Which Leagues Have Won the Most European Trophies?

The Premier League is frequently, and we really mean very frequently, referred to as the best league in the world. It is without doubt the richest football league in the world, its earnings and spending power easily dwarfing all other competitions. This has allowed Premier League clubs to recruit many of the game’s top players, but has that translated into it genuinely being the best in terms of quality?

The Premier League is probably the most exciting league in the world with the promise of commitment, relatively little cynicism, and plenty of scope for upsets drawing fans from far and wide. In theory, that is the starting point of a virtuous circle, whereby great demand drives better TV deals, which gives the clubs more money to buy better players, thus leading to more exciting and higher quality football… driving even more demand.

Impossible to Measure the ‘Best League’

Measuring, or even defining, what is the “best league in the world” is far from straightforward. Is the best league the one with the single best club, the best three or best five teams, or the one with the greatest strength in depth from one to 20 (on one to 18 in the case of the Bundesliga)? Or, is it something else?

There is no way to measure any of the methods mentioned, but one way of assessing which is the strongest league, certainly in Europe, is by considering how many European trophies have been won by the teams from that domestic competition. Even here, there are many variables and different ways of looking at the stats.

Our Unique (Made Up) Point System

For the sake of this article, we are going to look at how the different major leagues have done over the last five, 10 and 20 seasons, to see how the balance of power may have shifted in those timeframes. We are also only going to consider the Champions League and Europa League.

In a pretty much entirely arbitrary fashion, we will look at sides that made the final, as well as those that actually won, awarding three points to winners and one point to beaten finalists. Just to complicate matters further, we’ll award double points for the UEFA Champions League: so, six for the winners and two for the runners up.

The Last Five Years

The table below shows the performances of the most successful four leagues in the UCL and UEL over the five seasons up to and including 2023/24. These are the classic “Big Five” European leagues, minus France’s Ligue 1. They include the Premier League (England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), and the Bundesliga (Germany).

Looking solely at the last five years, using our unique system, Spain have the edge. City and Chelsea have both won the Champions League, making the PL level with La Liga’s two Real Madrid victories. England have also had two losing finalists, City (to Chelsea in 2020/21) and Liverpool to Real (2021/22). However, Sevilla’s two wins in the Europa League, plus one for Villarreal (who beat Man United on penalties in the 2020/21 final) mean that La Liga can claim to be the best league in the world over the past five years.

The Last 10 Years

The table below once again shows how teams from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga have done in the Champions and Europa Leagues over the past decade. These stats include the ones from the table above for the last five years and run from 2014/15 to 2023/24 inclusive. For the sake of clarity and to reiterate the scoring system, winning the UCL is worth six points and making the final two, with the Europa League worth three and one respectively.

When we go back further from the present day and consider all of the last 10 years of major European action, Spain become even more dominant. Sevilla won the Europa League three times in a row between 2014 and 2016, whilst Real Madrid achieved the same treble in the CL between 2016 and 2018.

Of course, in reality, there is more to assessing “the best league” than simply our made-up system that looks only at two competitions. But even so, the argument for Spain looks strong, not least because they do not just rely on Real Madrid. Barcelona won the CL in 2015, Atletico Madrid have made the final twice this century, and the Europa League has been truly dominated by Spanish teams.

The Last Two Decades

The table below illustrates the most successful leagues in Europe between 2004/05 and 2023/24 inclusive.

When we expand our horizons back to the early years of the new millennium, it is broadly the same picture. Italy and Germany are well behind the Premier League, with the clubs of La Liga around 50% ahead of them using our scoring system. In fact, over five years, English clubs had around 81% as many points as those of La Liga. Over 10 years that drops to just under 63%, whilst over 20 years it more or less holds steady, improving slightly to 69%.

La Liga Reigns Supreme

It would take a very biased person to claim that the Premier League was better than La Liga in terms of the quality of its best teams. Other arguments may be plausible, but in terms of European trophies and finals, the Spanish League is well ahead.

Real Madrid and Barca are a huge part of that, of course, but in the 21st century, Sevilla have won seven Europa Leagues, with Atleti (Atletico de Madrid) adding three in that period. In addition, Bilbao and Espanyol have made the final. With Atleti making two finals in the CL this century, and Valencia doing likewise (albeit in 2000 and 2001, so before our 20-year window), Spanish football provides quality teams in quantity, and they have certainly had the upper hand in terms of bagging trophies.