Squeeky Bum Time: All over Europe

By: Ian Rose | May 11th, 2008

It’s May, and while most people in the world are reveling in the sunshine and flowers and all that, you and I have our minds elsewhere. It’s title time, and it seems like every day around this time of year, some league or cup or other trophy is decided. Now that the streamers are streaming and medals are being handed out, maybe the biggest surprise is how few have been decided. Across Europe, there are a multitude of airtight title races, bringing up the question - is this the closest set of domestic races some of us have ever seen?

Just to recap, here’s the situation in the big domestic leagues. The Premier League in England was decided today, and came down to the very last game. The races in Italy and France are down to the last round next weekend. Scotland, once seemingly in the bag for Rangers, is going to go to the wire as well. Add to that the final-day championship decider in Romania, and I would argue that across the big leagues of Europe, it has been a fantastic title season. One of the best. Of course, as always, there are a few exceptions. The German title was decided early by a rampaging Bayern Munich, and Porto took the rest of the Portuguese league back behind the woodshed, though admittedly things were a bit fishy there. Even Spain, now in the hands of Real Madrid, was a race for a while, seemingly a race no one wanted terribly much to win, but that’s another post entirely …

Let’s look at how this year compares to some recent ones. Last season, the English, French, Italian, Romanian and Scottish seasons were all decided by six points or more, and so none came down to the last day. Like this year, Spain was the exception, with Barca and Real finishing even on points. Ask a Lyon or Celtic fan, and they would prefer things weren’t so close, but for the rest of us, the tight league finishes are hugely exciting. The year before last, Germany and Romania came down to five points difference at the top, England eight, so not much in the way of last-day battles there either.

It’s one of the greatest times of the year to be a football fan, and for me, it’s one of the best title seasons at least in recent memory, so I hope all you football fans are enjoying it. It might be a while before we see this much on the line this late again.