By J. Manuel Luna

The Best of the Best

Can we really determine who the best soccer league in the world is, what factors should we evaluate,

who has the last say?

As of today almost every person in this world is aware of the globalized society we live in;

however, it would also be pertinent to explain how this phenomenon has also shaped soccer all

over the world and specifically around the most important European soccer leagues. The process

of globalization has benefitted the transit of human capital from one country to another, as a result

the level of competition among people in the workplace not only from an economic perspective

but also in the soccer scene has notoriously increased. Even if it becomes odd to explain how the

effects of globalization on both the economic sector and soccer compare we should keep in mind

that just like any other sport these organizations conduct themselves just as any other business

out there. These factors have immerse the European soccer leagues into a fierce competition with

By J. Manuel Luna

the only intent of providing the most attractive product for each and every soccer fan around the

globe, which will consequently help them claim themselves as the best soccer league.

The process of determining who deserves the award for the best soccer league may

become somewhat subjective mainly because of the affinity that soccer fans have towards a

particular team or nation. For this reason and in an effort to establish who has been the best

league in the world for the last five seasons the following analysis has mainly compiled statistical

data which will help us avoid any type of preconception. For the purpose of this study the following

aspects have been taken into consideration: average goals scored per game, the standard

deviation of the points obtained by each team throughout the five most recent seasons,

continental participations in competitions such as the Champions League and the Europa League,

and finally the number of players placed in the FIFPRO World XI for the last five years. With the

only purpose of simplifying the findings for this study only Liga BBVA, Bundesliga, Barclay’s Premier

League, Serie A, and Ligue 1 have been taken into consideration.

What a better way to start this analysis than with soccer’s most amazing expression of joy,

goals. It is no rocket science that the more goals scored in a game the more enjoyable for soccer

fans, for this reason is that we have taken the average goals scored per game as our initial ranking.

It is important to emphasize that the

total number of goals scored

throughout this five seasons has not

been taking into account considering

that the Bundesliga host fewer

games per season compared to its

2.20

2.30

2.40

2.50

2.60

2.70

2.80

2.90

3.00

BPL BBVA Ligue 1 Serie A Bundesliga*

Averga Goals Scored Per Game

By J. Manuel Luna

counterparts; nonetheless, both graphics have been included for their analysis. The results

obtained in this department reveal that the Bundesliga holds the highest average goals scored per

game even though none of their teams have had the privilege to have in their rosters two of the

most dominant top scorers in the last few years like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Next we will analyze another criteria which is commonly misinterpret by soccer fans, the

parity level among teams of a specific league. In order to have a factual representation of how

even the competition is among the teams of a certain league I have decided not to utilize a point

differential measure, I had rather decided to put into practice the use of the standard deviation.

Most of us may not remember from our high school years the real life applications of standard

deviation, for this reason I will briefly explain it in a few lines. The standard deviation is a measure

of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread apart the data, the higher the

deviation. For our soccer study purposes the standard deviation is a more representation of the

parity level of a particular league, in comparison to the point differential method the standard

deviation takes into account not only the highest and the lowest value from a set of data it

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015

Goles Anotados

Total Goals Scored

BPL BBVA Ligue 1 Serie A Bundesliga*

By J. Manuel Luna

considers the performance of each team in regards to the league average points per season and

provides a value considering them all. The lower the value of the standard deviation the higher

the parity between teams of a particular league, and most importantly the more exciting it is for

soccer fans to watch due to the higher level of uncertainty in regards to the matches outcome. In

this particular field Ligue 1 appears to have the lowest standard deviation average in the las five

season, thus having the highest parity level amongst its teams. This trend has significantly changed

for the past few years with the remarkable dominance of PSG.

After studying the parity level among these five leagues we now go onto their clubs’

continental performance. We have taken into consideration to two most important European club

competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, and the UEFA Europa League. For

quantification purposes and in order to be able to compare the performance of these leagues a

value of two points has been assigned to clubs that reached the semifinals stage of the UCL, and

a value of one point to the clubs that have reached the semifinals stage of the UEL. This measure

will better allow us to rank the top five European leagues based on their continental performance.

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

BPL BBVA Ligue 1 Serie A Bundesliga

Average Standard Deviation

By J. Manuel Luna

The next two charts shown below help us better understand leagues’ performances and account

for their totals based on the previous five UCL and UEL editions.

UCL UEL

Semifinals 14/15 Juventus Real Madrid Napoli Dnipro

Barcelona Bayern Munich Sevilla Fiorentina

Semifinals 13/14 Bayern Munich Real Madrid Valencia Sevilla

Atleti Chelsea Benfica Juventus

Semifinals 12/13 Dortmund Real Madrid Fenerhbace Benfica

Barcelona Bayern Munich Basel Chelsea

Semifinals 11/12 Chelsea Barcelona Atletico Valencia

Real Madrid Bayern Munich Sporting Atlethic

Semifinals 10/11 Barcelona Real Madrid Benfica Braga

Manchester U Schalke 04 Porto Villarreal

x2 x1

The tables above depict the clear dominance from Liga BBVA teams in both competitions. Teams

like Real Madrid, Barcelona in the UCL, and Sevilla in the UEL are consistent contenders in these

two competitions and account for a total of five cups in the last five seasons.

The last parameter taken into account in this analysis can be considered somewhat

subjective. The reason behind this can be explained due to the fact that it involves people’s

Total Points

BPL 7

BBVA 27

Ligue 1 0

Serie A 5

Bundesliga* 12

By J. Manuel Luna

judgement rather than just numbers. The next ranking is based on the FIFPRO World XI. Leagues

will be ranked based on the number of players that they provide to this yearly award. It is a fact

that soccer fans want to watch the greatest number of soccer stars playing in the pitch, the more

of these elite soccer players a league has the most attractive this will be to soccer fans around the

world. Even though there is a very small amount of teams that hold these players in their rosters,

it would be hard to deny that they greatly contribute to the quality of the leagues they play in.

During the last five years Liga BBVA has dominated the FIFPRO World XI ranking with 39 players

appearances during this period of time. An example of this dominance can be depicted by the

2011-2012 FIFPRO World XI team in which Real Madrid and Barcelona provided the totality of

players for this award’s edition. The following chart shows the exact amount of players provided

by each league during the last five years.

After considering all of the findings of this study we can observe that Liga BBVA is the

only league that leads in more than one ranking holding the first place in both continental

performances and FIFPRO World XI player contribution. Equally important to consider is

3

39

5

1 7

Players in the FIFPRO World XI

BPL BBVA Ligue 1 Serie A Bundesliga

By J. Manuel Luna

Bundesliga’s performance in this ranking. Bundesliga not only leads in the goals scored per game

ranking but also ranks second in every other field which could make it the most consistent

league of them all. Even though the study above give us a statistical picture of how leagues rank

against each other in several different aspects of the game, in the end the different preferences

from fans all over the globe towards a particular team or nation will make it almost impossible to

agree upon which country hosts the best soccer league in the world.

All statistics used for this study were compiled from ESPNDeportes.com, Marca.com, OPTA.com, AS.com,

UEFA.com transfermarkt.co.uk, and various league websites.