Man City are about to win their 5th title in 6 years. Who would really bet against them making it 6 in 7 years too?
If we zoom out a bit, 4 of the big 5 leagues has had a huge club clean up league titles. In Germany and Italy it has been two historic clubs in Bayern and Juventus.
Bayern have won the last 10 titles. They had never won more than 3 in a row until now.
Juventus won 9 in a row up to 2020. They had never won more than 2 in a row since WWII.
In England and France the big winners are financially doped clubs owned by states.
PSG have now won 9 of the past 11.
Man City have won 5 of the past 6. Include Chelsea and that’s 8 of the past 10.
Spain isn’t quite as bad because they have a big two. But that’s not much better. And Europes premier competition, the Champions League, has been won by its most successful team (Real Madrid) half the time in the past decade.
I think people in England look abroad at leagues won by the same team every year and laugh at how uncompetitive their league is. But the PL is also bleeding out. Sport thrives on jeopardy and there’s very little of it now - just a series of monopolies. Winning trophies is less significant for more teams now because the chances of winning are concentrated into the hands of a tiny, tiny minority.
The different ownership structures in the different leagues suggest different causes. But I think only a very radical shakeup of football will be meaningful. We either need huge redistribution, which the big clubs will never agree to, or a shift towards American-style constraints on wages and transfers. That sounds terrible but I don’t know what else will stop this sport from dying.
If we zoom out a bit, 4 of the big 5 leagues has had a huge club clean up league titles. In Germany and Italy it has been two historic clubs in Bayern and Juventus.
Bayern have won the last 10 titles. They had never won more than 3 in a row until now.
Juventus won 9 in a row up to 2020. They had never won more than 2 in a row since WWII.
In England and France the big winners are financially doped clubs owned by states.
PSG have now won 9 of the past 11.
Man City have won 5 of the past 6. Include Chelsea and that’s 8 of the past 10.
Spain isn’t quite as bad because they have a big two. But that’s not much better. And Europes premier competition, the Champions League, has been won by its most successful team (Real Madrid) half the time in the past decade.
I think people in England look abroad at leagues won by the same team every year and laugh at how uncompetitive their league is. But the PL is also bleeding out. Sport thrives on jeopardy and there’s very little of it now - just a series of monopolies. Winning trophies is less significant for more teams now because the chances of winning are concentrated into the hands of a tiny, tiny minority.
The different ownership structures in the different leagues suggest different causes. But I think only a very radical shakeup of football will be meaningful. We either need huge redistribution, which the big clubs will never agree to, or a shift towards American-style constraints on wages and transfers. That sounds terrible but I don’t know what else will stop this sport from dying.
