IFFHS Ranks La Liga As Best League in the World, English Premier League Second
January 11, 2011
The International Federation of Football History & Statistics has ranked La Liga as the best league in the world, overtaking the English Premier League.
Points for the ranking are calculated by adding together the total points (determined by wins, losses and draws) of the top five teams in each league and multiplying them by their FIFA co-efficients.
Whilst this system is by no means definitive proof of superiority, it should boost La Liga's reputation across the world.
By taking the points of the top five in La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid's dominance will certainly have been the biggest contributing factor, which could be (and often is) taken the other way to put down La Liga for a lack of competition.
However, the multiplication of co-efficients goes a long way to prove that Spanish clubs can hold their own across the world, and recognising that every team in the league has earned their place in what the IFFHS consider the best league in the world.
Few would argue that La Liga is deserving of a place in the top three, but as it always does, this ranking will surely spark debate once more over the strongest league in Europe and indeed the world.
The rest of the top ten will also encourage debate, as both the Italian and Brazilian Serie A leagues beat the German Bundesliga (ranking third, fourth and fifth respectively), just weeks after UEFA announced Germany would take Italy's forth Champion's League spot, and France's Ligue 1 finished ahead of Portugal and Argentina's leagues.
The top 10 looks like this:
- Spain
- England
- Italy
- Brazil
- Germany
- France
- Argentina
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- Ukraine
As earlier stated, the rankings are far from definitive, yet it must be considered a success for Spanish football leapfrogging England, who held the spot from 2007-2009, and taking the top spot for themselves for the first time since 2004.