NFT: ranking soccer leagues worldwide

To be clear - a number of these leagues, there is no opportunity to see (at least or me). So for example how MLS compares to the Turkish Lig - I obviously have no idea. But ranking MLS alongside the Greek top league and the German second division seems more or less fair to me.

Even the worst teams are very good. I also agree on the English Championship being top 10. There are just so many quality teams, no one is weak.

is one of the toughest leagues in the world. Look how long once mighty teams have been stuck there.

MLS and its players just reached agreement on a new CBA. It raised the salary cap per team to 11.6 million from 8.5 million. Under the old CBA:

"The average M.L.S. player earned $411,926 in guaranteed compensation in 2018, according to the M.L.S. players’ union, but the median was $179,000, indicating that outsized compensation for a few players pulled that average up. A full third of the league, 238 players, earned less than $100,000." (Quoting the Times.)

MLS is (I think) the only pro league in the world with a salary cap, or at least one so low. The ranking of 20th as a league worldwide is probably consistent with the per-team spending level. By way of comparison, Barcelona's aggregate team salary this year is 738 million, while Real Madrid's is 705 million.

In comment 14806801 Jim in Scranton said:

Quote:

is one of the toughest leagues in the world. Look how long once mighty teams have been stuck there.

yeah, at first I was surprised the Championship was ranked in the top ten, but looking at it again that seems right.

there was discussion about this a couple years ago, the MLS was being compared to the Dutch Erevisie by a couple of posters. It is much more clearly closer to the Hellas League. It is still a bottom tier league.

I would say that the quality of play of the top teams in Greece is superior to the MLS, and there's years of developing players and moving them throughout the continent. At the same time, the Superleague is fraught with fan violence, corruption and owners bringing guns onto the field.

MLS should look to Portugal a few years ago as the ultimate goal. They developed a style of play, coaches, superstars, etc. all of which started in their league.