Analysing Europe’s Premier Leagues

Article by Lucas Whitehead

I have often wondered about European football’s leagues, from the Bundesliga to the Belgian Pro League. You may accuse me of being Euro centric but I think that Europe’s leagues are the most enthralling in World football.

Austrian Bundesliga

As the name suggests, this is the premier competition of Austrian football. Participants range from the alpine and violent sounding FC Wacker Innsbruck to enormously commercialised FC Red Bull Salzburg, from suburban Rapid Vienna to provincial SV Grodig, the Austrian equivalent of Fleetwood!

Thirteen games in, Salzburg are ten points clear at the top of the league and propping up the league are FC Wacker Innsbruck. The team in tenth is relegated from the league and 1st and 2nd enter the Champions League qualifying round, whereas 3rd and 4th enter the Europa League qualifying rounds. Second are SV Josko Ried, 3rdare Rapid Vienna, 4th are SV Grodig (new additions to the league!) 5thare Austria Vienna, 6th are SK Sturm Graz, 7th are Wolfsberger AC, SC Wiener Neustadt sit in 8th and 9th are FC Wacker Admira Modling. Current champions are Rapid Vienna and the biggest rivalry in Austria is the aforementioned versus city sharers Austria Vienna.

Belgian Pro League

The sixteen team Premier Division of Belgium is the pro league or for sponsorship reasons, the Jupiler league. Teams like RSC Anderlecht and Club Brugge are renowned in European football with Anderlecht having a period of mixed European success between 1970 and 1990 and Brugge holding the record of maintained and consecutive participation in the UEFA Cup, appearing 16 times consecutively.

Standard Liege are at the top of the league at the moment and are three points clear of Racing Genk. In the championship play-offs (similar to the super league) are Liege, Genk, Club Bruges, Zulte Waregem, Anderlecht and Kortrijk. Down in the doldrums of the relegation play-offs are Waasland Beveren and Mons.

Bundesliga

Arguably the premier division of Europe, the Bundesliga is Germany’s top league and it is graced by current European champions Bayern Munich and runners up Borussia Dortmund. Three German clubs have won the European cup, Bayern, Dortmund and Hamburg. Moenchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Schalke have won the UEFA Cup or Europa League, making Germanic clubs the most common winners of the competition.

The Bundesliga is extremely tight ten games in with Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich leading the way, one point ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund who are level on points with Bayer Leverkusen who sit in 3rd. 1st,2nd and 3rd qualify for the champions league and the clubs in 5th and 6th go into the Europa league. 4th go into qualification round of the champions league and that club is Moenchengladbach in 5th and 6th are Hertha Berlin and VFL Wolfsburg. 16th goes into a relegation play off and 17th and 18th slip down into the 2. Bundesliga, the club in 16th is 1 FC. Nurnberg and 17th is SC Freiburg and 18thare Eintracht Braunschweig who employ former Gillingham and Norwich striker Simeon Jackson.

Barclays Premier League

Again the Premiership is described by many to be Europe’s most entertaining league and England has given the European cup five winners, Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Aston Villa. The UEFA cup or Europa league or Fairs cup has been in English hands 7 times with winners being Leeds United (twice) Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Ipswich Town and Chelsea.

Arsenal sit in 1st at the moment and 2ndare Chelsea, 3rd are Liverpool and the team in 4th are Spurs. The aforementioned four qualify for the champions’ league. In 5thplace are the team with the most formidable defence in Europe, Southampton who have conceded 3 in 10 games, they would qualify for the Europa league. In relegation spots are Norwich, Sunderland and Crystal Palace.

Eredivisie

The premier division in the Netherlands (the country of my birth) is the Eredivisie, I was born in Haarlem and the nearest eredivisie club to me were Dutch and international giants Ajax. Ajax has won 4 European cups, one UEFA Cup and 32 eredivisies! PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord are the other side to have won the European cup and the UEFA Cup was won by the aforementioned three teams once each by Ajax and Eindhoven but Feyenoord have won the competition twice.

Currently leading the league in the champions league place are FC Twente and the once mighty Ajax are second in the champions’ league playoff spot. Alkmaar and Eindhoven sit in 3rd and 4threspectively which are Europa League spots. 5th, 6th,7th,and 8th are europa league playoff spots and the clubs in these spots are Zwolle, Vitesse Arnhem, Groningen and the crestfallen Feyenoord. ADO Den Haag sit in 16th, a relegation playoff spot and in 17th, the other relegation playoff spot, are NEC Nijmegen. In the relegation place or 18thlie RKC Waalwijk.

La Liga

El Clasico. Real Madrid vs. Barcelona is what most people think of straight away when La Liga is mentioned and these two clubs are two of the world’s biggest clubs. Real Madrid has won a record of 9 European cups whereas their Catalonian rivals have won 5, Barcelona have had more recent successes. 4 clubs from Spain have held the UEFA or Europa Cup, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia.

Currently ruling the roost in Spain are Barcelona, 2ndare Atletico Madrid, 3rd are Real Madrid and 4th are Villareal. The aforementioned quartet qualify for the Champions league, 5thand 6th qualify for the Europa league and these two teams are Athletic Bilbao and Getafe. The teams that are relegated are those from 18thto 20th, namely Betis, Vallecano, and Almeria.

Serie A

Riddled with corruption and controversy, the Serie A is Italy’s premier division and different Italian hands have been on the European cup on 3 occasions, both the Milanese clubs or AC and Internazionale have held it and so have Juventus, the giants in Turin. Juventus, Inter, Parma and Napoli have all been champions of the UEFA Cup or Europa League.

Roma are pillaging every team that lies in its wake at the moment and they lead the league 10 games in, 10 wins in and they have conceded only a solitary goal! 1st, 2nd and 3rd qualify for the Champions League in Italy and in 2nd and 3rd sit Napoli and Juventus. 4th and 5th would make the Europa League and these two clubs are Inter and Verona. 18th, 19thand 20th will be relegated and the three clubs in these positions are Catania, Sassuolo and Chievo.

My European all time team:

1. Trautmann –GK

2. Koeman -CB

3. Beckenbauer -CB

4. Hunter -CB

5. Bremner-CM

6. Zidane-CM

7. Beckham-RM

8. Overmars-LM

9. Henry-ST

10. Cruyff-AM

11. Shearer-ST

Manager- Jurgen Klopp

Formation- 3-4-1-2

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