The staff of ATD is in complete agreement about which are the two best leagues in the world, with the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga each receiving two first place and two second place votes. The only question raised by the consensus reach by the voters is, “If these two leagues are clearly better than the rest and generally equal to each other, why does all the transfer movement take place in only one direction- from Spain to Enlgand?”
There was also agreement about the next two leagues on the list with Germany’s Bundesliga 1 and Italy’s Serie A each receiving two third place and two fourth place votes. While not considered as exceptional as the English and Spanish leagues, the voters clearly found these two leagues to be far superior to the remaining leagues on the list, most notably the other “major” European league, France’s Ligue 1.
The first non-European league to impress the staff was the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. It must be said, however, that this ranking is more a result of the cumulative effect of having so many quality teams and players rather than a league which is well and consistently known for being among the best. This is a nice way of saying that league and cup football in Brazil is a frightening mess. Competitions overlap, qualification standards are vague, rules are changed mid-season/cup, and “winners” and “losers” are often off the pitch if powerful clubs or personages are not happy with what was decided on the pitch. Argentina’s Primera Division was the only other South American league to make the top twenty, though the leagues of several other South American countries did receive votes. Argentina’s place, like Brazil’s, appears to be based as much upon the players it produces as on the year-to-year quality of the league, i.e, it must be a good league if it keeps producing players like Messi, Tevez, etc.
Sandwiched in between the two South American leagues is the Dutch Eredivisie. If there is any league on this list that “punches above its weight,” this is the league. Three Dutch teams have won the European Cup/Champions League- only the EPL’s four teams has bettered this mark. In terms of total victories (factoring in clubs with multiple wins), the Eredivisie has won as many as the Bundesliga, and only trails La Liga, Serie A, and the EPL.
The next four leagues- Portugal’s SuperLiga, Russia and Ukraine’s Premier Leagues, and the Turkish Super League- are best described as leagues which consistently produce 3-5 excellent teams each, one or two of which invariably last deep into one of the major European competitions. This differentiates them from the Scottish Premier League and Super League Greece, each of which has 2-3 excellent teams, one of which occasionally makes some noise in European competition.
Next is the only “non-top flight” league to make the list, England’s Coca-Cola Championship. While several other second tier leagues received votes, England’s was the only one to be named on the ballots of all four voters. There are likely two reasons for this, the first being our familiarity with the teams in players in this league. At least half the teams in the league have been in the EPL within the last decade and we’ve been exposed to many of the others through cup competitions. The second factor in rating this league as highly as we have could well be the fact that it is a “destination” league for many players outside of England. While these players would obviously prefer to play in the EPL, the Football League Championship is full of players from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even France and the Netherlands who see the league as a step up both in terms of pay and quality.
Finally, there is a significant drop down to the final five leagues, most of which were mentioned on only one or two ballots, and in several cases, only received a marginally greater number of votes than those that did not make the top twenty list. The themes here are leagues that produce one or two consistently good teams (Belgium), serve as “feeder leagues” to those ranked above them (Denmark, and Switzerland), or that play in relative isolation (MLS and the J. League), thus making it hard to gauge the quality of the league and forcing us to rely on transfer movement and the occasional international/region club competition to come to any conclusion about them.
All in all, given the small sample size, I think we’ve done well. The top leagues are what would be expected, and frankly, what they should be, and the bottom leagues (including those that didn’t quite make the list) are also no surprise to anyone watching the club level in those countries or their participation in international/regional competition. The arguments, as you might expect, are to be found more or less between numbers six and fifteen. Is the Greek league really that much worse than the Portuguese league, or the Russian league that much better than the Turkish league? It’s hard to say and it probably fluctuates quite a bit year to year. Feel free to use the comments to point out our obvious bias against your favorite league, to submit a ranked list of your own, or, if you must, compliment us on a job, well, done.
Fuse, I must stop reading your columns. I’m learning things.
About the monkeys? I thought you knew about the monkeys…
Of course I knew about the monkeys. I made their hats, remember?
No Columbian league? It’s arguably the 3rd best league in South America – maybe not enough to crack the top 20, but I would think that it could hang with Uruguay and Chile.
Of course, the top-level teams in Colombia don’t have the prestige of Colo Colo, Estudiantes, Defensor, or Nacional, but they are good teams.
/is aware that the saturation of the Dimayor on GolTV may have something to do with his opinion of Colombian futbol
I voted for Chile at I think 19 or 20, I was debating on Colombia but put Chile in primarily because of Colo Colo. The top 15 or so are pretty easy, but then you get into the lower tier and struggle to find the right league to put in the ranking. I really think that 10-15 leagues could be put into the last 5 pretty easily.
I think it should be noted that the only Englishman on staff voted for Spain as the overall top league. It’s mostly a bitter vote on my part, I want my home league to be tops, but right now, it’s hard to see it with Barca’s success this past season and the Bank of Madrid splashing the cash on every superstar with a pulse.
Also, the blurst of times.
I was the other Spain vote. My logic was that, while the top four are pretty even, I see the bottom of the Spanish league as being able to pretty much have their way with the bottom of the English league. It’s really less to do with Manchester United and Barcelona, more to do with Hull and Getafe.
I voted because of the exact opposite reason. While I agree that the bottom of England is probably worse than Spain, I’d give the middle of England the nod over the Middle of Spain. After the big two in Spain, you’ve got an assortment of teams in Sevilla, Atletico, Villarreal, etc that I think Villa, Spurs, etc could hang with just fine.
I chose England for the “transfer factor” most of the movement being from Spain to England. For what it’s worth, there’s- as far as I can tell- one Englishman playing in all of La Liga, Jermaine Pennant who just signed for Xaragoza.
Jermaine Pennant had the best opening line when he went there: “I wanted to play for a big club in Spain, but I went to Zaragoza.” They’re paying him an insane amount of cash to be there.