The Championship is the most exciting League in the world

[mlmc12345 0]

Dear all,

Here is my piece on why the Championship is the most exciting League in the world. If you like it please follow me on twitter.com/MLMC_123

If the piece provokes you to comment please do so here, as they (my boss! likes to see people comment and interact under the original piece!

http://www.footballfancast.com/championship/why-the-championship-is-the-most-exciting-league-in-the-world

The Championship is the most exciting League in the world through the fantastic attendances, emerging players and being a rare League that is truly unpredictable and competitive.

Forget the Premier League, La Liga or any others, the beauty of the Championship is that it is so fiendishly difficult to predict. Most other Leagues pride themselves on the fact that teams expected to struggle can occasionally take points off the sides of which more is expected, but the Championship goes much further than this. In the Championship, teams expected to struggle can massively outperform expectations and even gain promotion to the promised land of the Premier League. Fantastic recent examples of this concern both Blackpool and Burnley, with the former starting last season as fifth favourites for relegation.

Joey Barton, who has played in the Premier League, Ligue 1 and the Championship commented that England’s second tier is comfortably the most competitive out of the three of them. Regardless of your opinion on Barton, this statement appears hard to disagree with and statistics support it. The gap in terms of points acquired per game between the top and bottom of the Championship is on average 15% closer than in the Premier League. This is reflected by eight of the last 20 teams who gained automatic promotion losing 10 League games or more in the process – Hull lost 15, gained just 79 points and yet still finished second. This happens because the gap in quality between the top and bottom of the division is minimal, affected by teams being relegated despite gaining more than a point a game – Peterborough United went down with 51 points in a recent season.

The Championship is a rare division where the top teams will regularly lose games as, unlike the Premier League, no teams have a clear financial monopoly over the division, meaning talent cannot be hoovered up by select elite clubs. Moreover, the division is normally so tight that heading into the final game of the season almost every team still has something to play for, whether this be retaining the play-offs, automatic promotion or avoiding relegation. This inherent unpredictability is key to the Championship’s excitement, assisted by the League having six new teams each season – most top divisions only gain two or three. The excitement of the division is reflected by its superb attendances, it is comfortably the best followed second division in the world. And for total attendances, the League is consistently in the top five highest in Europe, reflecting it being an exciting product.

The Championship is also engaging because of the huge rewards available to clubs, the dangling carrot of the Premier League and £90 million in prize money guaranteed, including parachute payments if relegated. Thus promotion from the Championship will fundamentally change a club more than say winning the Premier League, as though of course Chelsea or Manchester City would love to do so, they already have plenty of cash. Promotion for Championship clubs can finally allow them to consider much-needed expansions of stadiums and facilities, in addition to acquiring personnel that might help them stay up. Meanwhile at the other end relegation to League One can spell the beginning of a spell in the doldrums for sides with huge support and respected histories – Leeds United took five years to return to the second tier.

Whilst the Championship might not provide the world’s best quality of football, it contains many excellent players who are chasing the promised land of the Premier League. Combine that with superb attendances, a tiny gap between top and bottom creating a truly competitive and unpredictable structure, and the huge rewards on offer and it definitely is the most exciting League in the world.

[Katie Borkins 1]

Not bad.  Too many cliches.  Repetitive ("promised land" as one example).  Quite dry in terms of statistics.  The claim of a "tiny gap between top and bottom" is not substantiated.  The opening hook is weak.  Read the first sentence and I''m thinking "so what?"  Draw me in more." This inherent unpredictability is key to the Championship’s excitement,

assisted by the League having six new teams each season – most top

divisions only gain two or three."I get the point, but the Championship isn''t a top division.  You could say the same about League 1, League 2.Is it "definitely" the most exciting league in the world?  You can''t substantiate that claim either, as "exciting" is by definition an emotion and therefore intangible.

[mrs miggins 0]

The championship is not the most exciting league in the world imo, though it is the most competitive I would argue. Did anyone see the goals yesterday in the premier league? Also the results, very unpredictable, wish we were there.

[Gainer the Gopher 0]

You need to say why at least a few of the other hundreds of other leagues on the planet are not as exciting, too. There may be exciting leagues in Hong Kong, Paraguay, Kazakhstan or France but what makes them less exciting?