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 edit
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 edit
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.
Records and statistics edit
Performance in current UEFA top-tier competitions edit
| Competition |  Spain
|
 England
|
 Italy
|
 Germany
|
 France
|
Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Cup / Champions League |
Winners | 19 | 15 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 55 of 68 European Cup / UEFA Champions League seasons (over 80%) has been won by a club from the Big Five |
| Finalists | 30 | 26 | 29 | 18 | 7 | 110 of 136 European Cup / UEFA Champions League finalists (over 80%) has been clubs from the Big Five | |
| UEFA Cup / Europa League |
Winners | 14 | 9 | 9 | 7 | – | 39 of 52 UEFA Cup / Europa League seasons (75%) has been won by a club from the Big Five |
| Finalists | 19 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 5 | 73 of 104 UEFA Cup / Europa League finalists (over 70%) has been clubs from the Big Five | |
| UEFA Conference League | Winners | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | 2 of 2 UEFA Conference League seasons (100%) has been won by a club from the Big Five |
| Finalists | – | 1 | 2 | – | – | 3 of 4 UEFA Conference League finalists (75%) has been clubs from the Big Five | |
| Grand total | Winners | 33 | 25 | 22 | 15 | 1 | 96 of 122 current UEFA top-tier competitions (over 78%) has been won by a club from the Big Five |
| 'Finalists | 49 | 44 | 48 | 33 | 12 | 187 of 244 current UEFA top-tier competition finalists (over 76%) has been clubs from the Big Five | |
| Competition | Germany
|
France
|
Spain
|
England
|
Italy
|
Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Women's Champions League | Winners | 9 | 8 | 2 | 1 | – | 20 of 22 UEFA Women's Champions League seasons (over 90%) has been won by a club from the Big Five |
| Finalists | 17 | 12 | 4 | 2 | – | 35 of 44 UEFA Women's Champions League finalists (over 79%) has been clubs from the Big Five | |
Performance in defunct UEFA top-tier competitions edit
In contrast to the current UEFA competitions, the Cup Winners Cup also showed a dominance of the Big Five, but this was significantly lower in terms of title success (over 69%) and final participation (over 62%). This should be explained by the fact that only one participant from the respective leagues could take part in this tournament as a national cup winner or national cup finalist, if the cup winner qualified for the European Cup / UEFA Champions League. Therefore only one participant from the respective leagues (unless the defending champions did not qualify for any other UEFA competition, then it were two) took part in this competition.
| Competition | England
|
Spain
|
Italy
|
Germany†
|
France
|
Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (defunct) | Winners | 8 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 27 of 39 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup seasons (over 69%) were won by a club from the Big Five |
| Finalists | 13 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 3 | 49 of 78 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalists (over 62%) were clubs from the Big Five | |
† excluding clubs from East Germany
List of players to have played the Big Five Leagues edit
The table below show the players who have played in all Big Five Leagues.
| Footballer | England
|
France
|
Germany
|
Italy
|
Spain
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Florin Răducioiu |
West Ham United | Monaco | VfB Stuttgart | Bari | Espanyol |
| Brescia | |||||
| Hellas Verona | |||||
| Milan | |||||
 Christian Poulsen |
Liverpool | Evian | Schalke 04 | Juventus | Sevilla |
 Stevan Jovetić |
Manchester City | Monaco | Hertha BSC | Inter Milan | Sevilla |
| Fiorentina | |||||
 Justin Kluivert |
Bournemouth | Nice | RB Leipzig | Roma | Valencia |
List of managers to have coached the Big Five Leagues edit
The table below show the managers who have coached in all Big Five Leagues.
| Footballer | England
|
France
|
Germany
|
Italy
|
Spain
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlo Ancelotti |
Chelsea | Paris Saint-Germain | Bayern Munich | Parma | Real Madrid |
| Juventus | |||||
| Everton | |||||
| Milan | |||||
| Napoli |
List of Champions in the Big Five edit
The table below shows the winning teams in all men's Big Five leagues by season.
- Single-year seasons (mostly referring to the championship tournaments in early years) have been converted into currently-used season format.
Record champions in the Big Five edit
| England
|
Germany
|
Spain
|
Italy
|
France
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
See also edit
- Big Five (Eurovision) – the same (UK/England) five European nations as financial powers in another context
- Atlantic League (football) – a proposed competitor for the Big Five
Notes edit
- ^ a b Real Madrid were known as Madrid FC from 1931 until 1941.
- ^ a b Atlético Madrid were known as Atlético Aviación from 1939 until 1947.
References edit
- ^ a b c "Topic: Big Five". Statista. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ a b c Solomon, Michael. "World Football, League Races Outside of the "Big Five" That Deserve Attention". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ a b "The Statistical Ranking of Europe's Top 5 Leagues". Breaking The Lines. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ UEFA.com. "Country coefficients | UEFA Coefficients". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ a b UEFA.com. "Women's association club coefficients | UEFA Coefficients". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ lawson_sv (2019-08-09). "The history of Scandinavia's World Cup successes". All For XI. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Burhan, Asif. "2022: The Year That Changed Women's Soccer In Europe". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-12-30.