If what the media say ‘the English premier League is the best in the world’ is true, then how come only two out of its four teams are in the draw?
---
Despite the blips, England still tops UEFA coefficients for this season alone (as well as the rolling 5-year ranking):
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/ccoef2012.html
The only objection I have is that I don't think any league is as far ahead of the rest as the apologists would have you think.
It's interesting if you toggle back over the last 10 seasons (links top right of the page posted above) to see the best-performing nations in each season. It returns some pretty surprising results:
2011 Portugal
2010 Germany
2009 Ukraine
2008 England
2007 Spain
2006 Romania (!)
2005 England
2004 Spain
2003 Italy
2002 Spain
The rankings are the weighted averages of all the performances of all of the clubs from each particular league. This means that if a country only has 4 teams in Europe but all 4 do well, they'll have a higher ranking than a country with 8 clubs if half of them perform poorly.
Nevertheless, it does show that even the clubs from some of the more obscure leagues are capable of doing well in a given season.
Their problem is that those seasons are normally a flash in the pan. They can't sustain the same standards consistently - but it does show that they can be quite competitive if things go right.
The reason England are top is that even though you've only topped the rankings once in the past 5 years, you've clearly been the most consistent, finishing 2nd in all of the other seasons.
Champions League/Europa League
Page 1 of 1
posted on 16/12/11
If what the media say ‘the English premier League is the best in the world’ is true, then how come only two out of its four teams are in the draw?
---
Despite the blips, England still tops UEFA coefficients for this season alone (as well as the rolling 5-year ranking):
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/ccoef2012.html
The only objection I have is that I don't think any league is as far ahead of the rest as the apologists would have you think.
It's interesting if you toggle back over the last 10 seasons (links top right of the page posted above) to see the best-performing nations in each season. It returns some pretty surprising results:
2011 Portugal
2010 Germany
2009 Ukraine
2008 England
2007 Spain
2006 Romania (!)
2005 England
2004 Spain
2003 Italy
2002 Spain
The rankings are the weighted averages of all the performances of all of the clubs from each particular league. This means that if a country only has 4 teams in Europe but all 4 do well, they'll have a higher ranking than a country with 8 clubs if half of them perform poorly.
Nevertheless, it does show that even the clubs from some of the more obscure leagues are capable of doing well in a given season.
Their problem is that those seasons are normally a flash in the pan. They can't sustain the same standards consistently - but it does show that they can be quite competitive if things go right.
The reason England are top is that even though you've only topped the rankings once in the past 5 years, you've clearly been the most consistent, finishing 2nd in all of the other seasons.
Page 1 of 1