Soundoff: What’s the Football “League of the Future?”

By: Daryl | February 19th, 2010

709221779_7afc3b9eba I posted a new episode of the Total Football Soccer Show on Podcast Offside yesterday, in which we attempted to determine “the league of the future.” Here’s what we meant by that: Right now you can basically say there is a big five: Spain, England, Italy, France, Germany. You can maybe argue the details, but for a variety of reasons those seem to be the leagues with the widest exposure right now.

But which league has the best chance of joining that big five in the future? Not: “Which is the sixth most popular league?” More: “Which league has the potential to be massive 30 years from now?” So, we set up a 16 team bracket and debated until we found a winner. And the winner was…

Well, I can’t tell you here. You’ll have to listen to the show to find out (and if you like the show, then subscribe via iTunes).

I can tell you that the 16 team bracket, arranged roughly along geographical lines, looked like this:

League of the Future Bracket

You may disagree with our winner, our selection process, even our initial 16 league selection. Certainly some leagues were dismissed too easily, partly because the show is only 28 minutes long (and partly because our knowledge of, say, the Chinese Super League is minimal at best). So please don’t take offence, and remember it’s only a sort of thought experiment. No leagues were physically harmed during the recording.

So, whether you’ve listened to the show or not, what do you see as the “league of the future”? Which football league from around the world has the potential
to join the big five?

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Garin Davroux

The J-League is a very well organized and supported league I spent 2 months in Japan and watched a bunch of Urawa Red Diamond matches and they have a TON of support, it felt like I was at a Ligue 1 or EPL match, they have ultra's , cheers, colors, if there is one league in the far east the J-League is most deff the most promising over South Korea or the A-League. The only four on this list that have the growth potential are Brazil, Japan, Russia and Brasil. The Eredivisie is good but they export all their talent very young and it is such a small country there is no room for growth same with Greece for the most part. If the Ukraine/Turkish economies expand their leagues will be very popular as well there is huge amount of football support in those countries just not a whole lot of money. But with a lot of MLS teams opening up Euro style Youth Academies with schools and such I think the MLS is going to do nothing but expand but I think it is between the MLS or Russian Premier League. Brasil will never have the economy to be a top world league, sorry.
James

Japan is the 2nd biggest economy in the world. It has to be in the top spots.
Daryl

To be fair to the other guys, they sort of admitted that the MLS>Brazil decision was based on some very optimistic homerism.
Oli

Wow.
I'm amazed how much more sense you (Daryl) talk than the rest of that studio put together.

I mean, MLS over Brasil?!?!? Really?!?!

The final should be Brasil vs. Russia, with Brasil winning.
Jose

It's fairly obvious with some though that Brazil and Russia have the most potential to be the "League of the Future". Russia is already on the way up (and playing in the UCL and being in Europe help), and Brazil will experience great economic growth along with a massive, futbol loving population.

It was disappointed to see that dumb homerism on the part of the participants prevented further discussion on the Brazilian league (MLS loses in the final to Russia).
Victor

So who won? My computer audio is broken, so I can't listen to the podcast =/

From my point of view, I'd say Brazil has the potential. the economic crisis has put Brazil in an advantageous position. The big stars are coming back. There's a huge opportunity right now for them to capitalise and really make a name for the league.
Luka

I'm going to guess you guys concluded either the MLS or Australia. But I gather that I need to listen to the podcast to find out...
ish

brazil or russia. both will have more money coming into it as years go by, brazil especially has a booming economy based on its cheap labour and relative proximity to USA. An overhaul of the league structure is needed as it is too confusing and too packed to really make it big.

Russia has alot of investment into their teams and a large population means with financial clout means good players go there and play with other good players. The fact that they play alot of their games during off seaosn for other leagues means it can easily be the second league that many serie a/la liga/epl viewers follow. Their relative competitiveness in the CL shows this too.

im thinking russia based solely on its CL credentials and relatively little difference in timezone between it and asian countries.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

the bigger problem with pairing the dutch and the portugese together is that they would end up butchering eachother again and getting too many cards to ever end up evolving into a top league.
Cruzeirense

just as evidence of brazilian football's current status take a look here http://www.goal.com/br/news/61... this shows a list of the amount paid to brazilian clubs for sponsorship. of course some brazilian clubs have 2 or 3 sponsors, but the numbers are still very healthy. however if european countries create a super league (which might be inevitable) to replace domestic leagues it would probably be the "futures great league". china, russia, (maybe mls) have a chance
Cruzeirense

European countries are to small (population + area). the world is moving on and europe is staying behind. the future is in brazil. goldman sachs predicts brazil to be the 4th largest economy in the world in 2050. with a large economy and a stable government, and of course an insane love for football, brazil will one day have the worlds greatest league imo.
James

Did you take into account political and economical situations? For example, some might have more natural growth potential than others. Japan, Russia, and Netherlands all look good.
Daryl

Or, yes, Group of Death. Though you could argue that Argentina vs Brazil is an even more deathly Group of Death.
Daryl

It's not seeded Mike, because agreeing on seeding would mean having the debate before we even started the bracket. So the initial pairings are based on geography.
Taylor Rockwell

Group of death
MIKE

how r u gonna put netherlands against portugal in the first round. how about putting them on opposite ends of the bracket being that, at least I think, they have the better chances of breking the top 5.