MLS - the 42nd place league in the world?

[MartinUtd]

Actually, the BPL is No. 2 in the world. The criteria is based on the performance of the top 5 teams in the league when competing in international tourneys.

BPL?

[Oldtimer]

BPL?

BPL = "Barclay's Premier League," using the sponsor's name.

[Oldtimer]

My take on this is that the weighting method underestimates MLS, given that it is based only on the best clubs in each league, and MLS has much more parity than is typical.

My guess is that MLS is really in the 20's, when you take the league as a whole.

[torontocelt]

I would imagine he means the British premier league which doesn't exist as it is the EPL. Many people make mistakes like this when discussing the UK. My old manager at work who is Irish always used to ask me when I was going home to England to see my parents despite her knowing I am Scottish and despite her having other Scottish friends. Considering she is Irish I would have thought she knew more about the UK especially the difference between Scots and English but obviously not.

Well I stand corrected, Barclays Premier League is what he could mean for sure, apologies.

[jaahuuu]

One time I emailed these guys about their rankings and pointed out some of their flaws and they didn't seem concered.

As someone else already pointed out one major reason for all concacaf leagues (other than mexico) not scoring well is that the total points earned by a league depend on how many competitions. And this is a gross (not disgusting) but gross as in total.

Leagues in Europe, South America (probably Asia too but Im not sure) have opportunities to have 6-8 teams adding to their points total through international competitions. Concacaf teams (other than mexico) have maximim 4 teams adding to their total.

Also, keep in mind they use 5 years worth of points for this. So before the Champions League started the only way for Concacaf teams to get points was through the Champions Cup. So they only had 2 teams from each league (max) getting point from maximum 6 games. Compare that to the Premier League who usually has 6-7 teams earning points in prelim, group stage, and knockout rounds of a competition.

The system used is stupid and not worth wasting your time thinking about. I feel stupid for having wasted my time typing so many words about such a useless system.

So if I'm thinking about this right, they could make this significantly more accurate by taking the points earned by each league, and dividing that by the number of points available to teams in the league, then dividing that number by the number of teams in the league.

[Juanito]

We're a relatively new league, It will just take some time for people to notice us. Personally, I'm just happy we have a league of our own and the quality is slowly improving.

[djking2]

If you think the league rating is nuts check this page out.

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

Scroll down and look at the sixth highest rated club in the concacaf region. Better than RSL or Columbus

Now I like IFFHS

[jloome]

If you think the league rating is nuts check this page out.

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

Scroll down and look at the sixth highest rated club in the concacaf region. Better than RSL or Columbus

Now I like IFFHS

All the weighting there is from the win over Cruz Azul. Hilarious.

[trane]

Is the average MLS team better than the bottom third of Serie A? .

I will say it as politley as possible. No, not even close. In fact the average MLS team is not better that the bottom third of Serie B, not even close. they may have some better athletes but as teams go, tactics, team play ect. not even close.

Mou was interviewed in a Spanish paper last week or the week before, and discriped how tacticaly proficient Serie A was, how even the smallest of teams is ready to play agaist the Italian CL teams. [ that is why Mou succeded his team was ready week in an week out, Benitez on the other handnot so much]

I would say that the 2nd division the top Euro league, Italy, Spain, Englan, France, Germany and probably Holland is superior to the MLS.

[rocker]

If you think the league rating is nuts check this page out.

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

Scroll down and look at the sixth highest rated club in the concacaf region. Better than RSL or Columbus

Now I like IFFHS

hmmm.... ya... now I love these ratings!! they are so smart those people

[trane]

I do think that the key is player development, accross Europe and the world, football is THE SPORT, with a few expections, there are devepolment systems in place and plenty of player to train. Your pool of players trained to play a good skilled team game is just so much greater in other countries. We are far away from that. I think Canada will get there, I am not sure about the states.

[NBS]

If you think the league rating is nuts check this page out.

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

Scroll down and look at the sixth highest rated club in the concacaf region. Better than RSL or Columbus

Now I like IFFHS

Wow. If this doesn't discredit the IFFHS ranking methodology,nothing ever will.

[trane]

^ I am not sure that it does completley we did well, in CL, we played some of our best football. I think the main issue is that when we played the Mexican teams when they were in pre-season form, while we were in our mid season form. But we did play our best footy of the season in some of those games.

[djking2]

All the weighting there is from the win over Cruz Azul. Hilarious.

My son picked up on this first actually so I should credit him. We figured the win over CA was the thing that skewed it too but it's actually the national championship that does it not individual wins. Each win is only 9 points regardless of the competitor. That said probably just another reason the ratings suck

[james]

MLS attendence wise id say we are for sure in the top 20 as most of the 16 teams in MLS can average about 16,000 or so a game. Alot of other leagues in europe and around the world often have maybe 2 or 3 big teams that might get 30,000 - 50,000 fans a game and are the only teams that ever win the league while the rest of the teams in the leagues get less then 10,000 fans a game and really have no chance of ever winning anything. MLS any team can win and there is no real giants.

As for skill i think MLS could very likely be around 44th or even worse. We even strugle against tiny little teams in Central America that dont even have stadiums or any money. We would get destroyed in most Euro Leagues. And compared to the England League id say we are in more par with teams in League 1 or 2. Which actually makes sense as i believe are spending on players is more in line to League 1 or 2 as well.

[NBS]

^ I am not sure that it does completley we did well, in CL, we played some of our best football. I think the main issue is that when we played the Mexican teams when they were in pre-season form, while we were in our mid season form. But we did play our best footy of the season in some of those games.

I understand why Toronto is ranked so high, but my point is that it goes to show how misleading these rankings can be. A lesser informed person might look at that and think that Toronto is among the elite teams in MLS, and we know nothing can be further from the truth. The methodology is weak due to woefully insufficient information to create a credible working model for ranking teams across leagues. A credible organization should not even attempt to put out a model with so many gaping holes in it. It's best to just not have a ranking system at all. You can't force analysis when the analysis isn't there to be had.

[Oldtimer]

I would say that the 2nd division the top Euro league, Italy, Spain, Englan, France, Germany and probably Holland is superior to the MLS.

Most players who have played in both rank MLS on average in the bottom half of the Championship (English second division). TFC would, of course, be significantly worse than this. Most League 1 or 2 players (English third and fourth divisions) struggle in MLS (Andy Welsh was a perfect example).

There has been little interchange between the US and Italy, so I have to trust your assessment on Serie B.

When I lived in France, the Ligue 2 matches that I saw live were not significantly better than MLS. France is somewhat more technical at that level, North America is somewhat more physical, but I think that a playoff-quality MLS side (i.e. not TFC the last 4 years) could hold their own.

[trane]

^ Italy in all divisions is first and formost about team tactics, players are disciplined and either play in the system of sit. Also the players are skilled, meaning, they know how to shot, pass, tackle ect. While I am not sure about athletismc and physicality, a Serie B side would be much better organized then an MLS side, which in a team game I suspect would give them a considerable edge.

[Ontario Arab]

Not sure if MLS is above Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Norway or Finland in quality.

Agreed

[69Chevy396]

MLS attendence wise id say we are for sure in the top 20 as most of the 16 teams in MLS can average about 16,000 or so a game. Alot of other leagues in europe and around the world often have maybe 2 or 3 big teams that might get 30,000 - 50,000 fans a game and are the only teams that ever win the league while the rest of the teams in the leagues get less then 10,000 fans a game and really have no chance of ever winning anything. MLS any team can win and there is no real giants.

As for skill i think MLS could very likely be around 44th or even worse. We even strugle against tiny little teams in Central America that dont even have stadiums or any money. We would get destroyed in most Euro Leagues. And compared to the England League id say we are in more par with teams in League 1 or 2. Which actually makes sense as i believe are spending on players is more in line to League 1 or 2 as well.

Slightly off topic, I wiki'd that team in Germany where Buddle signed with, and despite its relatively high rating in the second German division averages less than 5000 per game. So much for being a better league than mls.

[werewolf]

^ FC Ingolstadt is 17th of 18 in the 2. Bundesliga. The town has a population of about 125 000.

[Oldtimer]

Not sure if MLS is above Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Norway or Finland in quality.

Finland is certainly below MLS. Hockey is bigger there than football, and they have a small player pool.

[colman1860]

Edson Buddle signing with a second division team in Germany doesn't help things here.

FWIW, I watch all of TFC's and 1860 Munich's game, and would agree that the German 2nd league is stronger than MLS.