The Brasileirão has been named the fifth best league in the world according to a survey carried out by World Soccer.
The magazine placed the league ahead of the likes of Netherlands’ Eredivisie and France’s Ligue 1 in the survey’s overall rankings in their latest issue.
The winners of the survey was Germany’s Bundesliga with the Premier League following closely in second.
Spain’s La Liga claimed third place while Italy’s Serie A came in fourth. Argentina also featured in the rankings at tenth.
The survey scored each league in individual rankings such as attendances, finances, goals scored, competitiveness, managers, players, and stadiums. All scores were then totted up for an overall score and ranking.
The Brasileirão performed particular poorly in attendances, with their average of 13,004 falling well short of the Bundesliga’s 45,116.
But they scored much better in finances, which ranked leagues based on total income, in which they came sixth with a total of €650m, but still dwarfed by the Premier League’s €2.5bn.
Another low ranking came in goals scored as they finished 15th due to their goals per game average of 2.47, compared to the Eredivisie’s 3.27.
Brazil also impressed in the competitiveness rankings, coming in at sixth with six different league winners in the past ten years.
In managers, ranking leagues based on major titles won by coaches, the Brasileirão came in second with three, behind the Premier League’s five, thanks to Copa Libertadores winners Abel Braga, Muricy Ramalho and Tite.
Brazil also scored highly in stadiums, coming in at third behind leaders USA and second placed Germany, based on how many modern stadiums were built since 2000.
But it was back to basics as Brazil scored very low on the number of star players plying their trade in the Brasileirão with 13, based on 2010 World Cup squads, as England led the way with 76 players featuring in South Africa.
Finally, leagues were scored on their success, based on how many clubs competed in the semi-final or final of their continent’s biggest prizes in the past ten years.
Brazil came in second with eight clubs in the Copa Libertadores, behind only Spain with ten clubs in European competitions.
Source: World Soccer
Overall Rankings
1 – Germany (60)
2 – England (55)
3 – Spain (46)
4 – Italy (37)
5 – Brazil (36)
6 – Mexico (30)
7 – USA (28)
8 – Netherlands (26)
9 – France (22)
10 – Argentina (20)
