Define what makes a competitive league

Please keep it civil.

When people talk about which league is the most competitive what are they talking about? How many teams have a shot at the title? How likely it is for an upset to occur? How close all teams are in terms of points?

7-10 teams benefiting from talented players and knowledgable manager , 4-6 with a chance to grab the title and others to give them a run for their money . What I'm getting at is serie a 7 sisters at top of their game just like 90's

Basically how many top teams there are in a league and the quality of the rest of clubs. EPL has 5-6 top teams and the rest of the teams are unique as well.

One which is difficult to win?

La Liga and the EPL are both competitive in opposite ways.

In the PL, there are a more teams around the same level. In the end they fall from the wayside (someone has to finished 5th after all) but during the bulk of the season there are numerous teams all playing well, winning games and dropping points to each other.

In La Liga, there are 2 and now 3 teams who for each game, the important of the result is magnified. Mistakes are punished more severely and every games importance is increased because of it.

EPL does not have 6 top teams by the way

There are 2. 3 if you want to count Chelsea who can always get a result against actual great teams.

For me a competitive league is one in which 3-4 teams battle for the title and the first 10-12 teams can always spring a surprise or give the favourites a run for their money. So yes, basically the BPL.

The most competitive league I have ever witnessed was Serie A in the late 1990s when Juve, Milan, Inter, Parma, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina or even Bologna all had great teams.

I like The Franchise's point about La Liga too tbh... very few errors are allowed against the "poor" teams.

A league that is TRULY competitive in my book is comperitive on all thirds, the top of the table, the midtable, and the relgation zoners.

What does this consist of? There are atleast three authentic challengers for top, cl place, etc.

La liga is currently competitive.

final result for last season
epl
difference between no.1 & no.2 was 11
1 Man Utd final pts  89
2 Man City             78
3 Chelsea             75
4 Arsenal             73
5 Tottenham             72
6 Everton             63
7 Liverpool             61
8 West Brom               49
9 Swansea             46
10 West Ham             46
11 Norwich             44
12 Fulham             43
13 Stoke City             42
14 Southampton     41
15 Aston Villa             41
16 Newcastle             41
17 Sunderland             39
18 Wigan             36
19 Reading             28
20 QPR                     25

argentina league
the difference was as same as 11, but between no.1 & no.17,
that's what i call competitive
1 San Lorenzo final pts 33
2 Lanus                                 31
3 Velez Sarsfield                     31
4 Newells Old Boys                  31
5 Arsenal S.                           30
6 Belgrano                             29
7 Boca Juniors                       29
8 Atl. Rafaela                        29
9 Estudiantes                        27
10 Rosario Central                    26
11 Gimnasia LP                        26
12 Tigre                                 25
13 Argentinos Juniors                25
14 Godoy Cruz                         24
15 River Plate                          23
16 Olimpo                               23
17 All Boys                             22
18 Quilmes                             20
19 Racing Club                       16
20 Colon                                6

you have to take into account that's only a half-season, you need to multiply that by 2 to compare. Would still make any European league look uncompetitive by comparison, though.

Yohan Modric wrote:Basically how many top teams there are in a league and the quality of the rest of clubs. EPL has 5-6 top teams and the rest of the teams are unique as well.

I think the unique angle is an interesting point, I think having that in the lower teams definetly adds something to the league. For example for a few years it was Stoke were a physical team who can shake anybody up at home, Wigan used to have amazing end of season runs to just stay up. I think part of that has been lost this year but to some extent the closeness of the league has made up for it.

Well, in the Bundesliga we currently might have the Bayern runing away for the second consecutive season, but if you look at it after 2000, you have them not only winning "only" 7 times so far (not more than, say, Manchester United in the PL who also won it 7 times in that time frame), but the first 4 are usually pretty varied.  

2001/02: 1. Dortmund, 2. Leverkusen, 3. Bayern, 4. Hertha
2002/03: 1. Bayern, 2. Stuttgart, 3. Dortmund, 4. HSV
2003/04: 1. Werder, 2. Bayern, 3. Leverkusen, 4. Stuttgart
2004/05: 1. Bayern, 2. Schalke, 3. Werder, 4. Hertha
2005/06: 1. Bayern, 2. Werder, 3. HSV, 4. Schalke
2006/07: 1. Stuttgart, 2. Schalke, 3. Werder, 4. Bayern
2007/08: 1. Bayern, 2. Werder, 3. Schalke, 4. HSV
2008/09: 1. Wolfsburg, 2. Bayern 3. Stuttgart, 4. Hertha
2009/10: 1. Bayern, 2. Schalke, 3. Werder, 4. Leverkusen
2010/11: 1. Dortmund, 2. Leverkusen, 3. Bayern, 4. Hannover
2011/12: 1. Dortmund, 2. Bayern, 3. Schalke, 4. M'gladbach
2012/23: 1. Bayern, 2. Dortmund, 3. Leverkusen, 4. Schalke

And if you look at the last matchday, you had 16th placed Freiburg defeating 2nd Leverkusen, 18th Braunschweig defeating 6th Hertha etc.

Actually that is the main problem of the BL - it is too copmpetitive among all teams other than Bayern. But if you look at Bayern in the CL, they usually don't have too fear much from non-German clubs either. In the BL all clubs take lots of points from each other and only Bayern in the last years have been consistent.

La Liga competitive lol Okaaayyyyy...

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