Int ODI is one of the most competitve sports league in the world

[NasserFan207]

Premier league is the most competitive sport league in the world. Biggest sport, biggest money, biggest history etc all contribute.

 

[Uppercut]

Cricket and football just have a lot of variance built into them compared to rugby. The result often hinges on just one or two incidents, especially so in ODIs.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Premier league is the most competitive sport league in the world. Biggest sport, biggest money, biggest history etc all contribute.

Non-sequitur of the week award...?

 

[benchmark00]

Premier league is the most competitive sport league in the world. Biggest sport, biggest money, biggest history etc all contribute.

wut.

 

[kiwiviktor81]

An interesting comparison to soccer is that the Soccer World Cup has only ever been won by a team from one of two continents, and in fact only teams from Europe or South America have ever made the final, despite the number of years it has been running.

The ODI World Cup has been won by teams from the Americas, Oceania and Asia, with finalists from Europe and with Africa coming oh so agonisingly close.

The No. 1 Test ranking has shifted from Oceania to Asia to Europe and if not for an ununsually rainy New Zealand March could well have shifted to Africa already.

I know soccer is the global game and all that but if you add the populations of Europe and South America together you get less than the population of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

My argument is that soccer is the McDonalds of world sports and cricket is just a better game.

 

[NasserFan207]

Not sure what you guys are trying to say, soccer is the biggest sport on earth and the EPL is the most competitive league. International football is harder to judge, since important games happen so infrequently and players generally take the club game more seriously.

I'm not really a fan, but its the correct answer to the OP.

 

[benchmark00]

Premier League is 20 years old. I've eaten sandwiches older than that. Biggest history my arse.

MLB >>> EPL for money.

And soccer is a **** sport so it can get ****ed.

Never mind the fact that only the same four/five teams can win the league every year. See more competition by going to a buffet and watching fat chix fight it out over the last bit of lasagne.

 

[Furball]

Premier League is 20 years old. I've eaten sandwiches older than that. Biggest history my arse.

MLB >>> EPL for money.

And soccer is a **** sport so it can get ****ed.

Never mind the fact that only the same four/five teams can win the league every year. See more competition by going to a buffet and watching fat chix fight it out over the last bit of lasagne.

The Premier League is only 20 years old, but the top division in England is over 120 years old.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The Premier League is only 20 years old, but the top division in England is over 120 years old.

Yeah, quite. It'd be like saying the AFL is only 22 years old because it was the VFL until 1990.

 

[NasserFan207]

Yeah, I was counting the EPL and its forebears as one and the same really.

Matter of opinion I guess. I don't see any American sport in the same league, because they haven't been around as long (which means less infrastructure, plus soccer is the easiest sport on earth to get kids into, no matter what social status they have ), and obviously a smaller playing pool.

 

[NUFAN]

I don't think of the word competitive when I think of the Premier League.

The fact that there is no salary cap, no finals series and 3 new teams in the premier division makes the competition not that competitive at all. How many of the 20 teams are trying to actually win this competitive League?

 

[Satguru]

I don't think of the word competitive when I think of the Premier League.

The fact that there is no salary cap, no finals series and 3 new teams in the premier division makes the competition not that competitive at all. How many of the 20 teams are trying to actually win this competitive League?

its great actually... every season it usually a two-three horse race... the beauty is that even though everyone isnt fighting to win the league, which is impossible, virtually every team is fighting for something... be it the championship, or champions league qualification, uefa cup spots, or relegation.
Thats makes it fascinating especially towards the end of the season, when a team fighting for the top spot faces a team fighting to stay in the division... no team can really be taken for granted either, coz upsets are pretty frequent.And well, ofcourse the same 4/5 teams will put up a real challenge every year, thats true for every league.... still, Man utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, have all faced stiff challenges from Tottenham, Man City, and a few others in the last few years... 5-6 serious title contenders is fabulous

 

[NUFAN]

A two-three horse race is fantastic if the field had three or four teams in it, not 20.

I follow EPL and applaud it for having relegation and European spots on the line for the teams - but the European Leagues are a separate entity and are a non factor in some ways to how competitive the actual league is. The relegation zone is entertaining and I do enjoy the games involving the 'non competitive' teams at the end of the season but even in those games most of the time one team has everything to play for while the other team hasn't got so much and it's not just for the final game or two, it's for the final month or two.

Basically, the fact that a team could finish fourth and get into the CL or a team might sneak an Europa League spot doesn't make the league that competitive. I would argue that the Europa League is a more competitive league.

 

[NasserFan207]

I don't think of the word competitive when I think of the Premier League.

The fact that there is no salary cap, no finals series and 3 new teams in the premier division makes the competition not that competitive at all. How many of the 20 teams are trying to actually win this competitive League?

Would argue that six teams currently have title aspirations in mind.

 

[benchmark00]

EPL is not competitive outside of that 5/6. It is ludicrous to suggest that a competition where 75% of the teams know they're not going to win it at the start of the season is the most competitive in the world.

The EPL is actually the anti-competition.

 

[NasserFan207]

EPL is not competitive outside of that 5/6. It is ludicrous to suggest that a competition where 75% of the teams know they're not going to win it at the start of the season is the most competitive in the world.

The EPL is actually the anti-competition.

Every team in the EPL is competing for something though. And obviously they'd all like to win the league, its just highly unrealistic.

 

[Camo999]

Yeah having come from Australia, I've been staggered to discover the difference in resources available to the top few teams in the EPL (the only ones actually in contention of winning) compared to the rest. Very different approach to the salary cap based model I'm familiar with. I wouldn't consider the EPL competitive at all. Anyway, don't Man U win it almost every year?

 

[Jono]

Every team in the EPL is competing for something though. And obviously they'd all like to win the league, its just highly unrealistic.

That's his point though. It's not even a remote possibility.

 

[GIMH]

The point is that every match in the Prem is a fight with ****loads hanging on it. Competitive doesn't just mean a fight to 1st place. It's a competition to stay in the league that usually goes to the wire with often 5 or 6 teams in the scrap on the final day, it's an ongoing to finish higher and build a team up. A few years ago the point was being made on this forum that only Man U/Arse/Chavs/Scousers could win the title, yet know Tottenham have built themselves up as challengers, and obviously City have as well, more in the Chelsea way. Each season there may only be certain teams who have a realistic chance, but these teams will change over time as sides build themselves up. Newcastle, leeds, Blackburn (they ****ing won it) have all been and gone from the top, Norwich, Villa, Everton and possibly Ipswich have all finished top 4.

The idea that nothing matters outside the title is stupid, NasserFan207 is bang on the money.

 

[Furball]

I don't think of the word competitive when I think of the Premier League.

The fact that there is no salary cap, no finals series and 3 new teams in the premier division makes the competition not that competitive at all. How many of the 20 teams are trying to actually win this competitive League?

Finals series are ****ing dire in a league competition. And surely the 3 new teams is an example of competition - those teams not good enough are demoted, instead of stinking up the joint year on year.