Hope fades for contenders as the European elite take control

May 7 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

WHEN Bayern Munich clinched their 21st title on Sunday after dominating this year’s Bundesliga, their rivals raised concerns that they could dominate German football for years to come.

Spurred on by a £50m investment in players last summer, the Bavarians won the division at a canter – prompting fears from rivals Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen that this season’s procession will soon become the norm.

But considering they didn’t win the title last year – or even qualify for the Champions League – their superiority is a drop in the ocean compared to the carve-up in England.

Clearly, competitive spirit is cherished more in Germany that it is in England, where it has taken five years of steadily turning the screw for concerns to be raised from the chasing pack. While England’s top four have established a strangehold on domestic honours and Champions League qualification, it is a dominance that is not aped in the continental leagues.

While a small cadre of clubs might still firmly control proceedings abroad, there is still room for provincial pretenders to gatecrash the top four of their respective divisions and even occasionally win the title, something that hasn’t happened in the Premier League since Blackburn became champions 13 years ago.

Clearly, the advent of the money-rich Champions League has helped strengthen the hand of Europe’s high-rollers like Real Madrid, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona and Bayern Munich – who have all been pretty much guaranteed a slice of the huge TV fortune that comes with qualification for Uefa’s marquee club competition.

But in all the major leagues abroad there is nothing like the same kind of closed shop when it comes to qualification for the Champions League – and there is still room for good players to prosper and secure international caps while not playing for one of the big teams, an accusation levelled at England’s Big Four as they hoover up the best domestic talent.

In Spain, widely considered England’s greatest competitor for the mythical tag of ‘best league in the world’, Real Madrid and Barcelona have had a stranglehold on the Primera Liga title for the last four years but there has been room for Villarreal, Sevilla, Valencia and Deportivo La Coruña to mount realistic challenges in that time.

In Italy, AC Milan, Inter, Roma and Juventus have maintained a dominance over the top four positions that does echo the superior performance of the Big Four – but the emergence of Fiorentina after they were relegated for their part in the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal offer hopes that can be broken.

In France, too, Lyon’s dominance has outstripped anything that Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea have to offer. Such is their unerring consistency that not since 2001 has any team other than the side from Stade Gerland taken a league title, a situation that shows little sign of changing with Lyon leading Bordeaux by two points in this year’s standings.

But even in France, the worst of the continental leagues in terms of providing different champions, the top four is not as much of a closed shop as it is in England. Monaco, Rennes, Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux and Lens have all graced the Champions League in the last three seasons – a richness of variety not prevalent in this country.

There are, of course, exceptions to the rule of greater competition abroad. In Scotland, Rangers and Celtic have effectively ended the hopes of any team outside of the two Glasgow giants winning the title, while in Norway Rosenborg won the title 12 times in succession before Valerenga broke their grip on their domestic crown in 2005.

But of the continent’s major leagues, England undoubtedly looks more of a closed shop.