There is a european superleague, its called La Liga and resides in Spain. As European competition shows, the rest of Europe is well behind.
Its not though is it? It may currently have the best teams but the league garners a lot less interest across the globe than the English league, as a competition its a bit like the Scottish league, until the Spanish realise that giving just two teams all the money and stuffing them with as many superstars as possible is having a detrimental effect on the Spanish league as a whole it will always trail the EPL in worldwide popularity.
than why is Atletico in the final? Sevilla just destroyed Liverpool in the Europa League. Man you just made me face palm myself. Id even rather watch Primeira Liga (Portugal) than EPL, even there the tactics are much better and the players more talented. EPL is far down on my list of priorities (first is making money, second is living life, third is football and way down the list on football comes EPL as its second rate).
It doesn't matter how good the Spanish teams are, its still English football that the world watches THAT IS MY POINT. The English league is miles ahead of Portugal not only in popularity but in tactics, talent and entertainment, its also stronger from top to bottom, you may prefer Portugese football but the world disagrees with you.
Benfica this season is stronger than any EPL team. Also, the tactics in the EPL are far worse. But whatever, you have your opinion and I have mine which is something I value along with my car collection, vacation homes, various enterprises and investments that have made me into the success that I am.
Do you have some kind of inferiority complex that you need to mention the highlighted parts that have nothing to do with the value of an opinion?
None of that has stopped you being a complete tw@t though has it? Getting back to footballing matters, I would suggest your opinion that Benfica are stronger than any EPL team is a rather far-fetched one. But that's just the opinion of a man with only one house and one car ;-)
What do you base this on? Anyway the point I am making is that it seems to me that when it comes to football 'other' Euro nationals are so busy comparing 'd*ck' sizes that they miss the point, the Spanish can harp on about having the 'best' teams all they want but it is NOT this that is going to make their league popular, the lack of competition within the league holds it back, football is about entertaining the masses, it is after all in the entertainment industry, until 'some' nations realise this the EPL will continue to be the no. 1 destination for the worlds eyeballs no matter how good Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG or Benfica are or like to think they are. Mourinho could have gone to PSG but instead he has been waiting for the Manchester United job because he realises that working in the EPL will be far more interesting than p*ssing the league by 30+ points in France, wake up Europe instead of stuffing one or two of your teams with all the best players and then thumping your chest and shouting 'look how good we are' do something for the fans of ALL your nations clubs and make your leagues more entertaining.
Or it could be because he's wanted the job for years, Manchester United being a much, much bigger club than PSG, etc. etc. but you seemed to have spoken to him yourself so I'll take your word for it. So in your opinion the competition aspect of the EPL is what makes it so popular? Lol and you think that the other countries should interfere in their own leagues to make it more competitive, in turn making them more popular. Great thesis. Where in your analysis do you factor in the fact that that England has a footballing culture/infrastructure/history that eclipses every other country in the world, has English as their main language, has kick-off times that allow anyone around the world to watch, etc etc. Also, if the EPL is so competitive, why were the same 4 teams in the Top 4 80% of the time from 1994/1995 to 2014/2015?
Popularity does not necessarily equate to better quality. And I'll take success over entertainment any day. For better or worse, more people remember Greece than any other side that competed in Euro 2004. Czech Republic perhaps a close second.
Benfica was quarter finalist in CL, were certainly better than Man City clearly and refs robbed them against Bayern. Should have been in the final against Real Madrid. Are you Japanese? if you are I am surprised at your ignorance. I have some contacts and associates in Japan and we continue the tradition of commerce that our two peoples established long ago in the 1500s (not sure if you know history, and I mean real history as Portugal had the first commercial global empire and colonies but the England take credit undeservedly for alot of things but they suck at football and wish they had someone as good as CR7)
I don't think it's so far fetched. Results among Benfica, Atletico Madrid and Bayern would suggest Benfica more than held their own against those clubs and I'd question how many EPL clubs would have done similar this season. Maybe Arsenal or Manchester City. Maybe. But I wouldn't place money on it.
Premier League TV money distribution for the season just ended has been announced. Arsenal got the most at £100.9m. Aston Villa the least at £66.6m. League position and the number of times a team is shown live on UK TV are the variables used to determine the amounts. That is why 4 teams got more than Leicester. The relatively even distribution of cash explains why the Premier League is getting more competitive. The likes of Manchester United have huge income from other sources but their budgets do not dwarf those of the rest of the league to the extent that happens in other European leagues. Any teams joining a European Super League would demand similar distribution of TV funds as they want to be competitive. Not acceptable to the current elite. Next season the top clubs will get around £160m and the bottom club around £100m. Real and Barca will still be able to compete with that but they will no longer be out ahead. Still no reason for them to join a super league as they would be dragging others up to their level. If the Premier League pulls further ahead financially in a few years time then that may change.
Nevertheless English football grabs the worlds attention, it is watched by more people than the rest of European leagues put together, next season there are at least 7 clubs that can realistically win the league, the world will again be watching, the stadiums will sell out, the TV companies will offer huge sums of money and the EPL will be the worlds league, all this DESPITE the fact that the Champions league final is contested by two teams from Spain, like I said you don't have to be the worlds no 1 league, if you are happy for Portugese football to be watched by nobody but the Portugese in half filled stadiums then so be it. Until Europeans realise that its not about having the biggest d*ck the leagues in Europe will always trail the EPL. Language has nothing to do with the popularity of English football, why would it? You don't need to know what language the players are speaking to watch a football match?
There are several flaws in your reasoning why the EPL is far ahead of the rest of the leagues in tv money. It is first and foremost the fact that the EPL, when they founded themselves as the body to represent the clubs interests, was acute aware of the rising big money opportunity provided by the developing tv markets. The EPL operated as one body, while in the other countries it was the FA that in charge of selling tv rights. They didnot get it, like the EPL did and to add to that the big clubs in those leagues thought it better to go their own way, instead of the concerted effort way of the EPL. Second is that unlike the domestic audiences of the leagues including the EPL being first fan of the club, foreign "fans" are first star gazers. With the rising number of stars the EPL got more popular. You just have to visit the country forums and you find the x country abroad players forum constipated with threads about a particular player in a certain club. Third is the fact that in the EPL play the highest number of foreigners of all leagues and I have experienced when Feyenoord had a Japanese star in the team in a time that was not the case in the EPL,we got enormous attention from Japan, but they were not fans of Feyenoord like me, but national star gazers. The minute he left, the interest of the Japanese fans was gone. So the EPL foreign fan base is not EPL but Nationality linked. Why do you think the national teams of other countries are more successful than England? Because English players are the minority in the EPL teams.
National teams of (some) other countries - at the end of the day people can chose which league to follow and they chose the EPL despite the fact that currently there are better teams in Spain. In Spain its all about having the 'best' teams in the UK its about having a strong product, people across the globe like the EPL because of the entertainment value of the EPL, being the 'best' doesn't necessarily make you the 'best' to watch. Barcelona is perhaps a good example tippy tappy football is very impressive, you look at it and think its clever, highly skilled and successful but it is about as entertaining as watching paint dry, I have to say PSG are even worse! 5 minutes of passing between themselves in their own half is not what you want to see and the proof is simply in the numbers. Nobody is trying to claim the EPL has the best teams or that it has the strongest league but as a spectacle it can't be beaten, if Spain want to become the 'global league' instead then they need to look at things objectively that's all I am saying here.
Mmmm, I think you misunderstood my post. I donot argue the points you made about the popularity of the EPL. I myself posted pages ago there is already a superleague, the EPL. The flaw I addressed was the onesidedness of the why of its popularity. I added in my eyes very important other reasons. And added means I am comfortable with the points you made, but they arenot sufficient for the whole picture.
Do you think that the playing style of English teams is a marketing decision. Of course not, it's a strategy decision. Everyone tries to win, it's just each uses different strategies. Are Spanish teams stronger than other European teams? Yes. Is English football the most entertaining? Yes to me, but each has its tastes.
I am a Dynamo Kyiv and Ukrainian National Team fan first and a football fan second. Why would I watch a competition that has nothing to do with either? Especially if it threatens my domestic competition to be bled dry of all the best talent. And the SuperLeague, ultimately, will not be better, or more competitive than the CL today.
That argument is a bit too simplistic, imo. There are many variables in play which determine the most-watched league. Its not simply 'which league has the most teams that are enjoyable to watch.' Marketing, kick-off times, access, competitiveness, stadiums and whether or not they are full, etc. are all other factors which I think are at least as important as the style of play of teams. I've heard that "Barca argument" before and always felt it was a stretch. Even if you consider that boring (subjective), there are English teams who play similar (City, Arsenal). Why is Barca getting 70% possession and 3 goals "boring" but Arsenal getting 65% possession and 1 goal exciting? Doesn't add up. Plus that's just 1 out of the 20 teams...
Its the general opinion amongst the people I know, I tend not to watch Spanish football because of it, I'm not knocking it for the level of skill, its impressive but ultimately not very exciting to watch, I tend not to watch the Champions Leauge unless my team is involved (wont be watching next year! :-() and this year the Chelsea PSG game was hard to watch, PSG would spend five minutes at a time passing it about just outside their own box, then they would venture forward 20 yards before passing it back to their box again! Clever, the way they can keep the ball but bloody dull to watch! Gimme a game between two sh*t teams that flies from end to end any day!
What you describe seems more like what CL games evolve into often but to me that's not what's happening in the actual league matches. The high-pressing game that most La Liga teams play doesn't really allow for such passing even in your own end. CL games OTOH can get very tactical and cagey as teams play with the two-legged score & away goals in the back of their mind resulting in teams perhaps taking fewer risks and, yeah, we get a lot of matches like you describe above.
The Aubameyang offer turns everything on its head. Things are suddenly taking a turn with mind boggling offers now for players in their prime from China. Does this Superleague have any future if the top stars are out of reach for the would be superleague teams. And what about the revenue side? How much can the consortium guarantee from tv rights if the stars arenot there?