Korean Job Discussion Forums

[toby99]

I'm a Yank, just starting to get into soccer. I'm wondering how those more knowledgeable than myself view the quality of the various leagues. Please rank in order of perceived quality:

MLS
Bundesliga
Serie A
Premier
La Liga
Ligue 1
Eredivisie
Nihon Sakkā Rīgu
K-league

Feel free to include any other leagues that I'm missing out on. Ultimately I'm trying to figure out which leagues to start following, with aim of getting the most bang for my buck. Thanks.

[edwardcatflap]

I'd say

La Liga - best league football team in the world at the moment but not so many top teams
Premier - more exciting and more top class teams competing for trophies
Serie A - recently number one but declined a bit due to corruption
Bundesliga - best supported league in Europe
Ligue 1 - just guessing they're above the Dutch
Eredivisie
Nihon Sakkā Rīgu
K-league

No idea where the MLS would go to be honest, maybe above the Japanese one?

[toby99]

[blm]

The K league teams have done better than the Japanese teams in the Asian Champions league of late but the competition is very top heavy, with the better teams much better than the poor ones.

I would say the J league is better overall and better than MLS.

The MLS vs. K League would be interesting, and probably around the same.

I might give it the MLS just because the 12th, 13th and 14th teams in the MLS are probably better than their K League equivalent. And also the MLS seems to be improving much aster than the Korean league which seems to have reached a plateau.

[morrisonhotel]

^ I would say the MLS is better than the K league. The K league games I saw I think would be on a par with League 1 or 2 in English football.

[andrewchon]

Football Manager 2010 gives these ratings out of 20:
La Liga 19
Serie A 18
Premier League 18
Championship 12
League 1 8
League 2 5
Bundesliga 17
Ligue Un 16
Portugal, Russia, Turkey, Ukrine 15
Eredivisie 14
Belgium, Scotland 13
K-league, MLS 11

Japan is un-playable in Football Manager games.
Factors in ratings involve: stadium sizes and average attendances, TV ratings, training facilities, youth player setups, performance of national teams, performance in continental competitions, player salaries, transfer fees, advertising and sponsorships, number of games played in a season, number of teams relegated, and so on.

North American Gold Cup and PanPacific Tournament maybe a guide but Korean teams are not really interested in those. Korean teams only want to win the Asian Champions League.

Missing in the list is skill level of players, hence the reason for lower rating of Eredivisie than Portugal etc.

[Binch Lover]

The link below will give you a good idea about the European leagues. Click on Association Coefficients for the full ranking based on each league's teams' performances in the two European competitions.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient

For the Asian leagues, this link would suggest that the Korean league is marginally better than the Japanese league.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1358327

I would personally rank the Korean league at about the level of the European leagues around the level of the 20th placed teams in the UEFA coefficient, with the MLS around the 10 mark.

[Steelrails]

As a fellow Yank, I would say stick with the Premier League for now. The Bundesliga bores me to tears. The Serie A and La Liga are hard to find non-streaming games for. The thing with Premier League, especially in Korea amongst NETs, is that there will always be soccer fans with strong opinions, especially in bars. Once you learn the rivalries as the "neutral" Yank you can play Jerry Springer and goad them into raining blows upon each other or letting their booze do the talking and getting them to place insane wagers.

If you want to learn the game fast and whatnot, two things- Fantasy Premier League and FIFA Manager. Football Manager is the better game, but FIFA seems more accessible to non-Football fans.

Fantasy Football will get you hooked. Challenge some of your Euro friends and prove that the good ol USA can take down anyone in any fantasy sport if we put our minds to it. Next thing you know, your friends back home look at you like you're crazy as you go on and on about whether Balotelli, Dzeko, or Aguero are starting. What happened to Malouda and Odemwingie? and Vorm is my hero!

[blm]

[blm]

[Murakano]

Premier League
La Liga
Serie A
Bundesliga
Ligue 1
Eredivisie
J-league
MLS
K-league

I went with the Prem league since I feel it has more competitive teams who fight for the title (Man U/Chesea/Man City with Arsenal usually making good go of it and Liverpool/Tottenham (who have really strengthened in recent years) hovering just below. Newcastle are punching above their weight too this season too(not that they win the title of course!)

In La Liga, outside of Barca and Real no one has a cat in hells chance of winning the title....and it's been like that for years. Valencia sold off their best players in Silva/Mata/Villa etc because of previous financial problems.

The Bundesliga is similar with Bayern usually the prime suspect. Dortmund only last year put a brief halt to their monopoly of year after year titles.

In S.America....take a look at the Brazilian league. Super competitive this year. I think about 5 teams had a shot at winning the title this year (looks like Corinthians). Definitely the strongest league in S.America. Plus their clubs are getting much stronger financially (they can pay bigger wages and keep their best players in Brazil (Neymar, Ganso) and bring some of the top names back who are not necessarily past their best.

The Mexican league is quite strong too in terms of quality of teams and financially.

If you're interested in football (soccer) , I highly recommend you to listen the World Football Phone In podcast (it's on weekly and can be downloaded). They have very balanced views and have pundits from Europe/North America (Sean Wheelock), Tim Vickery (S.America), Andy Brassel (Europe)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wf