Ranking the Top Level Leagues Across the World

Jan 3, 2012
27,085
983
I'm curious as to how you guys rank the leagues against each other. I'm more curious about how the lower level/smaller country leagues that are still the top in their nation (MLS, Ukraine, Belgium etc etc) rank up against each other than the top 5. Though you guys are welcome to argue over the top league in Europe in here.

I'd think it's best to use quality of competition and depth of the league as benchmarks, but feel free to use whatever you feel fit.
 

Evilo

Registered User
Mar 17, 2002
61,958
8,526
France
Not a single argument in favor of EPL over Liga. Not european results (even lower ranked spanish and EPL teams), nor the best players in the world, nor the top end teams.

Liga
EPL
BL
Serie A
Ligue 1
 

Deficient Mode

Registered User
Mar 25, 2011
60,348
2,397
EPL fans may say that their mid- and low table clubs are better than the Spanish equivalents, but that's not true either.

Anyway, that was my only contribution to this thread. This is an argument we have all the time in other threads anyway, and it's pretty pointless to me at least.
 

ViD

#CBJNeedHugs
Sponsor
Apr 21, 2007
29,625
19,023
Blue Jackets Area
La Liga
Bundesliga
EPL
Serie A/Ligue 1
Portuguese Premier League/Russian Premier League
Eredivisie/Turkey
Ukraine/Switzerland

Not really sure how MLS and South American leagues compare to uefa leagues
 

TheLeastOfTheBunch

Franchise Centre
Jun 28, 2007
38,541
305
Toronto
Not a single argument in favor of EPL over Liga. Not european results (even lower ranked spanish and EPL teams), nor the best players in the world, nor the top end teams.

Liga
EPL
BL
Serie A
Ligue 1

Have it the same way as well. Too bad a lot of my casual football friends still see PL as far and away the best league in the world
 

Peen

Rejoicing in a Benning-free world
Oct 6, 2013
29,640
24,984
the common comparison for the MLS' better teams is that they're about the equivalent of a mid-low table english championship team.
 

HajdukSplit

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
11,035
762
NJ
just my opinion...

1. La Liga (Spain)
2. EPL (England)
3. Bundesliga (Germany)
4. Serie A (Italy)
5. Ligue 1 (France)
6. Primeira Liga (Portugal)
7. RPL (Russia)
8. Super Lig (Turkey)
9. UPL (Ukraine)
10. Maybe Eredivise but their European results are awful lately and they will even lose their automatic CL spot

*I'd put MLS around the 10-15 mark world wide, I'll get to my explanation later*

At this moment the only thing the EPL is better than La Liga is their commercial success and attendance when it comes to the lower clubs. On the field La Liga wipes the floor with all European leagues

Had a hard time determining #5 honestly, PSG is better than any of the Portuguese sides but I honestly feel Porto/Benfica are as good as anybody else in the league. However, the bottom half of Portugal are generally poor teams, so Ligue 1 gets the edge

*As for MLS its probably English Championship level which is stronger than most European main leagues outside the top 10. Problem with MLS is the salary cap hinders their spending so its hard to compare them to the European leagues. For example a club like Dinamo Zagreb who are usually whipping boys in the CL have a bigger budget than all of MLS, even LA and Toronto. MLS clubs lack the depth of top European leagues, so on LA Galaxy for example they have guys like Keane, Gerrard and GDS who can easily still play in a top 5 league however their bench players are probably barely Championship level
 

Ugmo

Registered User
Oct 24, 2011
12,300
0
just my opinion...

1. La Liga (Spain)
2. EPL (England)
3. Bundesliga (Germany)
4. Serie A (Italy)
5. Ligue 1 (France)
6. Primeira Liga (Portugal)
7. RPL (Russia)
8. Super Lig (Turkey)
9. UPL (Ukraine)
10. Maybe Eredivise but their European results are awful lately and they will even lose their automatic CL spot

*I'd put MLS around the 10-15 mark world wide, I'll get to my explanation later*

At this moment the only thing the EPL is better than La Liga is their commercial success and attendance when it comes to the lower clubs. On the field La Liga wipes the floor with all European leagues

Had a hard time determining #5 honestly, PSG is better than any of the Portuguese sides but I honestly feel Porto/Benfica are as good as anybody else in the league. However, the bottom half of Portugal are generally poor teams, so Ligue 1 gets the edge

*As for MLS its probably English Championship level which is stronger than most European main leagues outside the top 10. Problem with MLS is the salary cap hinders their spending so its hard to compare them to the European leagues. For example a club like Dinamo Zagreb who are usually whipping boys in the CL have a bigger budget than all of MLS, even LA and Toronto. MLS clubs lack the depth of top European leagues, so on LA Galaxy for example they have guys like Keane, Gerrard and GDS who can easily still play in a top 5 league however their bench players are probably barely Championship level

Solid analysis.
 
Jan 3, 2012
27,085
983
just my opinion...

1. La Liga (Spain)
2. EPL (England)
3. Bundesliga (Germany)
4. Serie A (Italy)
5. Ligue 1 (France)
6. Primeira Liga (Portugal)
7. RPL (Russia)
8. Super Lig (Turkey)
9. UPL (Ukraine)
10. Maybe Eredivise but their European results are awful lately and they will even lose their automatic CL spot

*I'd put MLS around the 10-15 mark world wide, I'll get to my explanation later*

At this moment the only thing the EPL is better than La Liga is their commercial success and attendance when it comes to the lower clubs. On the field La Liga wipes the floor with all European leagues

Had a hard time determining #5 honestly, PSG is better than any of the Portuguese sides but I honestly feel Porto/Benfica are as good as anybody else in the league. However, the bottom half of Portugal are generally poor teams, so Ligue 1 gets the edge

*As for MLS its probably English Championship level which is stronger than most European main leagues outside the top 10. Problem with MLS is the salary cap hinders their spending so its hard to compare them to the European leagues. For example a club like Dinamo Zagreb who are usually whipping boys in the CL have a bigger budget than all of MLS, even LA and Toronto. MLS clubs lack the depth of top European leagues, so on LA Galaxy for example they have guys like Keane, Gerrard and GDS who can easily still play in a top 5 league however their bench players are probably barely Championship level


Thanks.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

Drury and Laviolette Must Go
Dec 8, 2013
57,230
23,101
New York
just my opinion...

1. La Liga (Spain)
2. EPL (England)
3. Bundesliga (Germany)
4. Serie A (Italy)
5. Ligue 1 (France)
6. Primeira Liga (Portugal)
7. RPL (Russia)
8. Super Lig (Turkey)
9. UPL (Ukraine)
10. Maybe Eredivise but their European results are awful lately and they will even lose their automatic CL spot

*I'd put MLS around the 10-15 mark world wide, I'll get to my explanation later*

At this moment the only thing the EPL is better than La Liga is their commercial success and attendance when it comes to the lower clubs. On the field La Liga wipes the floor with all European leagues

Had a hard time determining #5 honestly, PSG is better than any of the Portuguese sides but I honestly feel Porto/Benfica are as good as anybody else in the league. However, the bottom half of Portugal are generally poor teams, so Ligue 1 gets the edge

*As for MLS its probably English Championship level which is stronger than most European main leagues outside the top 10. Problem with MLS is the salary cap hinders their spending so its hard to compare them to the European leagues. For example a club like Dinamo Zagreb who are usually whipping boys in the CL have a bigger budget than all of MLS, even LA and Toronto. MLS clubs lack the depth of top European leagues, so on LA Galaxy for example they have guys like Keane, Gerrard and GDS who can easily still play in a top 5 league however their bench players are probably barely Championship level

I think this is pretty good, except I don't agree about the Eredivisie, which I think is either 6th or 7th. Their best teams might not do so well in European competitions, but the depth is much better than leagues you ranked 6-9. If we are to only use European results, the EPL should be 4th or 5th, but depth factors into that ranking, so I think it should factor into the ranking of the Eredivisie, as well.
 

Edo

The Mightiest Club
Jun 7, 2003
6,036
69
vancouver
wowhockey.com
1. La Liga
2. EPL
3. Serie A
4. Bundesliga
5. Ligue 1
----
6. Primeira Liga
7. RPL
8. Super Lig

Not sure what happened in Italy after 2011/2012 and why they went broke, but they're slowly trending upwards. Not a fan of the Bundesliga as the drop off after Borussia Dortmund/Bayern Munich is monstrous. MLS would have a pretty solid shot at breaking into this group if their set up wasn't so weird. The money and interest is there if they were willing to open things up.

I still am in shock at how overrated the Bundesliga is. It's become a hipster league again.
 

Vipers31

Advanced Stagnostic
Aug 29, 2008
20,351
2,094
Cologne, Germany
Leave it to Edo to put the Serie A ahead of the Buli. That monstrous drop off after Bayern/BVB sure mattered when Leverkusen/Gladbach had the results they head against Italy's top teams just recently. There's just no substance there.
 
Jan 3, 2012
27,085
983
Leave it to Edo to put the Serie A ahead of the Buli. That monstrous drop off after Bayern/BVB sure mattered when Leverkusen/Gladbach had the results they head against Italy's top teams just recently. There's just no substance there.

I agree.

After BVB/Bayern, there's Schalke, Gladbach, Leverkusen, FC VW...

It's not that shallow of a league tbh
 

Alex Jones

BIG BOWL 'A CHILI!!
Jun 8, 2009
33,488
5,940
Conspiratron 9000
If you guys think that MLS is championship quality, what level do you think better leagues such as J League and Brazilian Serie A are at???

I consider J League the best league outside of Europe, and based on the UEFA coefficient I would put it around 12, after Turkey but probably above Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
 

ViD

#CBJNeedHugs
Sponsor
Apr 21, 2007
29,625
19,023
Blue Jackets Area
If you remove PSG from Ligue 1, it falls below Russia and Portugal. French teams are performing quite abysmal this year
 

Evilo

Registered User
Mar 17, 2002
61,958
8,526
France
If you remove PSG from Ligue 1, it falls below Russia and Portugal. French teams are performing quite abysmal this year

You do realize Monaco was in the quarters of the CL last year and was robbed of a place in the semis by an incompetent ref?

Please.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->