What is The Best Soccer League?

By Leo Honner

What is the best soccer league? From the VAR to the Signings, there must be one. But how can you judge a league? I thought of three things to judge the teams. Player and Team level or how good the average player and team is, the Referees and how good or bad (Mostly bad) decisions they make, and the excitement of each game. [The Premier League] because they have so many teams that are just good like Liverpool, Man City (Anyone who doesn’t know, this is Manchester City), and Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur)” Says Jonah Dzikiy, 604. And now, we start. Let me go over the three leagues. 

1: The English Premier League is a well-known league containing famous teams such as Manchester United and Liverpool, and players like Mo Salah and Erling Haaland. It was founded in 1992 which may seem close to today and it is, until you realize the parent league, the First Division, was founded in 1888! It has been incredibly famous and is thought to be the best European league. 

2: La Liga is the main Spanish league which was founded in 1929 with teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. La Liga is one of the most known leagues with an average attendance of 26,933 people in 2018-19. It’s a very competitive league, and there is always a battle for first place including lots of teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid.

3: Bundesliga was founded in 1963. With famous teams like Bayern Munich, and upstarts like Bayer Leverkusen, the Bundesliga is a fun and popular league. It holds the record for most average fans at a game with 45,134 fans on average.

But before I rate the leagues, what does our school think of this? 

“[La Liga] Because they have Madrid, they have Barcelona, and if we're talking about back in the day, they had some of the best players,” says Quinn Gallea, 601

Now, let’s rank the teams, starting with the English Premier League. For the EPL, the Refs come in at 6.5 out of 10. Look, I'm not trying to disrespect them. I know it’s not an easy job, but, if you're in the supposed top European League, you need to do better. The excitement clocks in at 8.5 out of 10. Even with the letdown that Burnley, Sheffield, and Luton are, the league is still exciting to watch. It is almost always competitive, and if a game is boring at any point, you can always switch to another game or watch for the thrill of constant goals. 

Most games are at times in the morning or midday and can be watched on cable services , or on streaming apps. The player/team level is 8.5/10. With players like Mo Salah, Erling Haaland, and Bukayo Saka, the EPL is sure not to disappoint. Almost all games are competitive (unless you play Burnley, Sheffield, or Luton) and underdog teams can pull off great upsets

Total: 8 (Rounded). 

La Liga: The referee’s level is 5/10. La Liga has some of the most criticized refs and rightly so. Barcelona fans are screaming at the refs because they are supposedly biased, but the Real Madrid fans are doing the same! Vinícius Júnior was abused by racist chants and the ref did nothing! For excitement, it comes in at 7/10. With the teams, lots of things can happen. But it’s still not the most competitive. Most teams stay at the same skill level and only the top teams get better. Although a Real Madrid or Barcelona game is fun, a game between Sevilla and Almeria probably isn’t. Player/Team level is 8/10. I had to give them one more point because of Mbappe coming. It’s hard not to. Most teams here can beat anyone but none are that good. Madrid and Barcelona are the only really good teams, but it’s better than most leagues. Overall: 7/10

Bundesliga: The rating of the refs comes in at 7.5 out of 10! That’s the highest referee score so far! Wow. I tried to look up Bundesliga referees and the first 10+ things that came up were the actual names! Then, I tried to look up failures and only one thing in the top ten websites was errors. This is so much better than the other leagues. It was one of the worst but now, it has very much improved.

The excitement level is 8/10. From “Neverkusen” becoming “Neverlusen” to Bayern getting Harry Kane from Spurs, the Bundesliga league has it all! Yes, the gap between the lower and upper class teams is large but with the new signings and upstarts, what’s not to like? 

The player/team level is a: 6.5/10 This is the only part I can't give them a good grade on. I know they signed Harry Kane, but the teams aren’t great. Leverkusen, Bayern, and Dortmund are doing well now and Leipzig is good, but overall, it’s mid. Overall:7.5

After finding the average for all the results, the winner is The English Premier League!