Much has been discussed recently about which top flight division can rightfully claim to be the strongest on Europe. With the semi-finals of the Champions League now featuring 2 teams from the Bundesliga and 2 teams from La Liga respectfully, one would be made to believe these are the two strongest divisions in Europe as things stand. With the Bundesliga having 1/4 and La Liga 2/4 in last seasons semi-finals as well.
Now this got me thinking. What could be the explanation for the rise of the Bundesliga and La Liga - and more importantly the downfall of the Barclays Premier League, the self-proclaimed "best league in the world".
When researching the progression into the quarter finals of the Champions League, to see which leagues had the best chance of making it into the semi-finals I found quite an alarming statistic that, quite frankly, was too great to ignore. And I firmly believe that I have found the root of the problem.
In the 7 seasons Champions League alumni Emmanuel Eboué was part of Arsenal's squad English team averaged 2.57 teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Serie A had 1.29 teams. The Bundesliga had 0.71 teams. La Liga had 1.14 teams. Ligue 1 had 0.57 teams. Now I don't have to tell you, these numbers speak for themselves. They indicate quite an alarming trend. A trend that has largely gone unnoticed because of the PR work being done by Platini's agents, as we found out after Dortmund's dramatic winner against Malaga - they are the ones who decide who does and who does not make it into the Champions League semi-finals.
English teams when Eboué was there to pull the wagon
English teams without Eboué