La Liga vs. the Premier League as the two giants of soccer
by Gabe Korngold ‘23 and Mateo Sufuentes ‘21
The English Premier League (EPL or PL) and La Liga (the Spanish league) tend to rise to the top of European soccer, the world’s epicenter of the sport. They continuously compete for viewers, for Champions League and Europa League trophies, and for players.
This is a comparison of the two leagues by their level of competitiveness, past success, star power, and their worldwide audience. In addition, we take a look at what the future holds for both leagues and how they will be able to improve.
Competition:
La Liga-
Club Atlético De Madrid Celebrates La Liga Title (Via Getty Images
Put simply, La Liga has less competition among teams within the league.
Figure 1: Graph of average annual player salary for each La Liga team in 2019-2020 (Via Statista)
Except for the 2013-2014 upset by Atletico Madrid, the two largest clubs, either FC Barcelona or Real Madrid have won every single other La Liga season of the decade. These three teams have ended in the top three most years. The only other team that has finished within the first three spots of the league by the end of the season has been Valencia during two especially good seasons in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.
Each team’s average annual player salary in La Liga throughout the 2019-2020 season reflects this lack of competition. A select few teams are able to pay their players up to six times the average of the rest of the teams in the league.
FC Barcelona and Real Madrid are at the top of world futbol in terms of what they are able to pay their players. Each have average annual salaries of $12.28 and $11.15 million respectively.
In third place, Atletico Madrid comfortably rests at $7.04 million. This is almost half of what the two giants are able to pay their players. However, in comparison to the EPL, in this regard, Atletico is able to compete with such giants as Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal and Chelsea.
The next seven teams in La Liga though, average $2.02 million per player. This sharp decline does not allow the rest of the teams to compete with the top three when it comes to attracting talent.
It has not always been this way though. In the 2000’s, Chelsea and Manchester United dominated the EPL every year but two years where Arsenal won. During the 2000’s, La Liga winners were still predominantly FC Barcelona and Real Madrid with the occasional Valencia win in 2001-2002 and 2003-2004. However, smaller clubs such as Real Sociedad, Villareal, Sevilla, Valencia, and especially Deportivo La Coruña, consistently made it into the top three of the league.
Historically, La Liga has seen giants such as Sevilla and Atletico Madrid relegated. On the other hand, the largest EPL clubs relegated to its second division have been the much smaller Newcastle and Blackburn according to a Bleacher Report article.
“These things work in cycles, and there was a time when nobody could compete with Man United. As Barcelona and Madrid build up debt and subsequently tighten their belts, the league will open up more and more,” explained Bleacher Report writer, Gareth Lowe.
We are in the midst of a kind of “recession” for Barcelona and Madrid. Both of them have been performing poorly for two years now in the Champions League and, now, at the start of their season, both racked losses against Ferencvaros, and Cadiz. There is increasing young talent on teams such as Real Betis and Real Sociedad while poor management and loss of identity makes competing against the two superpowers in the league a much more even match.
English Premier League-
After a thrilling season, Leicester hoists the Premier League trophy in 2016. (via Getty Images)
On the surface, the Premier League is just another capitalist sports establishment. There are six clubs that consistently perform in the Premiership (commonly referred to as the Big Six): Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham.
Obviously, the primary reason for the success of these clubs is capital. According to a 2019 Forbes list, their combined values total at over $15 billion, and all six teams rank among the top 10 wealthiest in the world.
However, this financial strength does not guarantee consistent results. These clubs still crumble at the hands of smaller teams, especially in this decade.
Perhaps the most well known example of this is the Cinderella story of Leicester City in the 2015-16 season. With 5000 to 1 odds of success, Leicester, a team that had just been promoted and subsequently nearly relegated the year prior (the bottom three teams at the end of the season are demoted and the top three in the lower division are promoted), won the Premier League, overcoming the longest odds in sports history.
This is part of the appeal of English soccer. Even smaller sides like Leicester have a chance against larger clubs.
The 2020-21 season has also had its fair share of surprises. Everton, a team that usually finishes mid-table, sits atop the Premier League going into gameweek seven.
Furthermore, there have been miraculous upsets in just the first few weeks of play. Liverpool, considered by many to be the greatest team in the world, was humiliated in a 7-2 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa, a side that avoided relegation in the final gameweek of the previous season.
One aspect of the Premiership that distances it from other European leagues is where the wealthiest clubs buy their players from. Most Premier League teams outsource their players from other leagues, or often bring them up through the academy system, but this is not the case in many of the European leagues.
In an interview, Catlin Gabel School (CGS) varsity coach and soccer enthusiast Peter Shulman discussed Bayern Munich, a German team that has won their league eight years in a row.
“It’s brutal what they do,” said Shulman. “They basically are just cannibalizing their biggest competitors, so the Bundesliga really suffers, even though I think there are some great players there, but Bayern is so far ahead of everybody else.”
Shulman brought up Bayern stars Robert Lewandowski, Matts Hummels, and Mario Gotze, who were all bought directly from league rivals Borussia Dortmund. Although Hummels and Gotze have since returned, Hummels has enjoyed limited success at Dortmund and Gotze has moved on to the Netherlands.
The situation in Germany is mirrored in most of the major leagues across Europe.
In France’s Ligue 1, Paris has won seven of the last eight seasons, and they commandeered starlet Kylian Mbappe from league rivals Monaco. At just 19 years of age, he would go on to win the World Cup and be compared to the likes of Messi and Pele.
In Italy, Juventus has a firm grasp on Serie A.
Even in La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid face no domestic competition, and have won every year since 2005, with one exception. The Premier League, however, is hard to predict year to year and this makes it perhaps the most competitive league in the world.
Former Success:
La Liga-
Real Madrid beats Liverpool in the 2017-2018 UEFA Champions League Final (Via Getty Images)
La Liga has been the most successful of the two leagues throughout the past decade.
Six of the last 10 Champions League finals have featured Spanish teams, all of which have ended with the Spanish side winning the championship. Twice, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid, a lesser known blue collar power house, have matched up in the finals. La Liga teams’ success in the Champions League is not only due to FC Barcelona and Real Madrid’s success. Both the EPL and La Liga are guaranteed four teams in the Champions League. This guarantee is earned and calculated taking into account each champions league club’s run from that association in the past five years. Yes, the top two teams are pulling a great deal of the weight, but let’s look at the rest of the qualifiers.
Atletico Madrid, Valencia, and more than any other, Sevilla, have dominated the Europa League now since the 2003-2004 season. In this time period, they have won a combined ten of the seventeen finals against a variety of teams including the EPL’s own Arsenal, Liverpool, Fulham, and Middlesbrough. In fact, in two separate occasions it has been two Spanish teams in the finals with the finalists being Atletico Bilbao, and Espanyol.
English Premier League-
Liverpool hoists the Champions League trophy in 2019 (via Getty Images)
While the Premier League has flourished in recent years, its former success is debatable.
English teams have a tendency to underperform in the UEFA Champions League in the past few decades. Since the year 1990, only five teams have become champions of Europe, compared to an impressive 12 from Spain.
The years 2005-2012 were arguably the most dominant period for English teams. In that timeframe, the Premier League had a club reach the Champions League final in seven out of eight tournaments.
Yet this pales in comparison to the might of Barcelona and Real Madrid on the world stage. While the Premier League has a higher entertainment value than La Liga, its competition produces two of the best clubs in the world, and England has not been able to generate teams that are on the same level as these superpowers.
On top of this, the Premier League was not always the blend of international talent that it is today. During the first ever game week in 1992, only 13 players came from outside the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Overall, the peak of teams from the Premiership likely lies in the future.
Star Power:
La Liga-
This is debatable.
Lionel Messi (Center), Neymar Jr. (Left), and Luis Suarez (Right) in an FC Barcelona training session (Via Getty Images)
In a survey shared with 14 boys of the Catlin Gabel School (CGS) soccer program in a virtual soccer practice, 12 responded that the Premier League has the greater concentration of star players. The Premier League has the greater all around amount and even distribution of talent contributes to a more competitive league.
However, when it comes to the best players in the world, down to four or five, they are found in leagues such as the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, and of course, La Liga. These players are arguably Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., and Robert Lewandowski.
“What the premier league doesn't have is the very, very best players in the world, like Messi, Ronaldo, and arguably Neymar. The three stand-out players in the world don’t play in the premier league. The reason they don't play in the premier league is because you're not guaranteed to win the league. If you play in La Liga, you have a one in two chance of winning the league,” explained Pete Hoppins, owner of The Toffee Club, what he refers to as a Portland “English football pub.”
The clubs Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar play for are also some of the wealthiest clubs in the world. In fact, Real Madrid used to be even more dominant with the age of the “Galacticos” starting in the late 90’s through the mid 2010’s. This was a super team of the best players in the world brought to the Spanish capital to showcase their individual talent. This once attracted the likes of Ronaldo Nazario, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Robinho, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, and many more that will go down in history as the best players who ever lived. In the past decade, foreign investment has made Manchester City and PSG serious competitors for Real Madrid when it comes to forming teams out of pure capital.
English Premier League-
Kevin de Bruyne (front) and Raheem Sterling (left) in a Champions League match against Real Madrid (via Getty Images)
While it may not contain the two best players in the world, The Premier League certainly boasts a multitude of world class talent. Kevin De Bruyne, N’golo Kante (Chelsea), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Jamie Vardy (Leicester), and Mohammed Salah (Liverpool) are just a few of the many names.
Besides this, there have been many famous players who have spent time in England, such as David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
In fact, one of the reasons for the high viewership of the Premier League is the introduction of players from all around the world. In recent years, talents from less-prominent countries have attracted an audience from their homeland.
An example of this is Korean superstar Son Heung-Min. While most of his countrymen play at home, Son is a regular for Tottenham, and so Korean supporters flock to the Premier League in order to see him in action.
Academy talent is also present in the Premier League.
Stars like Paul Pogba of Manchester United and Trent Alexander Arnold of Liverpool are homegrown players that now represent club and country on a regular basis. Chelsea, in fact, played last season with a team made up almost entirely of homegrown players, and they were able to secure a Champions League spot.
On the international level, Premier League players are also ever-present. France’s victorious 2018 World Cup squad included five PL talents, and third place Belgium consisted of an impressive 10 players from English teams.
Overall, the players that make up the Premier League are also one of the key reasons for its success.
Marketing World-wide
La Liga-
La Liga does not nearly have the world-wide audience that the English Premier League has.
For one, the lack of competition limits the excitement that can be packaged into any and all games in the league that do not involve the top four to five teams.
“The premier league is better because it's a better all-around exciting package. It’s marketed better. The games are more evenly matched, and more different teams win the league. I think you have better players across the board and better managers,” said Hoppins.
The most high profile names in management throughout Europe can be found in the Premier League. Many of them, however, originated in La Liga, from Unai Emery, to Pep Guardiola, to Jose Mourinho. FC Barcelona has also recently looked inwards towards its own league when looking for new managers. Jose Valverde coached many mid-table clubs in La Liga for nearly two decades before coming to FC Barcelona. Luis Enrique coached Celta de Vigo previously.
The way the EPL is marketed, though, is without a doubt far superior.
“I think the way the premier league is packaged is extremely compelling and kind of relentless. Also, the TV money now is allowing the lower level teams to compete,” said Hoppins.
While La Liga’s current TV rights are similar to those of the EPL, this change only happened five years ago and the full effect is still in progress.
“I watch a lot more premier league, mostly because it's broadcasted more widely here in the states,” read one of the anonymous responses for the student survey.
“La Liga’s American TV partner, BeIN Sports’ … U.S. audience plunged two years ago when BeIN was dropped by both Comcast and DirecTV. The network fell from around 55 million subscribers during the 2017-18 season (English and Spanish language combined) to 27 million,” shared Javier Tebas Medrano, the president of La Liga.
While this is true, La Liga has never had a firm grip on the American demographic. This is partially due to the language barrier, which the EPL does not have to deal with. Furthermore, if attempts were made to reach a South American audience, it would have to compete with already high profile, local leagues such as the Mexican league, the Brazilian league, and the Argentinian league.
English Premier League-
Son Heung-Min, a Korean international, attracts thousands of fans from his home country. (via Getty Images)
Perhaps the reason for the success of the Premier League is its fan bases all around the world.
One of the primary factors that allows for a worldwide audience is the players. Premier League stars attract supporters from their homeland, especially when most of their countrymen play in domestic leagues.
Son Heung-Min, pictured above, is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Forbes noted in an article about the South Korean international, “It was common to see Korean flags and fans at Spurs’ home matches in pre-COVID-19 days and Son's star appeal should have helped put the club on the radar of soccer fans in the world's most populous continent.”
Shulman also remarked on some of the cultural aspects of an English league. “Americans do not want to hear American announcers doing English games. Americans want to hear British announcers. They want to hear that accent.”
As ridiculous as this may seem, there is actually a correlation between the introduction of British commentators and viewership of the league. Interest in the Premiership increased with the introduction of commentating legend Ian Darke as an announcer for ESPN2’s coverage of the league back in 2009.
NBC acquired the full TV rights to the Premiership in 2013, introducing Arlo White (who is English) as the lead commentator, and according to a 2019 article by World Soccer Talk, Premier League viewership had increased by almost 74% in the span of a decade.
Accessibility has also played a major role in the boom of the Premier League’s American market. NBC debuted pre and post match coverage of the PL for the first time when they started broadcasting, along with streaming services in more recent years. Today, every single match can be viewed through their new streaming platform Peacock.
In conclusion, marketing has played a key role in the growth of the Premiership, and is responsible for much of the fame that it enjoys today.
Future Direction:
La Liga-
La Liga’s future has great potential.
Figure 2: Revenue chart from the La Liga annual financial report.
In the 2015-2016 season, the association moved from individual club rights to a collective rights model. TV money now goes through the La Liga association before being distributed to the clubs in a way that does not leave smaller clubs with nothing.This change overall meant an increase in broadcasting revenue of 70.2% between 2014 and 2016.
Figure 3: Comparison between the two league’s TV Rights Deals (both picture from the Sports Business Institute).
Furthermore, broadcasting money will be divided amongst teams much more evenly. The new collective rights are very similar to those of the EPL.
While both of these models still favor bigger clubs, they are much more just than individual rights models. This is a step in the right direction for La Liga. In addition, you can see that an extra 10% of the revenue is going towards helping the second division. This new model is expected to increase the revenue of smaller clubs in comparison to that of big clubs and allow them to compete.
As for how the association has expanded their viewers to American soil, two years ago they formed a 15-year partnership with a former Televisa, Univision executive from Colombia to work on sponsorship opportunities in North America.
However, La Liga’s top executives have a difficult decision to make when it comes to world-marketing. Are they going to take advantage of the “El Clasico” rivalry to gain viewers or will they start anew, marketing the entire league as a complete package?
If the league is marketed solely on the basis of the two largest clubs, the lack of competition will only get worse because of the league’s revenue, especially in a gigantic American market that will continue to rest on the shoulders of a few and continue to benefit that few. For this reason what Tebas said is not the right approach.
“Barcelona and Real Madrid—the rivals who are in some ways La Liga’s greatest asset and in others a significant liability—played a friendly outside Miami. The International Champions Cup game at Hard Rock Stadium drew more than 66,000 fans and generated some $38 million in direct revenue. That led to a conversation between La Liga and Relevent, the ICC organizer controlled by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross,” said Tebas in an interview.
Real Betis Showcase Mexican talents, Andres Guardado and Diego Lainez (Via Getty Images)
Instead, the approach has to be to make the league more competitive while marketing every team, especially mid-table teams that have a chance at winning titles but have not yet. A possibility here is advertising Real Betis to the Mexican demographic because of the young mexican talent, Diego Lainez.
This kind of rebuilding is exactly what the league needs to attract more viewers and to attract star players to more than just the top two teams. Evidently this will be a slower process than the first option, but in the end it will be more effective.
At the moment, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are in decline. They have both lost their sense of identity. What they need to do is return to their original roots. Barcelona must focus on their homegrown players coming from La Masia. Real Madrid needs to find its next set of generational stars. While they rebuild, the rest of the teams in the league have an opportunity to showcase their young talent and possibly flip the league on its head.
English Premier League-
Recent years have seen a renaissance for English soccer, and the coming years are filled with promise.
While viewership has been consistently high for years now, the actual gameplay has improved as well and will likely keep evolving.
The Premier League also boasts a new rivalry that can be compared to that of Spanish giants FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. This recent matchup, between Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has won the last three titles and contains world class players such as Kevin de Bruyne, Mohammed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, and Raheem Sterling.
Young talents in the Premier League have also become increasingly common. Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool is regularly called up for international play, as are Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford and Chelsea youngster Chistian Pulisic, who is among the next generation of American players.
On the contrary, both of the Spanish giants have ailing squads.
Leonel Messi, who has led Barcelona through thick and thin, is now 33 years of age, and will surely finish his career within the next few years. Similarly, Luka Modric, Kareem Benzema, and Sergio Ramos, players who are critical to Real Madrid’s success, are all over 30 years old, so the Premier League will have an advantage until these two clubs replace their legends.
Champions League performance has also improved in recent years with Liverpool making a successful run in 2019 and Tottenham finishing runners-up. With a decline in the performances of Barcelona and Madrid, more successful campaigns will likely follow.