Do you honestly think that Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen would do anything other than get slaughtered (like, Sunderland-esque or worse) if they were playing in the English Premiership?
What do you think, is the Celtic or Rangers rating realistic? It seems to me there is a wide gap in the England 1st Division (I stay with 1st, 2nd Div., I hope you don`t mind) between the top third and the rest. And the rest seems to me rather mediocre. Where would you place Aberdeen, middle of the 2nd Division or even lower? In the European context I have Aberdeen and Hearts 58th and 59th, while Hibernians is at 102nd.
In reality I'm 100% sure Celtic would struggle to survive at the bottom of the EPL while Rangers would be one of the top 10 teams in the Championship. Hibs and Aberdeen at best would struggle to survive at the very bottom of the Championship. But then again, if Celtic were to play in the EPL, they would also attract better players and get more money to reinforce the team. .
... to be a bit more specific, then by looking at the Celtic games in Europe this season, I think the Celtic attack is pretty good and of about mid-table EPL quality, while their defense is only of Championship quality. Celtic do well at home when they use most of their efford in attack, but are just as useless in EC away games, when they have to rely more on their weak defense. Also they do not have the needed depth in their squad to do all that well in the EPL. .
As far as Russia is concerned, you have to refer to the "top 4". You have CSKA Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, Spartak Moscow, and Zenit St. Petersburg. This year, there may even be more teams competing for the Russian League's title. Now, Ukraine, for example, has only two worthy teams, Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk, everyone else is there to fill the league format.
I'm struggling to understand your logic here. OB Odense are 3rd in the Danish league, right? They beat Hibs on away goals in the Intertoto Cup, in pre-season. Hibs are 5th in the SPL. How does that mean that Hibs would struggle in the bottom half of the Danish league? Norwegian league? I don't know the quality, but if Robbie Winters and Charlie Miller can do well out there then it can't be any better than the SPL. Although I would say, take away Rangers and Celtic, who are far bigger clubs than any others in Scotland or Norway or Denmark. You've probably got similar levels of league. But the fact is that you can take out Celtic and Rangers. If support in Scotland was more evenly distributed we'd have a far better league.
Yes, OB Odense are 3rd in the Superliga at the moment, but in genenral (over the past many years) they seem to produce just about the same level of results in the Danish Superliga as Hibs are doing in the SPL. However, when OB Odense beat Hibs (both teams being in pre-season) in the UEFA Intertoto final, they did it quite convincingly. Perhaps not when you look at the score board, but all-in-all they seemed a level better, being in total control of the two games except for the last 5-10 minutes of the away leg, and just as importantly they did it without having a single forward in their intire squad (either being injured or just having been sold). OB Odense later signed some forwards and went on to beat Heerenveen from the Netherlands 2-0 away and eliminate Herta Berlin (1-0 & 2-2) in the UEFA cup. Results I'm quite positive that neither Hibs or any other Scottish team outside top 2 in the SPL would be able to match. I dont think that the Norwegian league is better than the SPL, but it is probably all-in-all at just about the same level, though with the Norwegian league being more evenly matched with very little difference between top and bottom. Excuse me for saying, but financially FC København have just produced a ½-season result of €74.1 million (net profit being €10.5 million) which now makes them financially bigger than both Celtic and Rangers, while Rosenborg financially may not be in the same league but on the other hand still have managed to qualifiy for the CL group stage 10 of 12 times since 1995/96, so I would hardly think that Rangers and Celtic at the moment are far bigger clubs than Rosenborg (in Europe) or a very young FC København (of 1992) who now financially are well on their way to be able to match the top 15 richest teams in the World, which then ofcause no doubt also will lead them to bigger results in Europe in the future. To be honest then I find that Celtic and FC København were quite evenly matched over two games in this seasons CL group stage, and you have to bear in mind that this was FC Københavns debut in CL and that they, except for the last two games in the Group, were forced to play without their absolute Star player Jesper Grønkjaer who was injured. If you take away Rangers, Celtic and Hearts, then I'm sure the rest of the SPL teams would struggle in most of the other average leagues in Europe. Ppl are just way off if they think that the SPL as a league is anywhere near top 10 in Europe. The UEFA league and team ranking system just favor leagues that only got a few top teams who alway qualify for the Europa Cups, while the more evenly matched leagues are punished in both the team and league ranking, because it is not the same teams who participate every season and therefore are bound to get a lower seeding over a 5-year period and draw much tougher opponents, which then again lead to fewer points and a poorer ranking. You could also say that when Danish or Norwegian (except for Rosenborg) teams progress, they usually do it despite of their poor seeding, while the average Scottish teams seem to get eliminated straight away despite their better seeding, which only makes the difference between top and bottom in the SPL stand out all the more clearly. It really says it all when you are seeded in Europe but still get eliminated straight away by teams from Iceland, Finland and Ireland.. I cant speak for Norway, but to compare, then ther has not been a single Danish team eliminated in Europe by a team from Iceland, Finland or Ireland since full-time professional soccer was introduced in Denmark. (well, actually ther has never in the history of the Europa Cups been a Danish team eliminated by a team from Iceland). .
Btw, I think we are going to see Denmark progress in the UEFA league ranking over the next 5-year period. Not because the Danish league is going to get any better than it already is, but because FC København are going to qualify for Europe every season and secure the points needed for the danish teams to get a better seeding and Denmark to get a better ranking. ..
I've been working on a computer model for the past few seasons, tweaking here and there. As you know, although we try to make the rankings as objective as possible, the choice of formulas and how we judge the importance of some games over others makes even the most "objective" ranking "subjective." But so what. It's all for fun. Here's a link to another ranking. http://worldclubrankings.blogspot.com/
this is interesting. I've been doing an entirely subjective ranking on my blog for the past month or so. I'm wondering if we can get some kind of system together where various bloggers and/or soccer writers vote on a weekly top 25. Have it like the "coaches poll" in college football and basketball. Any ideas?
The World Club Cup/Intercontinental Cup is NOT "less than meaningful exhibition game", and it happens since 1960. Its the best way to compare S.American clubs to European ones, and it shows S.American clubs are as good as the european ones.
Very well done blog. Obviously, my objective ranking and your subjective rankings are significantly different in places, but it wouldn't be any fun creating them otherwise, would it? I've had the same thoughts. I would think that it would take only 8-10 bloggers/writers to form a meaningful consensus, though the more the merrier. I don't think it would be too difficult to find a half-dozen other rankers. I like the idea so much that I'm going to put a call for rankers on my blog and see if I can recruit some others. If you do the same, we may be able to get a consensus top 25 going by the end of the year.
yeah let's do that! Let me take a look at the call-out you're putting on your blog and I'll do something similar.