As i wrote earlier, England will always be more popular for people in India and Africa to watch because people in those countries know nothing about Spain or Italy but they know much about England and english football. Even in the 1990s when the english league was the fourth best in Europe the english league was more popular globally than the other leagues, it is about language, culture and history. Except from latin america the rest of the world has no contact with Spain or spanish football and know nothing about the country except that it sunny and warm and about bullfighting. To rank the best leagues you can't use popularity, because England will always be most popular because they had the biggest empire and influence around the world, you have to use other variables like style of football, level of the players, how the teams do in european competitions and etc.
I had a friend at College from Kenya in the mid-nineties. He verified that English football was popular there. But so was Serie A. Also, my brother took this picture in Gambia...
Yes the spanish league has become more popular in places like Africa because of players like Ronaldo and Messi, but it's still on a low scale. In Spain they also caree more about tradition than to be popular globally, this is why the spanish teams still want to play their matches late in Spain which makes it impossible for people in other parts of the world to watch spanish football matches, because they want to continue the spanish tradition of playing football matches late. If people in China and Africa want to watch spanish matches they have to be awake all night, it's not possible because of time differences. The positive thing is that in latin countries they want to play for the biggest spanish teams over the biggest english teams and the spanish teams are scouting latin america for their best talents, and latin america are very good at producing skillful players, more so than Africa and Asia.
From a sporting perspective that is true. However, if you look at La Liga teams from an econmoic point of view, one has to ask on what foundation those results in the Europa League were achieved. And in the end it comes down to clubs spending money they didn`t have. Atletico Madrid, the current title holder owes €200m to the Spanish taxman. Many Spanish clubs can`t pay their players`wages these days. The future of Spanish club football - with the exception of clubs like Real and Barca - looks bleak. While we are debating whether La Liga is the best league in the world - players who don`t have a contract at Real or Barca are trying very hard to get out of there. I predict an exodus of Spanish players moving to Italy,France,Ukraine,Russia,Germany and most of all England in the coming years. The bubble has burst. When Real has a bad spell, they finish 2nd behind Barca - when Barca has a bad spell, they finish 2nd behind Real. When Bayern has a bad spell, they finish 2nd,3rd or 4th.
All european football is a bubble, except German teams all other leagues are in debt, Spain is too big to fall and Spain prides itself of it's great football teams and players. We are talking about the sole dominant football country in the world today, the reigning world and european champions and a country that has two of the most historic football teams in the world. It will always be attractive for players to play in Spain because of the style of football and the nice and warm weather. The spanish teams will never buy expensive players, the will breed their own talents and buy cheap talents from south America. If football was purely about economics France, Germany and England would have the best leagues. But Italy and Spain has always been able to compete and outdo many of them when it comes to football. Real Madrid and Barcelona will always attract the best foreign players in the world and by doing that the spanish league will always mantain a high status a a league by having players like Ronaldo and Messi playing there. And also the spanish league is able to compete even now when the spanish economy is at it's worst in many years, imagine what will happen when the economy is good again. Also the spanish club teams even the great clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona are owned by the supporters and the spanish people themselves, not like England where the supporters have no say about who runs their clubs. In England an owner can buy a club, change the name of the club and it's stadium. This cannot happen in Spain which makes their system better.
German clubs also have debts. Spain is too big to fall, but I doubt that the German taxpayer will subsidize Atletico Madrid and other clubs. I agree with that - apart from the "nice and warm weather" argument. I have heard the same argument used regarding Serie A for years, but now all of a sudden Italy doesn`t offer the highest wages anymore and the stars are going elsewhere or moving out of Italy. That is true, but the league as a whole will IMO suffer when mid-sized clubs continue to shrink.
English football doesn't move it's game for international TV either. They play the same times as they always have. In fact, Sky TV frequently moves high profile games from 3pm on Saturday to noon. This is because they aren't allowed to broadcast games in the UK during those that kick off at the traditional 3pm. Internationally, they can and do. However, when they move these games, I have to get up even earlier to watch them (well I have a DVR nowadays, but you get my point). Point being, I see no evidence that English football caters to other nations. Also, I've seen Real Madrid and Barcelona play LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl during their pre-season tours, so clearly they do have some interest in cultivating an international following. Like I said though, I've known many people from around the world, going back many years that say all three of La Liga, EPL and Serie A are popular in their country.
Yes but my point is it will always be more attractive for an african to follow the english league, he speak english, many african players play in english teams and africans like England. Spain has no tradition with africans and africans know nothing about Spain and spanish football, except players like Messi and Ronaldo. There is no shared language, culture or history. This is what some people in this thread doesn't understand, there is alot more than pure footballing reasons why some leagues are more popular than others. Of course clubs like Real Madrid want to become a little more popular in places like China but they know that they will never be able to compete with England there, Real Madrid at best can become the sixth or seventh most popular foreign team in Africa and China. I think Spain should concentrate everything on becoming bigger in south american countries because that is the one contintent where they can dominate because of language and cultural reasons and its a growing continent economically.
Agree with all but this part. I'd argue that any season where that is the top 2, isn't truly a bad spell. I've seen Real Madrid and Barca slump well outside the top two in the past. However, if one remains strong, they're still likely to win the league. When both had minor slumps (Barca's was bigger) around a decade ago, teams like Valencia, Seville and Deportivo got in on the action. Of course, this was also partly down to the overspending you mentioned, which has damaged those clubs longterm.
I'll agree that English football has an edge in Africa, but it's not accurate to say they "know nothing" of Spain and Spanish football. It's still big there, as is Serie A (though not sure how it's recent fortunes have affected that). In fact, you should remember that many top African players were in those leagues long before Messi and Ronaldo, which would certainly drive the popularity. As for Real Madrid being 7th most popular, I'm going to need some verification, because they are a huge worldwide team. I would be shocked if you were right. That just leaves us with Spanish teams and South American countries: they already dominate there. I live in SoCal and we have a diverse Latin American population. I have a number of friends from that community and the tendency in my experience is to hold Real Madrid up as the biggest club in the World.
The PL is clearly the dominant league in Asia and Africa and will always be dominant in those contintents, very few africans support spanish teams, not even Barcelona or Real Madrid are popular in Africa as a whole. English clubs like even Arsenal and Tottenham are bigger than Barca and Real in Africa. Real Madrid is a very big club but not big in Asia and Africa compared to english clubs, Real Madrid are popular in parts of Europe, middle east and Latin America mostly. As i said i don't think the spanish teams can become big in Asia or Africa, because people there don' t identify with Italy or Spain, they identify with USA and England, they know close to nothing about Italy and Spain in China, Japan and India for example so of course they will never care about italian or spanish football. It's how the world works. The spanish teams know this and that is why they don't want to change their tradition of playing matches late because they know that it won't matter in the long run, Spain is not a global country like England and will never be that, the best Spain can be is to be big in spanish speaking countries which it already is.
There's a game at 1100 GMT almost every Sunday for the Asian market, and games over the weekend are spread throughout the day - usually 1500, 1700, 1900 & 2100 on a Saturday and 1600, 1800 & 2000 on a Sunday. Looks like they're quite willing to sacrifice their tradition for extra TV coverage.
As i said earlier it wont matter because people in China, Japan and India can't point out Spain and Italy on a map and they know nothing about their football. Spain and Italy are not global countries, they will always be smaller than the english clubs in that way. I think it's remarkable that Spain and Italy still can compete with english football when you see it that way. In China and Africa even a smaller english team like Tottenham is problably bigger than Real Madrid and Barcelona in terms of fanbase. Most people want to follow teams that they recognise and understand and they feel connected to, no african or chinese feel anything for countries like Italy and Spain while many of them live in England, have relatives there and can speak the language and watch movies from there. English teams should really win the CL every year and dominate totally if you look at how much richer they are and there global potential, but they don't. This is what i find most interesting.
The Premier League is extremely popular in Africa and Southeast Asia. However, in China La Liga,Serie A and Bundesliga get better coverage than the Premier League. I don`t know why people always claim that the Premier League is incredibly popular in China - China is probably the only country in the world where the Premier League has problems in terms of marketing itself. I am not a Serie A fan, but Inter and other Italian clubs are extremely popular in China.
Do you have any evidence for that? I've always heard from people that the chinese only like PL football. The anglosaxon culture is dominating the world today, so naturally most people prefer England and english football over countries and cultures that they know nothing about. Spain and Italy are almost completly unknown in the rest of the world so i can't see how their teams can be as popular as english teams in countries like China.
Primera Division,Serie A and Bundesliga are on CCTV5 - the main sports broadcaster in China which is available in 340million Chinese households - for 13 years running. In 2007 the Premier League sold its Chinese TV rights to a small paytv channel named WinTV which only had 30,000 subscribers. The Premier League lost many Chinese fans because of that move (the PL was basically off the TV screen for 3 years) and the league is currently trying everything it can to regain lost ground. (Source: http://guanyu9.blogspot.de/2012/01/english-premier-league-finds-china.html http://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/40-Business-&-finance/4620-broken-china) The average Chinese football fan knows very well what is happening in Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. Serie A has moved its Super Cup to China for a reason - La Liga wants to do the same and so does the Bundesliga. Spain and Italy are two of the most successful footballing nations on the planet - and that makes the national teams and also some of the clubs very attractive to foreigners around the globe and particularly in Asia.
I think that the fact that both Liverpool and Chelsea were champions of Europe while only finishing 5th and 6th in their league says rather more for the strength of the EPL than it does against dont you think!! I dont think there is another league in Europe where only the 5th and 6th best teams in the league are good enough to be the champions of Europe!
One minute youre saying the EPL is full of foreign players, the next youre saying the English teams play 'shit' football because they dont have the 'skill' and only a limited level of football????? You cant have it both ways!!! I think you dont know anything about football to be honest with you, you seem to just come out with the old stereotypes with no facts to back them up. Besides how many times do I have to say it, we are talking about the quality of the league here, not the teams in the league. The Spanish league does not have the excitement and drama of other leagues in Europe, to back up this claim you only have to look at the 'viewing' figures of the league around the world, The German, English, French, Dutch leagues are FAR more exciting. In the UK people will watch the EPL and the Bundesleague, they avoid the Spanish league like the plague! If the EPL started playing what you call 'the Spanish type of football' attendances would plummet and viewing figures would plummet, what we want in this country is entertainment, not long haired diving prima donnas.
WTF! What proof do you have to back up this ridiculous claim!! Do you think just because were English we are incapable of doing something a Brazilian can do!!??? Are we somehow inferior beings?? In what way can you never get an Englishman to play like a Brazilian???
Milan were 4th when they won the CL. That said, lets not kid ourselves. These weren't the 4th-6th best teams in their respective leagues. Obviously the FA Cup final and Champions League is a distraction which can lead to dropped points in the league. Something Arsenal, Spurs, Newcastle didn't have to deal with.
Suprisingly enough the closer to the FA cup final and Champions league final they got the 'better' the league form got as well! It had the opposite effect.
Not really. They lost to Liverpool and Newcastle down the stretch. The only wins they got after the CL knockout stages started were against relegation fodder. Not that they were anything special before that point, but they picked up a few "quality" wins here and there.
I'd argue that it was the other way around. Liverpool fell out of league title contention early when they won the Champions League and so did Chelsea last season. This allowed them to prioritise the CL and rest players ahead of those games. That might have ultimately made their league performances slightly worse, but that's a sacrifice they made somewhat willingly. Also, wasn't AC Milan's win the same year they started with a Serie A points deduction, due to calciopolli? IIRC, Inter Milan pretty much strolled to the title that year and AC Milan were again, never really in contention.
True about the point deduction. Guess they would have finished 3rd without that penalty. I don't follow the first part of your post. You first say that I have it backwards, then say "That might have ultimately made their league performances slightly worse" which agrees exactly with my argument.