On many football forums and TV-shows around the world, fans and experts voice their opinion on what is the best football league in the world. Is it the Serie A with its grace and sophisticated tactics, the Bundesliga with its power and where the collective is favoured ahead of the individual, La Liga with its flair and flamboyance or is it the Premier League with its sheer ferocity and passion? Let’s ask ourselves what makes a football league the best and then take a closer look. We have picked four criteria (Audience, Competitiveness, European Performance and World Class Players) and compared the German Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, Spanish La Liga and the English Premier League. (Note that we are working from the assumption that the European leagues are considered to be the best ones in the world today. It is in these leagues that the best players (including South American, North American, Asian, African and Australian) end up – so we are concentrating on the European leagues here.) Audience How many people that follow a league should serve as a good indicator of how good it is. The football league with the highest average attendance is the German Bundesliga (41,802 in 2009-2010 season), Premier League was number two (34,151 in 2009-2010 season) – far ahead of both Italy and Spain. Arguably the Bundesliga has a terrific average and all credit to them, however it should be considered that the ticket prices are considerably lower than in England and this is likely to influence the average. In addition the Premier League is broadcast in an impressive 211 countries, which is said to be more than any other league. Competitiveness An open league where more than only a couple of teams can win generally means a league that is more exciting and interesting to watch. How does the Premier League compare here? La Liga has two real giants, 51 times (64%) in the past 79 years either Barcelona or Real Madrid have won the league. Serie A has 3 giants, 62 times (58%) in the past 106 years Internacionale, Juventus or Milan have won the league. The English League has 3 giants (although since the start of the Premier League it is often referred to as the big-4), 49 times (44%) in the past 111 years Man U, Liverpool or Arsenal have won the league.  Note that we are not comparing with the Bundesliga here due to the complexity and turbulence in the history of the country through the course of the 20th century. As we can see, the Premier League does have a lower % of wins by giant teams than La Liga and Serie A. European Performance Doing well in European competition shows how strong the best individual teams are. Serie A and La Liga have since the start of Champions League 1992-1993 each had winning teams 5 times and the Premier League has had winning teams 3 times (Man U twice and Liverpool once). Bundesliga teams have won the Champions League twice. So, looking at the performance of Premier League teams relative to others in Champions League, they may need to work a little harder to reach the top. World Class Players The best players should play in the World Cup. Let’s look at the World Cup in South Africa this year. When it started on the 11th June 2010 there were a total of 115 players representing Premier League clubs – this equals almost 16% of all players in the World Cup and is the highest representation of any league in the world. Germany was the second biggest contributor with 84 players (11%), Italy had 79 players (11%) and Spain 59 players (8%). To the neutral observer above facts might not help decide which league is the best, it might still be inconclusive. But, what is clear is that out of the four areas we looked closer at the English Premier League shines in competitiveness and boasts an impressive display of World Class players – no other league in Europe comes close. While it could improve on its European performance and increase its audience, isn’t an exciting league showing off incredible football talent what it is all about? Also, what we haven’t looked into is drive, pace, power, ferocity and not least the atmosphere in the arenas, all things that cannot be measured in numbers. Many fans would agree with us here that the Premier League delivers on every promise of passionate football. As August 14th is now around the corner, let’s all sit back and enjoy a new season of the greatest sport in the world being played in the best league in the world, which in our opinion clearly is the Premier League.