Just checked my save of 9 seasons.
ECL Winners:
English, 3 (Aresnal in '06 (
) & '09, Chelski in '10)
German, 3 (FC Bayern in '08, '12 & '13)
Italy, 1 (Inter '11)
Spain, 1 (Villarreal '14)
Holland, 1 (Ajax '07)
ECL Runners-Up
English, 4
German, 3
Spanish, 2
Yes, it does seem a bit weighted towards the EPL & Bundesliga. Considering recent Spanish & Italian dominance, it seems odd.
There are two things I can guess from this:
1) English teams are simply overrated. I believe this is unlikely.
2) More likely, SI believes English (and possibly German) teams have stronger financials. Think about it - Liverpool in 2020 will look nothing like it does today. So rating individual players higher would not make for prolonged success. But if English teams are programmed to have better finances, then over time, the game would have them attracting the best players in the world.
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Originally posted by jcb23:
You what? England is only an underachiever according to Fleet Street. There's a hell of an argument that England aren't much better than top 8 material. Oddly, we seem to consistently sputter at the QF stage. Which would be achieving exactly what we should.
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I agree, the English media seem to horribly overhype England's chances every four years. If you look at the FIFA rankings or past results for an idea of future performance, QF is about right for England.
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England is a country in which there is a limited pool of sporting talent, which is spread over many diverse sports in which we seem to expect to compete on the world stage. Our domestic league is jammed with foreign talent. Whether that's because of a lack of talent, or simply a detriment to the talent we have is open to debate.
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I offer a simpler explanation. Money. England is a prosperous European nation that throws *a lot* of money at professional football. Therefore, foreign footballers are attracted to the English leagues to make more money than they could at home. The money leads to a high level of competition, which also attracts foreigners.
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Something of which there can be NO argument is that given relative population size and resources, countries such as China and the US are football underachievers.
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True, the US is woefully inept at football on the international stage. But that's because it is, at best the #7 or #8 sport in the States. american football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey (:thup
, car racing (:thdn
, and golf are all bigger sports here. For those US fans that actually follow "soccer," we expect our team only to qualify for the World Cup. We are excited when they make it past the group stage. So I don't know if we're really underachievers... the nation as a whole just doesn't do football. But perhaps that will change, as it's the sport of choice amongst younsters these days.
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