Why the NFL Is Better Than the Bundesliga and Other European Soccer Leagues

It’s all about parity

The NFL vs. European Soccer Leagues, images by KeithJJ and flooy.

I grew up in Germany as a passionate soccer fan and followed the national soccer league, the Bundesliga, very closely. However, in recent years, I stopped watching and switched to the NFL. The plain reason is that it has become incredibly boring. Bayern Munich is so dominant that it is almost guaranteed for them to win the championship and it’s like that in most European soccer leagues. I even am a Bayern fan and seeing your team win every week is great, but when you can almost expect a win and there isn’t any real challenge to overcome, it gets stale after a while. There is a huge strength disparity between the best and the worst clubs. The NFL, on the other hand, is one of the sports leagues with the best parity between its teams, which makes it a lot more interesting to follow.

Parity

A comparison of the champions in the 5 major European soccer leagues and the NFL over the last 10 years, image by author.

When looking at the champions over the last 10 years in the NFL and European soccer leagues, you immediately notice that there are 8 different Super Bowl champions, while even the most competitive soccer leagues only managed to produce 5 different winners.