Nov 28 2007
Crazy Idea: A Premier League-La Liga Challenge
Today’s my birthday, so if I appear to be off on some ozone expeditions today, that’s why…
So I’m watching the ACC-Big Ten Challenge on ESPN last night. It’s a big early-season college basketball event here in America that pits two of the biggest conferences’ schools against each other to determine which is the better basketball conference. During halftime last night, this exchange took place:
RECE DAVIS: You’re looking there at the Commissioner’s Cup, the award that goes to the winner of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
DIGGER PHELPS: Y’know, Jay, I’ve never seen the Commissioner’s Cup before.
JAY BILAS: Neither has the Big Ten.
Thank you, thank you, Jay Bilas will be here all week. Try the veal…
Anyway, as I’m watching my alma mater hold off Georgia Tech last night, it suddenly hit me — why don’t we have something like this in Association football?
Think about it. The structure of American college basketball and European football is actually quite similar. Colleges divide themselves into regional conferences — the ACC, the Big East, the Pac-10, etc. — and at season’s end, conference champions enter a tournament with the top teams in the nation to determine the national champion. In Europe, domestic league champions enter Champions League competition with a designated number of clubs from the biggest leagues to determine the European champ.
Wouldn’t it be fun if two of the top domestic leagues in Europe had a preseason challenge cup of their own? Let’s take the top ten clubs in the Premier League and put them up against the top ten clubs in La Liga. You’d get a matchup that looks like this:
Manchester United v. Real Madrid
Chelsea v. Barcelona
Liverpool v. Sevilla
Arsenal v. Valencia
Tottenham Hotspur v. Villareal
Everton v. Zaragoza
Bolton v. Atletico Madrid
Reading v. Recreativo
Portsmouth v. Getafe
Blackburn v. Racing Santander
Whichever country comes away with the most points wins the Challenge Cup. Profits from the box office and TV money could go to charity, just like the FA Community Shield, so if a league says no to the idea, you could say they’re being mean to the children. Besides, those matches would be a hell of a lot more entertaining than the Community Shield has been lately, too, don’t you think?
You could also do something similar between, say, MLS and the A-League, though Queensland Roar v. FC Dallas probably doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
5 Responses to “Crazy Idea: A Premier League-La Liga Challenge”
I love this idea. Not only would it help put to rest the endless debates about who has the best league in the world (or at least add some spice to them–think what would happen if the Bundesliga shocked Serie A!), the top-level matches would be about ten times as exciting as most of the Champions League group stages. Plus, the idea of football crossing national borders in a non-World Cup year would probably give Sepp Blatter a vague feeling of anxiety. And God, just think of the sniping in the press in the week before the matches!
If only all the top teams weren’t playing 8-10 too many games each year already, this could really almost work.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/sport/mhmhideyidoj/
The beginning of the end of the amature GAA ?
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I love this idea to, especially since I’ve been comparing European Football to College Basketball for years. To me, the Premiership is the Big 12 all the way.
The best thing about this idea is that we finally get to know which league is a better league. The problem with using European competition is that it only involves the best clubs, which sometimes aren’t that representative of the league as a whole. To see the leagues square off top to bottom would be an amazing weekend of matches.
Downside is that there are much to many games played already. England has to get rid of the League Cup before anyone should consider another competition.
I like it. Pitch it to the USL who might actually find some league to do it. I think the beauty of the idea is in smaller leagues puffing themselves up, not the major leagues finding one more thing to make themselves special.