Sooda Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Primera Liga reasserts pre-eminence European Footballby John S - BBC Sport 18 June 2007 In April, journalist Luis Martin in the Spanish newspaper El Pais claimed the Premier League had become the most competitive in Europe. Martin presented a powerful case, using evidence from a distinguished series of witnesses. There was Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who argued the presence of three English clubs in the Champions League made the Premier League the strongest in Europe. Next in the witness box was former Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque, who said: "I don't think right now there is a more spectacular team than Manchester United in the whole of Europe. "And I don't think Chelsea are a defensive team; they knocked Valencia out of the Champions League by attacking." Chelsea's former Spanish defender Albert Ferrer, Middlesbrough's ex-Spanish midfielder Gaizka Mendieta, Everton's Basque midfielder Mikel Arteta and former Real Madrid and Bolton star Fernando Hierro all stepped forward to provide evidence of the respective strengths of the Premier League. Powerful stuff, but they conveniently forgot one small point - how predictable the Premier League has become. True, United and Chelsea provided us with a modicum of interest last season but nothing as compelling as the entertainment served up by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Valencia in the Primera Liga run-in. Just how interesting is a league where only two teams compete for the title and where clubs turn up at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and are happy to rest players because they are expecting to lose? The same applies to clubs who go to Liverpool and Arsenal solely intent on putting 10 players behind the ball, hoping to escape with a draw. Over the last few years in England the relegation struggle has become more compelling than the race for the title. What does that tell you about the Premier League's competitiveness? On Sunday Real clinched the title with a 3-1 win over Real Mallorca, a scoreline that does not tell the real story of just how close Madrid came to throwing away the Spanish crown. Mallorca, who finished this season in 12th place, had several key players missing but still dominated the first half, had hit the post before they took the lead and missed a gilt-edged chance after the break that would have put them 2-0 up. If Mallorca had taken that chance it is questionable whether Real would be celebrating their 30th title. At times, Mallorca, with some inventive football, made Real look distinctly ordinary before Jose Antonio Reyes' introduction turned the game in Madrid's favour. In the penultimate games of the Spanish season Real Zaragoza also gave Real a mighty shock before Ruud van Nistelrooy rescued his side with a stoppage-time equaliser. Similarly, Uefa Cup finalists Espanyol, who finished the league in 11th place, did the same to Barca, coming away from the Nou Camp with a last-gasp goal to snatch a draw. Surely that is the test of a league's strength, when you are never quite sure which team is going to win a match. Can you really say that about the Premier League? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketics Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 there is a similar thread on same topic having ppl's view.. anywayz what i reckon is that la liga has some gr8 talent.. but however its not telveised or shown to public with same gr8 enthusisasm.. its coverage isn't that good compared to EPL, which is televised most part of the world and is covered pretty well.. surely la liga has some good contest.. and that thing would have to be agreed.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhondy Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Interestingly, Alexei Lalas thinks Premiership is a triumph of packaging. He thinks it's inferior stuff being glitzed up through packaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Predator_05 Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 The Premiership is the best league in the world if the question is in terms of quality. That isn't surprising, as Premiership clubs are incredibly rich and many of them are presided over by rich benefactors such as Abramovich, Glazer, Gaydamak, Magnusson, Gillet, etc. Even mid-table Premiership clubs have funding to buy top class players, and as a result the standard of play has steadily risen. By comparision, a top Spanish club like Sevilla has a budget smaller than Portsmouth's... In terms of competitiveness, the Prem is a distant second to the Spanish league. Maybe even a third, because the Bundesliga has been quite competitive as well. Make of that what you will. As much as i like Premiership football, i'd still rather watch a Spanish league match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adi B Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 how time changes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERGKAMP Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 there is a better level of pure technical football in spain, but for entertainment/atmosphere and unpredictability you still can't beat the premier league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sooda Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 wow. something i posted way back. dont even remember this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CG Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 The Premiership is the best league in the world if the question is in terms of quality. That isn't surprising, as Premiership clubs are incredibly rich and many of them are presided over by rich benefactors such as Abramovich, Glazer, Gaydamak, Magnusson, Gillet, etc. Even mid-table Premiership clubs have funding to buy top class players, and as a result the standard of play has steadily risen. By comparision, a top Spanish club like Sevilla has a budget smaller than Portsmouth's... In terms of competitiveness, the Prem is a distant second to the Spanish league. Maybe even a third, because the Bundesliga has been quite competitive as well. Make of that what you will. As much as i like Premiership football, i'd still rather watch a Spanish league match. Actually Its the opp of what you say in terms of competitiveness premier league is ahead as there is not much diff between 5 and also any team in top 10 can beat any other team,Where as spain its a 2 horse race as valencia have not risen to the challenge. Spain has limit on foreign players which has lead to youth development programs being very important and helped the spanish national team,Style wise its physical in eng and technical in spain with slow tempo and short passing where as english clubs prefer high tempo with mixed passing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 Premier League is far more competitive than La Liga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketics Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 la liga you have just two teams fighting at top most of the time. Madrid and Barca. You have EPL, where you see pappu teams like man city, spurs have come of age now. Even take Liverpool. and you always have Aresenal, Man UTD, Chelsea.. There is your result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daryl1985 Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Team for team, Spain are better. Did anyone see Bilbao outclass Man United over 2 legs a few weeks ago. This was the 11th placed side in Spain (not 11th best) totally dismantling this year's Premier League winners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bradman99 Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 I think the theory that Spain's other teams are rubbish is a bit of a myth. Look how they are all going in the Europa League. It's just that Barca and Madrid are so damn good. Still though, the PL is much better in terms of entertainment. Ronaldo and Messi wouldn't score as much as they do in the La Liga in the PL, although they would both still kill it obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b555 Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 another main problem with the spanish la liga is its coverage and money as in i somewhere read from a source that nearly 50% of the money in the league goes to madrid and 25% to barca and remaining among other teams the thing is wether these facts be true or not, surely the spanish teams have been doing really really well with their amount of money they have which is quite less compared to epl. another thing, they say competition in epl is more but lets be frank, its been just united and some other team posing some challenge to its title intentions and yet getting out of the race in the end occasionally some other team wins, so frm past 6-7 years, almost epl has also become like la liga .. only that here winner is only one and others just compete for the champions league spots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sachin=GOD Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Here's a thread I opened on the La Liga a while back - http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=266208 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CG Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 I think the theory that Spain's other teams are rubbish is a bit of a myth. Look how they are all going in the Europa League. It's just that Barca and Madrid are so damn good. Still though, the PL is much better in terms of entertainment. Ronaldo and Messi wouldn't score as much as they do in the La Liga in the PL, although they would both still kill it obviously. Nobody said they were rubbish,But the gap between them and barca,madrid is more than gap between man utd,man city vs rest.Actually valencia,athletico madrid are very good sides playing beautiful football,they can take on most european sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adi B Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 Team for team' date=' Spain are better. Did anyone see Bilbao outclass Man United over 2 legs a few weeks ago. This was the 11th placed side in Spain (not 11th best) totally dismantling this year's Premier League winners.[/quote'] did u see any intention from manutd to make europa their holy grail :blink:, of course not, both city nd united had their eyes on the premier league, both didnt play their best side..united didnt have nani,anderson,cleverly,vidic,valencia , yes they dismantled, but the priorities for both th teams were different...say if it was a manutd vs bilbao champ league qf , united would have played their full strength team nd full focus would have been on the match...even last year, both city nd kiev went out of the europa against crap sides, bcoz their priorities were to finish top 4 , u cannot , just cannot play on thursday`s nd then on saturday`s every damn week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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