make that ENG: 5 (Liverpool, Man U, Forest, Villa, Chelsea) and within five years...... most probably Manchester City added to that list.
You also missed out Newcastle, who won the UEFA Cup in 1969, and Leeds United who won the UEFA Cup in 1968.
might have not been refereing to inter city fiars cup which some dont include as it wasnt a properly organised tournament for many years. spain had 5 out the top 7 uefa clubs this season. very good return. germany end equal with england for years tally next year we get to see if germany can succeed under pressure. 1 extra side to dillute the coefficients with, and and extra side competing for a place at the top table. this was our bad year, we should be better next year. no spurs and newcastle flops in the cl, which ws my nightmare, chelsea might not win it but i dont see them out before the quarters at least, city should get out the group stages this times around, ditto united. liverpool should get more coefficient point than birmingham did, newcaslte should have a good run v the minnows, spurs should get through the ko rounds this time. dont know if this will be enough to get the 4 points more than spain that we need to stay no 1, but im hopefull.
"Best league in the world"? A league with - what? - half their clubs having filed for bankruptcy? Spain's league is weird in that you actually derive certain privileges from having filed for bankruptcy. Back here in Germany, you wouldn't even get a license to play in the Bundesliga if in risk of going bankrupt. And teams failing certain auditing tests, lose points at the green table. IMO, in Spain it's high time for: a) fairer TV revenue distribution (with central marketing of said rights) b) clubs paying their taxes and player wages c) bankruptcy being appropriately punished and clubs properly audited by the league The way things are is simply not fair or healthy.
Especially considering Spain's economic crisis. It's nowonder the country is in such a mess when such privilages are freely available. Reminds me of Greece and their readily available tax evading schemes. It will be interesting to see if the "fair play" rules make any differenece to teams like Man City and Chelsea and Real Madrid. Arsenal are a great example of keeping within a budget. It probably won't stop wealthy owners.
I think UEFA will further tighten the FFP rules in years to come to fight the sugardaddy phenomenon. The political will should be there considering how a majority of clubs don't have sugardaddies with bottomless pockets. That's why FFP was politically feasible in the first place. It's in the interest of most clubs (and fortunately also the right thing to do).
Here 10/11 figures from the recently published Deloitte 2012 Annual Review of Football Finance: - duopolists hog an obscene 54% - duopolists enjoy 11% revenue growth, while rest of the league a 2% decrease The immense disparity is getting worse and worse. This clearly is not a sustainable situation.
I really think that there is no doubt that the Europa League is a nuisance for the majority of English Clubs.. In Spain, Valencia, Atletico or whoever else qualifies will know that they have next to no chance of winning the Champions League - In that sense it isn't such a bad thing when they finish 3rd in the group stage, and it is actually probably better for them seeing as the Europa League offers a realistic chance of a trophy. If you also look at the income that these clubs receive from the league compared to those in the PL, it is quite frankly a joke. La Liga gives 50% of the money to Barcelona and Real Madrid, the Europa League doesn't offer much compared to the CL, but it is still a decent income to have. For English teams who finish 3rd in the CL group stage - they will be a team who has a realistic chance of going far in the CL. Are they going to really feel the same excitement at winning a trophy that is a massive step down? It's like a 3rd place play off, it really doesn't count for much. English teams ranked 3-6 have bigger income from the PL than those from La Liga, so the Europa League offers nothing to them in money terms. Even teams in England who finish 5th and 6th and therefore qualify for the Europa League are relatively strong and used to playing in the CL. Another point is that in the PL, teams who finish outside of the top 4 and qualify for the Europa League - Tottenham, Liverpool etc actually have the resources to finish in the top 4 or even challenge for the league - this offers a much better financial gain than playing in the Europa League. Would a club like Tottenham want to play an extra 15 matches or whatever it is in a season in a rather non prestigious event rather than focus on challenging for the league/CL places? The PL is played at a much faster pace than La Liga, and with the added burdon of having two domestic cups instead of the one in other countries, the Europa League just adds more games to play to clubs who can't afford to play 60+ games a season. It's OK for clubs like the Manchester clubs who have bigger squads, but do they really care about it anyway? I'm pretty sure Barcelona would not care about winning the Europa League.
Just to add to that - I'm saying that this is only true for the so called 'top 6' in England - Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool. Teams outside of this bracket probably would care about winning the trophy much more - Fulham as an example did well a few years ago, and I wouldn't bet against Newcastle having a decent run. The problem is that the teams who end up in the Europa League from England are usually CL quality with players expecting CL football.
Premier League clubs have two domestic cup competitions, but keep in mind that each round is only one game unless an FA Cup replay is required, whereas the Copa Del Rey has rounds with two legs. Edit: The League (Carling) Cup Semifinals are two legs.
hahahahaha so epl teams that are cl quality get destroyed home and away last year. this is just funny now.
Having the 'best' teams is a different thing to having the 'best' league! I think Spain may well have the best club teams in Barcelona and Real Madrid right now but the 'best' league - nowhere near!! At the end of the day football is an entertainment industry and having 2 teams so far ahead of the rest in the league does not make for an interesting league! If the Spanish want a better league that will get the world watching I think they will need greater parity, having 2 such dominant forces has not done the Scottish league any favours. I think the German league is worth mentioning when it comes to entertainment levels.
lol Do not try to use logic on these people. They hide behind stats from back when football was first becoming popular and England was dominating. We all know the story panned out.
Well, in my opinion: EPL: the league with the most variety of strong teams of the Europe La Liga: the league with the two best teams of the World Bundesliga: the league with the most enjoyable to watch games of the Europe
is that why they both made the cl final? did you turn the tv set off in april or something? or you just blocked out how shit reals defense was v bayern and how not having a plan b cost barca v chelsea.
Once every blue moon, heard of the phrase? Real lost on pk's, barca lost because luck was on chelseas side, who were also very lucky with bayern, quite possibly the luckiest tourny winner of all time
wow, thanks for setting me straight. so if real dont win the cl its because they are unlucky. there was me thinking that they couldnt hold onto a lead, but it was down to luck. maybe they should try buying more luck next time, or maybe jose could bring luck training into his preparations. try pulling your head out of the ground, or wherever else it may be stuck.
I was rooting for chelsea vs bayern, i'm just saying you need lucky to win tournaments, and chelsea had lots of it, not saying they're not deserving winners at all my friend. Reason i rooted for chelsea is because people just assumed bayern would win, when chelsea already defeated the best team of the tournament, yet still underdogs, wtf who else would they have to beat to be favorites?
'Throw barca and real in the epl, and epl would also be a 2 horse race.....' That kind of proves my point. For the Spanish league to become more interesting to the world they are going to have to do something about this fact, as I said before having 2 such dominant forces is fundamentaly a bad thing for the league, nobody wants to watch a 2 horse race when there are far more competative and therefore entertaining leagues (not just the EPL) out there.
spain in no1 slot now, but it will only 'count' as being number 1 properly if they can finnish the year in this position. the difference is currently 3.2 points. we need to have a very good year and we need them to have an average year. if football remains true to its formula, they will have a worse year than last year (getting such a record breaking number of points as they did) and we should have a better year (getting so many sides ko'd early as we did). however, also, if la liga is that damn good, they would have another unbelievable year and so go further ahead. i do think la liga is a very powerful league with a lot of quality sides, but i don't think they are looking at 5 semi finalists again next year. the epl has a 30-70 chance of getting no1 slot back imo, which is possibly a little generous to the epl, but i also am sure that there is going to be some serious spending in these shores over the coming months, and im also convinced that - avb will take spurs to a new level - rogers could do the same for liverpool - newcastle will have a good run in uefa cup, simply based on their firepower - united and city cannot be as bad as they were. i will counter this by saying that it is improbable that chelsea do as well as they did and that arsenal do not look likely to do any better than they did, though probably no worse in terms of getting to ko stage and then getting ko'd.
EPL is and always will be the best, so many rivalries to look forward to and such a more exciting brand of football
' Because they run like horses down the wings, and have no interest in posession football? I like a bit more skill showcased in the football I watch, but for those who have an undeniable urge for instant gratification, epl may be your league. la liga= most trophies out of ever league, and that's the only thing that matters, not opinions but facts.