League rankings decade after decade

[Live in the Now]

80 years lol.

If the sport became a national passion, and the US put similar per capita money into infrastructure and programs as top tier nations, they’d be a borderline top 5, for sure top 10, country within a single generation.

Basically 15-20 years for kids who are now 5 and under to grow up playing football instead of basketball, baseball, or other football.

No, the US wouldn’t dominate, but they’d be in a position where there’s not a clear gulf in talent between them and Germany/Spain/Netherlands/France/England/etc

Granted, as you said, that’s not going to happen, but don’t pretend that if it did somehow it would take an entire lifetime for the impact to materialize

I'm generally really shitty feeling on the US program in general. But I will say that I don't even think the sport has to become a national passion. It's all about how players are trained once they leave this country to do better things. We also have a very warped mindset about players staying at home to grow our league, which comes at the cost of having a worse NT. Our best team in 2002, which should have been in the SF I should add, was full of players who left the country. The correlation is too strong to ignore, but we continue to ignore it because people have decided that we need to grow the league and the NT at the same time. We just can't do that in any meaningful way, the progress of growing the NT doing it that way is too slow.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

80 years lol.

If the sport became a national passion, and the US put similar per capita money into infrastructure and programs as top tier nations, they’d be a borderline top 5, for sure top 10, country within a single generation.

Basically 15-20 years for kids who are now 5 and under to grow up playing football instead of basketball, baseball, or other football.

No, the US wouldn’t dominate, but they’d be in a position where there’s not a clear gulf in talent between them and Germany/Spain/Netherlands/France/England/etc

Granted, as you said, that’s not going to happen, but don’t pretend that if it did somehow it would take an entire lifetime for the impact to materialize

lol

How did I make it sound like that?

I said a country our size should be better than we are at soccer and that if we had the same passion as most countries worldwide we’d be one of the best teams in the world. I also said until a switch in mentality is made we’ll never be more than a top 20-30 team. All of which is true.

The first part where American takeover in the sport is only separated by interest. It isn't.

 

[Elliman]

In what world is the Portuguese/Dutch and even the Russian league behind the MLS? And apparently SA leagues that produce the most players are nonexistent lol. And no in 50 years the MLS will not be the best league in the world

My world. Let me know when you wanna come visit. It’s wonderful, full of hope & positivity.

 

[Albatros]

1955-1965 La Liga
1965 -1975 Football League (England)
1975-1981 Bundesliga
1981-1985 Football league
1985-1999 Serie A
1999-2007 La Liga
2007-2012 Premier League
2012-2019 La Liga

1955-1964 Spain
1964-1973 England
1973-1983 Germany
1983-1985 Italy
1985-1988 Spain
1988-1999 Italy
1999-2007 Spain
2007-2011 England
2011-2017 Spain
2017-2019 England

 

[Bon Esprit]

Ajax European Cup Finalist 1969
Feyenoord European Cup Winner 1970
Ajax European Cup Winner 1971
Ajax European Cup Winner 1972
Ajax European Cup Winner 1973
Feyenoord UEFA Cup Winner 1974

It's quite obvious what was the better league in those years.

correct, the early 70s were Dutch. And they had by far the best NT, too. Didn't won in 74 because of arrogance.

 

[Albatros]

The other Dutch teams got completely butchered in Europe quite a few times those years though. As good as the best sides were it wasn't the best league.

 

[Evilo]

So China should dominate world sports?
Just wondering.

 

[hatterson]

So China should dominate world sports?
Just wondering.

The big difference is financial. Both in terms of per capita spending on sporting training and what percentage of the population have the disposable income to have a child seriously pursue high level athletics.

 

[Evilo]

Really?
Yet China can dominate in certain sports like few countries do.
And why Brazil can produce that many great footballers?
Why is Czech Republic much better than France in hockey?

It's not a question or money, spending or infrastructure. It's a matter of culture.
Kenya dominate long runs.
China dominate table tennis or gymnastics.
Japan and France dominate judo (why the heck would France dominate judo if not for a cultural thing?).
Russia dominates chess.

US dominate plenty of sports because sports is a huge cultural thing for them. But not men football. Maybe one day? But frankly, we've been hearing the US will soon dominate football since the 70s.

 

[Havre]

There is no doubt in my mind that China will become one of the best footballing countries in the world. The coverage on TV has already been brilliant for 10+ years. The interest is building and it is clearly a political target for China to do well in football.

In the Summer Olympics China have already established themselves as the clear no. 2 behind the US. Expecting that after 2022 they will be among the better countries in the Winter Olympics as well.

 

[gary69]

I'm not sure China can become dominant NT during the next 3 decades at least.

Whatever money they would pay to get the 50 (or even 100) best footballers to come play in their league would't kill off the European club teams finacially. The European broadcasting networks and their customers would still prefer to watch the local product in their local time zone.

And if China brings in that much foreign talent to their teams for the most crucial roles, then their players won't develop properly for a complete NT. For shortish term (30 - 50 years) I think the best way for China to develop is improve on what they're doing now.

Not to aim to be an absolutely top tier league, but rather a good one for their younger players to develop enough, so the best of them can move to play in the best European leagues. So essentially a better version of what the Japanese and Koreans have been doing for a few decades.