5 February 2011- 

The International Federation of Football History & Statistics has ranked La Liga as the best league in the world, overtaking the English Premier League.

The strongest National League in the World 2010:

 Spain finished the English dominance of the last years !
 

 The world ranking for the strongest national leagues has been determined annually by the IFFHS since 1991 on the basis of all national (championship, FA Cup) and (inter)continental (confederations & FIFA club competitions) results of the clubs. This principle has proved to be a very sensitive and an objective indicator. In particular, the world ranking 2010 has produced the following:

1st
The English Premier League is no longer the No.1 in the world. The Spanish Primera División is now The strongest League in the World.

2nd
In comparision with 2009 - Italy and Germany have exchanged the places among the "Top 7". The Italian Serie A has above all benefited from the performances of FC Internazionale Milano, while in the German Bundesliga many teams were inconsistent over the 12 months.  This was confirmed by the failure of BV Borussia Dortmund, the clear leader of the Bundesliga, in the national cup competition and in the Europe League. As a consequence the German Bundesliga fell back to 5th place.

3rd
The largest movements in performance globally – compared to 2009 - was recorded by the leagues of Portugal (8th), Ecuador (13th), Russia (14th), Peru (16th), Denmark (17th), Colombia (20th), Egypt (23rd), Iran (31st), Cyprus (35th) and Bolivia (44th), all of which secured about a hundred more points.

4th
The largest deterioration in performance globally – compared to 2009 - was recorded by the leagues of Romania and Nigeria, each amassed a hundred points fewer. And clear reductions in performance were registered by the leagues of Turkey, the Czech Republic and Austria. Consequently, the promotion of the promotion of the Austrian Bundesliga is on hold for now.

5th
The leagues of Morocco, Qatar and Kuwait improved markedly and just missed the "Top 50", while the leagues of Botswana, Malawi and India made the "Top 100" for the first time.  And if the league of Azerbaijan is again placed in the "Top 90" in 2011, it will promoted in the third highest group of performance.

6th
While the league of the Republic of Korea in 2010 confirmed its growing  strength and was promoted (from 1st January 2011) to the 2nd highest group of performance - as 2nd Asian league -, the league of Saudi Arabia missed this goal. Nevertheless the leagues from Saudi Arabia and Iran remain potential candidates for promotion.

7th
In Africa the leagues from Tunisia and Algeria have the best chance in future of being promoted to the 2nd highest group of performance.

8th
In the CONCACAF area the Major League Soccer (USA) improved further and has a clear lead of the following countries - and behind the Mexican Primera División which is clear the strongest league of this footballing continent.

9th
In South America the Primera División of Ecuador has improved considerably and is the third-strongest league of this footballing continent, behind the leagues of Brazil and Argentina but ahead of Peru.

10th
The World‘s best Top Division Goal Scorer 2011 (including the most effective) will be determined from the 60 top leagues for the year 2010.

The Spanish Primera División will be honoured as The strongest League in the World 2010 on occasion of the World Football Gala 2011.

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: 

1. Spain
2. England
3. Italy
4. Brazil
5. Germany
6. France
7. Argentina
8. Portugal
9. Netherlands
10. 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{jcomments on}.

Tweet

Tweetle                      Paylaş                        Paylaş