The world’s most attractive soccer/football league is simply put; overrated.  Amassing a TV deal with Sky Sports and BT paying a combined £5.1 billion, (equivalent to $7.8 billion) the quality of the league should really put it on a pedestal above the other “great”  leagues but really seems to be sliding down the pecking order in asserting its dominance. The injection of cash hasn’t raised the level of play significantly, the only positive to emerge from the lucrative TV deal is the clubs with lesser financial means, get to make signings they previously could not have made allowing them to be more “competitive”.  

Those that say the Premier League is the greatest in the world, are naive as it has only a partial bargaining chip when arguing that case. They can argue that the two most storied clubs in the world originated in England with Liverpool and Manchester United both giants who have fallen from grace in the past decade. That argument is sound, but the sports world lives in the here and now, and the history is in the past. They are not  getting paid £5 billion for their “history”.

The claim of being the best league, the assumption can only made that the league would be home to the best players. That assumption is put to bed with only three players making the UEFA Team of the Year in the past five years. Then there is the Ballon d’Or, an award given to the player who had the best season throughout the entire world, which a player from the Premier League hasn’t won since 2001. Spanning back to 2008, the award has stayed in Spain, exchanging hands between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, which then makes La Liga, just on player quality alone the best league in the world.

It is also said the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world, but in what context. Domestically, the league is quite competitive, with everyone having the ability to defeat anyone. Upsets in the game happen everywhere in the world, the simple fact they occur with more frequency does not mean the league is the most competitive beyond any sense of the word. If anything it weakens the reputation of the league just as their player internationally as well. The last time a Premier League team won the elusive UFEA Champions League was 2012. In recent years the English clubs have struggled to make it out of their group let alone past the first knockout rounds.
The Premier League’s hype is blown way out of proportion. The quality of the league has seen a decline in recent years in every aspect; the quality of play, competitiveness, and more even stretching beyond the pitch into the front offices. The Premier League deserves to be knocked off their high pedestal it is held on and it needs to happen now.