The Big Five refers to the association football markets of England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France. As of 2023, they are the five European leaders in size and popularity of the main domestic football leagues – the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 respectively in men's football, and the Women's Super League, Frauen-Bundesliga, Liga F, Serie A, and Division 1 respectively in women's football.

Market

In men's football, the combined resources and revenues of the Big Five domestic leagues dominate world football; according to Statista, they have a combined revenue of €15.6 billion.[1] Within the Big Five, England's Premier League is considerably larger than the other four in terms of both popularity and wealth, with both factors influencing the other; league wealth is mostly derived from selling broadcasting rights to global markets based on the league's popularity worldwide, with competing bids. The German Bundesliga enjoys the highest average match attendance, while brand value is strongest in the main teams of Spain's La Liga, namely Real Madrid and Barcelona.[1]

Bleacher Report noted that the Big Five all benefit from having "developed their own 'brand' of how football should be played."[2] The website suggested that the Netherlands' top league Eredivisie was considered similarly to the Big Five in footballing terms, but did not reach the same popularity or funding levels because it is overlooked by international fans in favour of the Five.[2]

Quality

The Big Five are seen as the collective leagues where the best players in the world go to develop and shine,[2] and it is accepted that the Big Five "represent the pinnacle of European football". However, football fans, particularly in different regions, often debate the quality of each league compared to the others.[3] As of 2023, the Big Five lead the UEFA coefficient for both men's and women's domestic leagues in Europe.[4][5] The coefficient ranks on performance of domestic teams in European competitions; football analytics website Breaking the Lines suggested that the continued dominance of the Big Five in the coefficient for men's football relies on teams from other nations – which may be as good or better than Big Five teams when fielding their best XI – thinking there is more security in aiming for domestic titles rather than European ones, and Big Five teams having the resources available to perform in both.[3] Women's football has been less consistently centralised and, in Europe, has also been strong in Scandinavia;[6][7] as it became more popular, the largest (men's) football markets invested more, leading to a shift towards teams from the Big Five.[8] Sweden held a spot in the UEFA coefficient instead of Italy through 2022.[5]

In 2021, several men's teams from the Big Five leagues in England, Italy, and Spain attempted to create a European Super League, but received pushback.[1] Teams from Germany and France were reportedly invited to join the project, but declined.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Topic: Big Five". Statista. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  2. 1 2 3 Solomon, Michael. "World Football, League Races Outside of the "Big Five" That Deserve Attention". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  3. 1 2 "The Statistical Ranking of Europe's Top 5 Leagues". Breaking The Lines. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  4. ↑ UEFA.com. "Country coefficients | UEFA Coefficients". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  5. 1 2 UEFA.com. "Women's association club coefficients | UEFA Coefficients". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  6. ↑ lawson_sv (2019-08-09). "The history of Scandinavia's World Cup successes". All For XI. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  7. ↑ Skogvang, Bente Ovedie (2019-04-03). "Scandinavian women's football: the importance of male and female pioneers in the development of the sport". Sport in History. 39 (2): 207–228. doi:10.1080/17460263.2019.1618389. ISSN 1746-0263. S2CID 181902600.
  8. ↑ Burhan, Asif. "2022: The Year That Changed Women's Soccer In Europe". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
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