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There is quite a few people say The Prem is the best league in the world.
Not at this moment I'd say.
There's more world class players in Spain and the current Euro champs are Spanish.
Also there's the fact that the Spanish have a less punishing tax rate which in future will keep on attracting world class players.
I'd say La Liga is at the moment better than the Prem and will be our biggest obstacle in getting the best players.

Only Barca and R Madrid pay over 100k a week to players.

Tax rate dont mean shit when your on 120-160k plus that a lot of Prem players are tapping

I wonder if we will be comparing the French League 1 with the prem in 5yrs, the amount of Top top players coming through that are English is alarming one director of a prem accadamy has only last week staed "English football could be in crisis over the next 10yrs the amount of money spent in the accadamy's has produced close to nothing of an exeptional level, we have workman like players and nothing special and that goes fro almost every Premier team, Arsenal and United have great foreign players of a young age but almost no Englsih Talent coming through"

Rag_hater wrote:Also there's the fact that the Spanish have a less punishing tax rate which in future will keep on attracting world class players.

Not for long it won't ......still be lower but not low enough to make any real difference

"A partner at Cuatrecasas has criticised the Spanish government for announcing that it will abandon the so-called ‘Beckham Law’, which allows star footballers and other wealthy workers coming into the country to pay almost half the going tax rate.

In its budget for 2010, the ruling Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party has said that it will repeal the Spanish tax decree - enacted in 2005 - which allowed foreign workers who earn over €600,000 a year and meet other criteria to pay a tax rate of just 24 per cent for five years, and only pay tax on their Spanish source of income and assets.

After 2010 those who formerly would have enjoyed the tax break will now have to pay the 43 per cent levy imposed on Spanish nationals earning the same amount."

Hazy wrote:I wonder if we will be comparing the French League 1 with the prem in 5yrs, the amount of Top top players coming through that are English is alarming one director of a prem accadamy has only last week staed "English football could be in crisis over the next 10yrs the amount of money spent in the accadamy's has produced close to nothing of an exeptional level, we have workman like players and nothing special and that goes fro almost every Premier team, Arsenal and U***d have great foreign players of a young age but almost no Englsih Talent coming through"

I think the Russians are going to be next big league.
Once sky begin to pay less to their fav 4 I think the talent in UK will dry up a bit.
And TV audiences are the biggest for the Prem at the moment but maybe the TV companies will start showing La Liga more in future because of the quality of players it has and then I think UK football may suffer.I hope not.

Hazy wrote:I wonder if we will be comparing the French League 1 with the prem in 5yrs, the amount of Top top players coming through that are English is alarming one director of a prem accadamy has only last week staed "English football could be in crisis over the next 10yrs the amount of money spent in the accadamy's has produced close to nothing of an exeptional level, we have workman like players and nothing special and that goes fro almost every Premier team, Arsenal and U***d have great foreign players of a young age but almost no Englsih Talent coming through"

seems to be the problem with all british sports at the moment..... the worst for me being rugby, everytime i hear one the players being interviewed i cringe - they are all clones who've had all their natural flair coached out of them. time to get back to basics and make sport fun again...

just take the UEFA ranking

England 71,856 points
Spain 69,900
Italy 57,195
Germany 53,707
France 46,240
Russia 40,791

they are nearly on the same level, but to my mind La Liga is Barca vs. Real and this is boring

ant london wrote:

Rag_hater wrote:Also there's the fact that the Spanish have a less punishing tax rate which in future will keep on attracting world class players.

Not for long it won't ......still be lower but not low enough to make any real difference

"A partner at Cuatrecasas has criticised the Spanish government for announcing that it will abandon the so-called ‘Beckham Law’, which allows star footballers and other wealthy workers coming into the country to pay almost half the going tax rate.

In its budget for 2010, the ruling Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party has said that it will repeal the Spanish tax decree - enacted in 2005 - which allowed foreign workers who earn over €600,000 a year and meet other criteria to pay a tax rate of just 24 per cent for five years, and only pay tax on their Spanish source of income and assets.

After 2010 those who formerly would have enjoyed the tax break will now have to pay the 43 per cent levy imposed on Spanish nationals earning the same amount."

I suppose that will even it up a bit.
Do you know if UK based players have to pay national insurance? Over here we (well my missus) has to pay a small amount of tax towards health care.
I was wondering if that would bump up British based players tax bill cos from what I remember it was about 10% but I might be wrong.

Rag_hater wrote:

Hazy wrote:I wonder if we will be comparing the French League 1 with the prem in 5yrs, the amount of Top top players coming through that are English is alarming one director of a prem accadamy has only last week staed "English football could be in crisis over the next 10yrs the amount of money spent in the accadamy's has produced close to nothing of an exeptional level, we have workman like players and nothing special and that goes fro almost every Premier team, Arsenal and U***d have great foreign players of a young age but almost no Englsih Talent coming through"

I think the Russians are going to be next big league.
Once sky begin to pay less to their fav 4 I think the talent in UK will dry up a bit.
And TV audiences are the biggest for the Prem at the moment but maybe the TV companies will start showing La Liga more in future because of the quality of players it has and then I think UK football may suffer.I hope not.

I think one of the main points for the PL being so popular is that it currently has a great combination of Skill, Tallent, fast pace and some hard challenges and battles....

La Liga may have attracted more skillful players in the last year or so but the complete lack of any challenges (that dont result in fouls) is fustrating - the flair players are much more protected and eventually (IMHO) you end up yelling at someone to break the fecker!

Russia are close to thier peak now i believe, plastic pitches, bitter weather conditions and a high level of racism will hold it back from stretching out further.

Rag_hater wrote:I suppose that will even it up a bit.
Do you know if UK based players have to pay national insurance? Over here we (well my missus) has to pay a small amount of tax towards health care.
I was wondering if that would bump up British based players tax bill cos from what I remember it was about 10% but I might be wrong.

Yep they do....if you go 7-8 years back NI contributions were capped so that you only paid 10% on about 30k of your earnings (and nothing further if you were paid more than that). However, the government then lifted off the cap. And if you are paid in excess of probably around 35k all the excess is subject to 1% NICs

That said, the whole amount of your earnings (in excess of around a 5k exemption) is subject to 12.8% employers contribution.

So was a big increase in operating costs for companies with lots of highly paid people.

But to your original point, yeah it will level the playing field somewhat. The clubs and the financial profession have been lobbying against the change but everything I have read indicates that its gonna get scrapped

The Premier League is faster and has a better European minded playset 4 teams, in that our so called elite 4 get further than their La Liga counterparts, but all the best players in the world are in La Liga (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Benzema, Kaka etc), whereas we have a sprinkle 2-3 of what you would class in that bracket in this country and that are not all "washed up" and past it.

I think techincal football ability the La Liga is miles ahead of the Premiership and although the big two take all the plaudits and credit (and rightly so) there are also 4-5 other sides who would easily end in the top 4/6 in this country if they were included within a 38 game season and not a one-off basis over 2 legs.

For me the La Liga is the best league in the world.....best players, stronger league and better football.

I can never see Russia becoming a prominent league where all the worlds best players will want to play. The weather is shite most of the time, the facilities in the towns and cities such as transport systems are atrocious because of decades of non-development by the communist governments and the current one. English is a language taught in most European countries, Russian isn't.
What i can see thoug is some Russian teams doing very well in European tournaments and one will win the CL within the next 5 years imo because of the amount of money floating around in football over there. All that money though will only develope Russian talent and not entice the likes of Kaka, Tranaldo etc.

The prem is so much better then la liga, top to bottom anyway. Barca wasn't even that much better then Chelsea in the Champs league semi final last season, and I just have no respect for United so they don't really matter to me. I think the prem's 10-20 teams could easily take la liga's 10-20 teams.

Rag_hater wrote:I think the Russians are going to be next big league.

But if you underachieve with an oligarch's team, look where you're banished to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Bunyodkor

Robinho_Is_GOD wrote:The Premier League is faster and has a better European minded playset 4 teams, in that our so called elite 4 get further than their La Liga counterparts, but all the best players in the world are in La Liga (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Benzema, Kaka etc), whereas we have a sprinkle 2-3 of what you would class in that bracket in this country and that are not all "washed up" and past it.

I think techincal football ability the La Liga is miles ahead of the Premiership and although the big two take all the plaudits and credit (and rightly so) there are also 4-5 other sides who would easily end in the top 4/6 in this country if they were included within a 38 game season and not a one-off basis over 2 legs.

For me the La Liga is the best league in the world.....best players, stronger league and better football.

Completely disagree. The fact that English teams consistently take more CL semi final spots than Spanish teams proves this IMO. Spain has 2 serious contenders to the title and you know this on day 1. Over the last 3 seasons each of the top 4 have been serious contenders at least 1 of those yrs. It's a matter of time before we make that 5.

Spain may have the higher number of superstars, but competition itself is no match for the prem and at least in this country it will be a very distant 2nd for many yrs to come. The entire world watches the prem.

Prem by far. Just because a La Liga team have won the CL twice in the last 5 years and Real have decided to go Galactico does not mean that they have the best league. Afterall, English teams have won it twice but had a contender in the final in the last 5 finals. It's also down to the overall appeal where I believe the Prem is miles ahead. La Liga relies on 2 teams who negotiate their own rights, leaving the rest to fight for the scraps, whereas the Prem has 4, possibly 6 or 7 contenders this year and paid a decent amount from top-to-bottom.

And to finish, it's English and I'm English, so the Prem Rules!!!

Not bashing anybody's opinions on here, but for those amongst us who think the Prem is more competitive than La Liga (a league that has 2 contenders in seriously who can win....Barca, Madrid and maybe a 3rd in Seville)

How many realistic title challengers are there in the Premiership?.....I think it is 2 and maybe 3 just like in Spain, certainly no more than that.

Chelsea (light years ahead of anybody else IMO)
scum (purely because they are well managed and have someone who helps them when needed on their side (ref))
Arsenal (maybe)...(this because of the style of football they play and the fact that their youngsters are so talented together as a team, it must happen one day for them surely).

City, Liverpool, Spurs, Villa and Everton have no chance of winning the league, neither are consistent enough, drop too many points against poor sides or simply don't have the talent pool available.

So in short, IMO the leagues are as competitive as each other, I mentioned in my earlier thread that we do better as club sides in Europe, rather than over a sustained period of time, cup games are only one-off matches, but in Spain is where all the best players either are or wish to be.

La Liga is far more competative than the Prem.
Since the Prem began there was the fluke of Blackburn and including them there have been 4 different winners.
In that same time period 6 different teams have won La Liga.
Here upsets against the big teams are more likely.
Like RIG says its between Cheski and them in the prem really nobody else really has a chance.
I think Chelsea would be about 4th if they were in this league.
Barca and Real are miles ahead of them and Sevilla are about on par with the best EPL teams.
The Prem's time is over I'd say,they had a few years but have been overtaken again.

Rag_hater wrote:La Liga is far more competative than the Prem.
Since the Prem began there was the fluke of Blackburn and including them there have been 4 different winners.
In that same time period 6 different teams have won La Liga.
Here upsets against the big teams are more likely.
Like RIG says its between Cheski and them in the prem really nobody else really has a chance.
I think Chelsea would be about 4th if they were in this league.
Barca and Real are miles ahead of them and Sevilla are about on par with the best EPL teams.
The Prem's time is over I'd say,they had a few years but have been overtaken again.

Last season Liverpool were on top for ages and should have won it. A season or two back the same thing with Arsenal. We could easily do a timeframe of different winners that suits the prem over Spain, but the fact is right now there are 4 teams that start the season each yr aiming to win the title and could conceivably manage it. In Spain there are 2.

The Premier League has had a great 5 yrs in the champs League. However as this has been down to Money more than skill I would say the Spanish League will go on to dominate, maybe Chelsea will win the Champs League however with an old team this is now or never for them. Spanish football will with Madrid spending big and Barca having Guardiola, and a style of football I tip the Spanish to dominate unless Italian or English sides produce some decent players quickly.