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A few years ago I started tracking the champions of European soccer leagues in a database to see if I could see any definite trend in competitiveness after the introduction of major advertising revenues via television rights deals, which exploded in the early nineties. I also wanted to compare them against the major US sports to compare turnover, meaning how many times new champions were crowned. I dropped them into a grid going back to 1984 (twenty-six years) and the results surprised me. (full tables below the cut)
First off, from looking at a list of champions alone, you can’t say that things changed dramatically for European soccer. In each of the big five leagues, the champions have always come from a very select few teams. In England, they’ve had 3 different teams win the title in 6 years; not so bad considering that the number only increases to 7 if you go all the way back to 1984. Also, I was surprised to see that the other European leagues had been just as static over that time period. Italy leads the pack with 9 different champs since 1984. The numbers look even worse if you toss out the teams that have only won one championship; Spain’s the worst offender as it really just boils down to two teams in Real Madrid and Barcelona, with Valencia winning twice and Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna, and Atletico Bilbao only topping the table once.
This stands in stark contrast with US sports, whose leagues have tried to maintain a higher level of parity. Even though it seems like dynasties are fairly common in US sports, the table shows quite a bit of turnover: fourteen and fifteen different champs for NFL and NHL, a whopping nineteen for MLB, leaving only the NBA as having numbers similar to the European leagues with 9. Only the Champions League (formerly European Cup) comes close to those numbers with fourteen different winners. Of course, there are a couple important variables: it’s cup competition not a league, and it runs concurrently with a domestic league season.
This data also discounts the fact that many of these title races go right down to the wire, but it also reveals the fact that certain teams always seem to win out in the end. Still, it’s hard to see how an eighteen-team, single-table European league wouldn’t be significantly more competitive and perhaps more interesting. I also can’t see a salary cap being put in place anytime soon, considering the clout these major European teams have, and there’s also no denying that the rich have become richer and that vying for these domestic league titles is a very, very expensive proposition.
Draw what conclusions you will.
| Spain | England | Italy | Germany | France | |
| 2009 | Barcelona | Man Utd |
Inter | Wolfsburg | Bordeaux |
| 2008 | Real Madrid | Man Utd | Inter | Bayern Mun | Lyon |
| 2007 | Real Madrid | Man Utd | Inter | vfb Stuttgart | Lyon |
| 2006 | Barcelona | Chelsea | Inter | Bayern Mun | Lyon |
| 2005 | Barcelona | Chelsea | none | Bayern Mun | Lyon |
| 2004 | Valencia | Arsenal | AC Milan | Bayern Mun | Lyon |
| 2003 | Real Madrid | Man Utd | Juventus | Bayern Mun | Lyon |
| 2002 | Valencia | Arsenal | Juventus | Bor Dortmund | Lyon |
| 2001 | Real Madrid | Man Utd | Roma | Bayern Mun | Nantes |
| 2000 | Deportivo | Man Utd | Lazio | Bayern Mun | Monaco |
| 1999 | Barcelona | Man Utd | AC Milan | Bayern Mun | Bordeaux |
| 1998 | Barcelona | Arsenal | Juventus | Kaiserslautern | Lens |
| 1997 | Real Madrid | Man Utd | Juventus | Bayern Mun | Monaco |
| 1996 | Atl Madrid | Man Utd | AC Milan | Bor Dortmund | Auxerre |
| 1995 | Real Madrid | Blackburn | Juventus | Bor Dortmund | Nantes |
| 1994 | Barcelona | Man Utd | AC Milan | Bayern Mun | PSG |
| 1993 | Barcelona | Man Utd | AC Milan | Werder Bremen | None |
| 1992 | Barcelona | Leeds | AC Milan | vfb Stuttgart | Marseilles |
| 1991 | Barcelona | Arsenal | Sampdoria | Kaiserslautern | Marseilles |
| 1990 | Real Madrid | Liverpool | Napoli | Bayern Mun | Marseilles |
| 1989 | Real Madrid | Arsenal | Inter | Bayern Mun | Monaco |
| 1988 | Real Madrid | Liverpool | AC Milan | Werder Bremen | Bordeaux |
| 1987 | Real Madrid | Everton | Napoli | Bayern Mun | Bordeaux |
| 1986 | Real Madrid | Liverpool | Juventus | Bayern Mun | PSG |
| 1985 | Barcelona | Everton | Verona | Bayern Mun | Bordeaux |
| 1984 | Atl Bilbao | Liverpool | Juventus | vfb Stuttgart | Bordeaux |
| Champs |
6
|
7
|
9
|
6
|
8
|
| Euro Champ |
NFL | MLB | NBA | NHL | |
| 2009 | Barcelona | Pittsburgh | |||
| 2008 | Man Utd | NY Giants | Philadelphia | Boston | Detroit |
| 2007 | AC Milan | Indianapolis | Boston | San Antonio | Anaheim |
| 2006 | Barcelona | Pittsburgh | St. Louis | Miami | Carolina |
| 2005 | Liverpool | New England | Chicago | San Antonio | none |
| 2004 | Porto | New England | Boston | Detroit | Tampa Bay |
| 2003 | AC Milan | Tampa Bay | Florida | San Antonio | New Jersey |
| 2002 | Real Madrid | New England | Anaheim | LA | Detroit |
| 2001 | Bayern Mun | Baltimore | Arizona | LA | Colorado |
| 2000 | Real Madrid | St. Louis | Yankees | LA | New Jersey |
| 1999 | Man Utd | Denver | Yankees | San Antonio | Dallas |
| 1998 | Real Madrid | Denver | Yankees | Chicago | Detroit |
| 1997 | Bor Dortmund | Green Bay | Florida | Chicago | Detroit |
| 1996 | Juventus | Dallas | Yankees | Chicago | Colorado |
| 1995 | Ajax | San Francisco | Atlanta | Houston | New Jersey |
| 1994 | AC Milan | Dallas | None | Houston | New York |
| 1993 | Marseilles | Dallas | Toronto | Chicago | Montreal |
| 1992 | Barcelona | Washington | Toronto | Chicago | Pittsburgh |
| 1991 | Red Star | NY Giants | Minnesota | Chicago | Pittsburgh |
| 1990 | AC Milan | San Francisco | Cincinnati | Detroit | Edmonton |
| 1989 | AC Milan | San Francisco | Oakland | Detroit | Calgary |
| 1988 | PSV | Washington | LA | LA | Edmonton |
| 1987 | Porto | NY Giants | Minnesota | LA | Edmonton |
| 1986 | Steau Buch | Chicago | Mets | Boston | Montreal |
| 1985 | Juventus | San Francisco | Kansas City | LA | Edmonton |
| 1984 | Liverpool | LA Raiders | Detroit | Boston | Edmonton |
|
14
|
15
|
19
|
9
|
14
|
4 Comments
Still, it’s hard to see how an eighteen-team, single-table European league wouldn’t be significantly more competitive and perhaps more interesting.
Agreed. I think one of the only ways you’ll ever see the top European leagues (especially England) get any more interesting individually is if you limit the number of automatic Champions League qualifying spots. Champions League money has become an annuity for England’s Top Four, one that gives them an almost perpetual monetary and status advantage (mismanagement of said money, a la Liverpool, notwithstanding). Even if they simply cut the automatic qualifiers to three and let the FA Cup winner into the CL instead of the UEoFA League, there would at least be a stiffer fight for third and for the cup.
Of course, it will never ever happen.
As a long-time Cubs fan, I should point out that MLB has TWO Chicago teams. You do need to distinguish them. (grin)
Go Leeds! (my maternal grandmother, who died in the 1930s, was from Leeds)
Dr. Phil
Phil, I was only comparing professional teams. Sorry.
Leeds United is actually the textbook tragic/cautionary tale for medium-sized clubs. They mortgaged the house to bring in loads of expensive players to vie with the European powerhouses and, for a couple three years it worked. Then they went through a bad patch, didn’t qualify for the Champions League (which meant losing all kinds of crazy money) and the bottom fell out. They were relegated twice and now reside in third tier of English football. This would be like the Cubbies coming close to winning the World Series and three years later find themselves playing in double-A baseball on front of a few hundred people.
You can read Wikipedia’s summaries here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_United#1996.E2.80.932001:_Living_the_Dream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_United#2001-2004:_Financial_implosion
John, sorry your comment got tangled in the spam queue. (I bet it was from the word “stiffer” if you can believe it.)
But yeah, I would love to see the Champions League be for, you know, champions. I’d love to see league winners and domestic cup winners go into the current Champions League and have teams 2-4 or 2-5 go to a much sterner UEFASuperLiga thingy.
Of course, that’s very close to how it used to work and it was the big boys who whined about missing out on so much revenue year after year. The gap is so wide now that the top teams’ reserve sides are better than most of the other teams in the league, and I know people alleged Mourinho snapped up guys like Glen Johnson and Wayne Bridge not to play them, but to keep other teams from having them. Great…