The Offside Year End Power Rankings

Yes, it’s been awhile, but by the time May had rolled around (we begin months on the tenth or thereabouts) we decided to eliminate the confusion and allow the lads to duke it out on the field. They did, someone won, and selecting the best team became a mere formality.

(That’d be golden Barcelona if you’ve stumbled here looking for sex scandals or pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo with a man purse. Or sex scandals involving Cristiano Ronaldo and a man purse.)

The rules in short form:

-Team bloggers ranked the top teams from 1-10.
-Bloggers were not allowed to vote for their own side. Or West Brom.
-Descending point totals (10 for 1st, 9 for 2nd, 8 for 3rd, etc.) were tallied up, then teams slotted accordingly.

And that’s that. Simple and straight forward.

The Year End Top Ten

1. Barcelona
2. Manchester United
3. Chelsea
4. Internazionale
5. Liverpool
6. Wolfsburg
7. Milan
8. Bordeaux
9. Arsenal
10. Real Madrid

Honorable Mention: Juventus, Shakhtar*, Porto.

* – Apparently our team bloggers, thankfully, do not give the same weight to the UEFA Cup as, say, UEFA or IFFHS. Both likely would’ve had both Shakhtar and Werder Bremen – perhaps even HSV – bumping Barcelona down a few rungs.

Barcelona were a nearly unanimous choice at the top. The other team up there was, well, you can guess which non-Clasico fandom might have a beef with Barca these days. The top five was nearly unanimous as well, with Barca, ManU, Chelsea, Inter, and Liverpool making up the overwhelming majority of top halves.

The rest, however, was a bit more difficult. Wolfsburg and Bordeaux made it for winning titles, but would either really beat Milan, Arsenal or Juventus over a set number of games? Probably not. Real Madrid only pipped Juventus by a point for last place, though that’s probably only due to the fact that they completely checked out once they were effectively dumped from the La Liga title race (what’s the point of playing for pride when you’re already wearing a Real Madrid shirt?).

And with that, the rankings conclude for the year. Sort of. The European season will be starting up again in just two months – sooner for some such as Ukraine and Denmark – and we’ll be sneaking in some int’l teams shortly, so don’t go far.

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Category: Power Rankings, World Football