ANALYSIS: Barca President Confirms Premier League Is The Best!

THE debate about which league is the best in the world remains a thorny issue among Nigerian football followers. Opinions are divided sharply down the middle between followers of England’s Barclays Premier League and Spain’s La Liga. And protagonists of these leagues have plausible reasons to back their claim.

As you know very well, I’m not neutral in this debate too, as I believe the BPL is the best league in the world today, an opinion strongly contested by many La Liga faithful. I’m first to admit Spain have the best two clubs in the world – Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. La Liga is also the home of world’s finest players. But having the best student or candidate in a school doesn’t necessarily make a class the best overall. That is the exact situation of La Liga and the BPL.

However, I won’t be making any case for the BPL here, lest I’m tagged biased and unprofessional by unhappy fans of the other leagues. Rather I’d let a very interesting, yet one of the most qualified voices on the subject from the supposed opposing camp do the talking.

As far as FC Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, is concerned there can be no debate about the best league in the world. He says the English Premier League is the world leader in terms of competitiveness, appeal and funds.

“It’s true that the Premier League right now is the best league competition in the world, not only in a sporting way but in terms of income too,”Bartomeu told BBC Sports matter of fact last weekend during the launch of FC Barcelona’s partnership with globalcitizen.org and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

According to the Blaugrana egghead, the BPL is the world’s best in both “sporting way” (competitive appeal) and “income” (funds). Little wonder then the BPL is the most watched league championship in the world. It’s a league where at least four clubs regularly vie for the title before. It’s a league where no result is guaranteed – bottom team can beat the top team any time. And it’s undoubtedly the richest league in the world financially, a fact readily acknowledged by Bartomeu.

“The new Premier League television rights contract (which is worth £5.1bn from the 2016-17 season) is something that the rest of the leagues have to follow. But no other club in the world has as big an income as Barcelona,” he claimed proudly, though it would be interesting to hear Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez’s view of that last sentence.

“The Premier League is a reference point. La Liga are learning a lot of things from them. We have a new law that obliges the clubs to sell all the TV rights jointly because we have to follow the Premier League,” Bartomeu continued.

“Barcelona and Real Madrid are the biggest clubs but others like AtleticoMadrid, Valencia, Sevilla or Athletic Bilbao are doing a nice job.
“We want people to watch our competition, not only the Premier League. On an individual club basis, we know the competition is getting closer, not just with the Premier League but also Paris St-Germain and Bayern Munich.”

Whatever our inclination and bias, none of us – debaters and analysts – can claim to be better informed about club football than Bartomeu. Just as none of us can claim to have more bias for Spain or bigger stake in Spanish football interests, promotion and well-being than the Barca president.

I rest my case.