Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Thierry Henry, Mohamed Salah, Luis Suarez – just some of the names from past and present that have graced the Premier League in its history.
The Premier League seems to attract more and more attention with each year passing, and one logical question may arise – is that attention due to its increasing quality or is it just that the Premier League knows how to conduct its marketing? Well, here, we will take a closer look at the competitiveness of the Premier League – is it increasing and is the League itself becoming more intense?
Leading The Way in Dominance
The Premier League is one of the so-called “Top 5” leagues in Europe, and it seems like it has managed to pull away from its rival leagues in recent years. That dominance is evident by just looking at the European competitions in recent years.
An English team has been in the Champions League final in five of the past six seasons, with three Premier League teams winning it. Manchester City is the latest winner of the competition, winning it for the first time in their history in the 2022/23 season.
Meanwhile, West Ham won the Europa Conference League last campaign, so even the so-called “mid-table teams” in the Premier League seem to boast incredible quality.
So, no one should really be surprised to see that Opta’s Power Rankings has assigned 87.66 points to the Premier League. The list goes as follows:
- Premier League – 87.66
- Bundesliga – 84.04
- Serie A – 83.46
- La Liga – 83.43
- Ligue 1 – 81.41
- Championship – 78.58
Opta’s Power Rankings is a ranking system that assigns ability scores to football teams on a scale from 0-100 (0 is the works-ranked team in the world and 100 gets the best-ranked football team).
Financial Power
It is no coincidence that people say “money runs the world”. That is certainly one of the deciding factors that make the Premier League such an exciting football league – both for supporters and players.
The statistics clearly demonstrate the financial success of the Premier League in the 2022/23 season. An impressive sum exceeding £2.5 billion, encompassing prize money and broadcast revenue, was distributed among the 20 participating clubs. Of course, Manchester City – the champions, got the biggest chunk of £160 million, with bottom-placed Southampton netting £100 million, despite their desperate season!
There is no public disclosure of the figures, but every place in the Premier League table is worth around £2.2 million, and the broadcasting income is divided equally among teams. Clubs even make additional revenue, depending on how often they are selected for domestic TV.
In addition, we cannot forget about the money that comes from the Champions League qualification. Chelsea and Liverpool seem to be the biggest losers from the 2022/23 season, as they missed out on a top-four finish – participation in the Champions League is worth around £100 million!
Since these teams are regular occupants of Champions League places, their finances are sure to get a hit, but based on the numbers above – they have more than enough alternative sources of income!
More Games & Competitions
More competitions are certainly good news for fans and punters! The expansion of competitions is fantastic news for football fans and bettors alike. With each year, those who enjoy placing football accumulator bets have an increasing array of matches to choose from.
The money in the Premier League does not fall from the sky – teams now play more games, and players are pushed to their physical and psychological limits. The new Champions League format will bring more matches to participants, and the international breaks always bring some bad injury news to teams.
It won’t get any better for players, as just recently, UEFA announced its plans for the Club World Cup in 2025 – held in the USA.
All this leads us to one point – more money means teams have to play more games. These games require strong and big squads, and since Premier League teams are financially superior to their European counterparts, they are better equipped to cope with the demands and be successful in every competition they participate.
No Signs of Stopping
We can safely say that the Premier League is getting more intense with each passing season, but that is merely an answer to the global demand. Sponsors don’t invest for nothing- they expect the best players and the best football in England, and they surely get their money’s worth!
Teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus advocate for the creation of the European Super League with an aim to bridge the obvious gap that emerges between them and the Premier League.
Even though they claim the Super League idea is not dead, reality says different – it very much is and there is no catching the Premier League!
