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The Strongest Leagues in

World Football: How the
Opta Power Rankings Can
Help
AUG 6, 2023

MATT FURNISS / AUTHOR , MATT SISNEROS / DESIGN , JONATHAN

MANUEL / DATA VIZ

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Most major men’s football leagues across the

world are set to begin the 2023-24 season
across August, so now is an ideal time to assess
the overall strength of those leagues using the
Opta Power Rankings.

Here, we look at some of the key talking points

before we kick off the new season.

OPTA POWER RANKINGS EXPLAINED

METRIC EXPLAINERS

Introducing Power Rankings: Your

Club Ranked
JONNY WHITMORE

The ‘Top Five’ European Leagues?

Well, according to our Opta Power Rankings

Rankings,
the often-talked-about top Hve European
leagues are still just that. The top Kights in
England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France are
still the leading leagues based on the average
Opta Power Ranking of the clubs making up
those divisions in 2023-24, but possibly not in
the order that you would expect.

The English Premier League leads the way,

with the 20 clubs taking part in the 2023-24
campaign having an average team ranking of
48.6 and an average team rating on a zero to
100 scale of 87.1 (where zero is the worst-
ranked team in the world and 100 is the best
team in the world), with more clubs ranked
within the top 10 (Manchester City, Liverpool,
Arsenal and Manchester United) than any other
league. The Premier League team with the
lowest ranking – Luton Town in 116th – are
ranked higher than nine Ligue 1 clubs, seven
Serie A sides, four La Liga teams and three
from the Bundesliga before a ball is kicked in
2023-24.

It might be surprising to some, but the

German Bundesliga ranks as the second
strongest league based on the average rating of
their clubs in the Opta Power Rankings. Bayern
Munich are doing a lot of the legwork here,
with the reigning German champions ranked
second, but RB Leipzig (seventh) and Borussia
Dortmund (10th) also rank within the top 10.

Many would have expected La Liga to be the

second strongest league, but their average
team rating in the Opta Power Rankings (84.1) is
just below that of the German top Kight (85.4).
However, the gap between the highest rated La
Liga club (Real Madrid’s 93.2) and the lowest
rated in the competition (Las Palmas (79.6) is
the closest across all of the top Hve European
leagues. That gap of 13.6 is lower than the
Premier League (18.7), Bundesliga (16.2), Serie
A (15.8) and Ligue 1 (16.3).

The Top 10 Leagues Across the World

European leagues dominate our league

rankings. Nine of the top 10 top-Kight leagues
across the World are deemed to be in Europe,
with the only exception being the Brazilian
Serie A, which is the ninth strongest.

You have to go as far down as 62nd to Hnd the

highest ranked non-European club, with
Palmeiras of Brazil taking that honour. The
reigning Brazilian Serie A champions are also in
pole position to reach the quarter-Hnals of the
2023 Copa Libertadores following a 1-0 Hrst leg
win over fellow Brazilian club Atlético Mineiro
in the last 16. The Brazilian giants have won the
competition in two of the last three years but
were knocked out in last year’s semi-Hnal.

Palmeiras are joined in the top 100 by fellow

Brazilian club Flamengo (80th) and Argentine
side River Plate (85th). The Argentine Primera
Division is deemed the 17th strongest league
and the third strongest outside of Europe, with
Liga MX in Mexico just above in 16th. Only one
Mexican club is placed inside the top 100 of the
Opta Power Rankings, with Monterrey in 95th
– one place below Premier League side Everton
and three below Scottish giants Celtic (92nd).

Back to Europe, it might be surprising to see

the Belgian Pro League and Swiss Super League
ranked higher than the Portuguese and Dutch
top Kights. A lot of this comes down to the
quality of the weaker half of each league.

Of the 64 teams across these two leagues,

Portuguese behemoths FC Porto (13th) and
BenHca (20th) are the highest ranked in the
Opta Power Rankings, followed by PSV (21st),
Feyenoord (30th), Ajax (32nd) and Sporting CP
(38th). You have to go down as far as 50th to
Hnd the top ranked Swiss club side, Young Boys
while the highest ranked Belgian club are
Union Saint-Gilloise (54th).

Eight of the 18 clubs in the 2023-24 Portuguese

Primeira are currently ranked outside the top
500 in the Opta Power Rankings, which is what
pushes the top-Kight league in Portugal down
in our league ranking, but this is a reason why
it’s so hard to explicitly compare leagues. The
Swiss league only contains 12 clubs, so
naturally the top 12 clubs in Switzerland will be
ranked higher on average than the top 18 in
Portugal or the Netherlands.

If you were to compare the average Opta

Power Ranking of the top 10 clubs in each
competition, that would move the Eredivisie to
the sixth strongest and the Primeira Liga to
seventh strongest, above the Belgian top Kight
(eighth) and Swiss League (12th).

MLS vs Saudi Pro League – The New Messi vs

Ronaldo Debate

When Lionel Messi was set to leave Paris Saint-

Germain after 2022-23, reports suggested that
his two most likely destinations were Saudi
Arabia or the United States. So when he joined
Inter Miami in July and decided against signing
for a Saudi club like long-term rival Cristiano
Ronaldo did seven months earlier, some said he
made the wrong decision and joined a weaker
league.

Well, according to the Opta Power Rankings,

that isn’t the case.

The average power rating of Major League

Soccer clubs is 73.2, which is above the Saudi
Pro League club average of 70.0. Of all top-
Kight leagues across the world, this places MLS
as the 29th strongest – seven places above the
Saudi Pro League (36th).

Major League Soccer is a much tighter league

in terms of team quality according to the Opta
Power Rankings. While three of the top four
clubs from across both leagues are from the
Saudi league (Al Ittihad, Al Hilal and Al Nassr)
and just one from MLS (Philadelphia Union), 13
of the 14 lowest ranked clubs from both are in
the Saudi league.

The Opta Power Rankings

SEARCH COMPARE

Updates daily Monday to Friday. Last updated Jan

21, 2024. Modelling by Daniel Dinsdale. Dev by
Peter McKeever and Robbie Dunne.

CLEAR ALL

SEARCH BY TEAM, LEAGUE, COUNTRY, OR CONFEDERATION

RANKING CHANGE
RANK TEAM RATING 7 DAYS

1 MANCHESTER CITY 100.0 0

2 REAL MADRID 97.8 0

3 BAYERN MÜNCHEN 96.8 0

4 INTERNAZIONALE 96.6 0

5 LIVERPOOL 96.2 0

6 PSG 94.4 1

7 ARSENAL 94.0 -1

8 BAYER LEVERKUSEN 93.5 0

9 ATLÉTICO MADRID 93.0 0

10 BARCELONA 92.7 0

11 JUVENTUS 92.6 0

12 BORUSSIA DORTMUND 92.1 2

13 ASTON VILLA 92.1 -1

14 REAL SOCIEDAD 91.6 2

15 RB LEIPZIG 91.5 -2

16 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 91.4 -1

17 MILAN 91.3 2

BRIGHTON & HOVE

18 91.0 0
ALBION
19 PSV 91.0 -2

20 BENFICA 90.9 0

21 PORTO 90.7 1

22 WEST HAM UNITED 90.1 -1

23 GIRONA 90.0 0

24 NAPOLI 89.9 1

25 SPORTING CP 89.8 1

26 ATHLETIC CLUB 89.5 -2

27 NEWCASTLE UNITED 89.4 0

28 ATALANTA 89.3 0

29 MANCHESTER UNITED 88.9 0

30 LAZIO 88.7 0

31 CHELSEA 88.6 0

32 LENS 88.0 0

33 OLYMPIQUE MARSEILLE 87.9 0

34 LILLE 87.8 1

35 ROMA 87.4 -1

36 REAL BETIS 87.0 2

37 FIORENTINA 87.0 -1

38 UNION SAINT-GILLOISE 86.9 1

39 NICE 86.9 1

WOLVERHAMPTON
40 86.8 2
WANDERERS
41 MONACO 86.7 3

42 BRENTFORD 86.5 5

43 FEYENOORD 86.5 0

44 RENNES 86.4 1

45 STUTTGART 86.4 -8

46 BOLOGNA 86.4 -5

47 SALZBURG 86.3 -1

48 CLUB BRUGGE 86.3 3

49 EVERTON 86.2 1

50 FENERBAHÇE 86.2 -2

51 FREIBURG 86.1 1

52 AFC BOURNEMOUTH 86.0 -3

53 VALENCIA 85.8 7

54 EINTRACHT FRANKFURT 85.8 -1

55 SLAVIA PRAHA 85.8 0

56 FULHAM 85.7 1

57 GALATASARAY 85.6 -1

58 AL HILAL 85.6 0

59 CRYSTAL PALACE 85.5 -5

60 TORINO 85.5 -1

61 SPORTING BRAGA 85.3 0

62 PALMEIRAS 85.2 0

63 BREST 84.9 3

64 SPARTA PRAHA 84.9 1

65 VILLARREAL 84.8 -2

66 LAS PALMAS 84.3 16

67 WOLFSBURG 84.3 2

68 LEICESTER CITY 84.3 0

69 ANDERLECHT 84.2 1

70 REIMS 84.2 1

71 GETAFE 84.2 -4

72 GENT 84.1 -8

73 ATLÉTICO MINEIRO 84.1 -1

74 AL NASSR 84.1 -1

75 SEVILLA 84.1 5

76 BORUSSIA M'GLADBACH 84.1 12

77 MONZA 84.0 -2

78 YOUNG BOYS 83.8 4

79 HOFFENHEIM 83.7 -3

80 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 83.7 -6

81 MACCABI TEL AVIV 83.7 -4

82 GENK 83.6 -3

83 RANGERS 83.5 -2

84 ZENIT 83.5 0

85 ANTWERP 83.5 0

86 KØBENHAVN 83.4 0

87 MALLORCA 83.4 3

88 OSASUNA 83.2 -1

89 STRASBOURG 83.2 2

90 CELTIC 83.1 2

91 RAYO VALLECANO 83.1 -13

92 FLAMENGO 83.0 1

93 UNION BERLIN 82.9 1

94 CELTA DE VIGO 82.9 2

95 OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS 82.8 -6

96 MACCABI HAIFA 82.8 4

97 BODØ / GLIMT 82.7 0

98 AMÉRICA 82.6 4

99 MONTPELLIER 82.5 -4

100 UDINESE 82.5 -1

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