Who has the best football league in the world? Well if you speak and understand only English then its no surprise to think that the EPL is the greatest. Wrong!

AC Milan seem to have signed the biggest names in the transfer market for the 2008-09 European football season, although some people had us thinking that the Rossoneri were in dire straights.

Chelsea 5 - AC Milan 0, AC Milan 1 Bologna 2, Genoa 2 AC Milan 0.

These are the scorelines that people in the English speaking press were focusing on once again to suggest that Italian football is in crisis. Pity the result against Chelsea was a friendly in Moscow. AC Milan had defensive midfielder Massimo Ambrosini striking...as the only available striker on Milan's payroll was 17 yr old Paloschi (who was also injured at the time and is now loaned to Serie B side Parma).

Brazilians Kaka, Pato and new signing Ronaldinho were all unavailable, as was World Champion striker Filippo Inzaghi and Euro Cup squad member Marco Borriello, but this is what the press failed to remind people of.

2007 UEFA Champions League winner Kaka of AC Milan.

According to the media, these details, along with the absence of Nesta, Oddo and Jankulovski, weren't worth the print.

In 2006 it was Calciopoli, In 2007 it was that the UEFA champions League had three English semi-finalists compared to Italy's one, and now it's "Italian clubs are no longer competitive - Serie A, look for talent abroad".

Isn't it funny how English speaking press never address the issues concerning the lack of British representation amongst EPL clubs? Instead they focus on the 6+5 rule and how bad it is for football and that Italian football should follow the EPL's lead and import the majority of its players.

A quick lesson in modern history willl tell you this. Only Serie A has been known as the best football league in the world for the past century.

It will also tell you that all the world's greatest players have played in Italy. Italian clubs are the most respected, Italian clubs have tradition, and last but not least, Italian clubs field Italian players. Shocking I know.

Lesson number 2. The EPL began in 1992 and it fielded predominantly English players. Who watched? Not even the English. Similar to their national cricket team prior to 2005. I remember back in the early 90's that the EPL was broadcast on the ABC at 11.30pm and I would stay up and watch it so I could determine if was actually better then Australia's NSL.

It wasnt until 1999 that anyone really cared for English football on a world scale. Could that have been anything to do with Gold Digger's Fever? Manchester United happened to have won the UEFA Champions League that year, rather luckily, after Ole Gunnar Soljskaer's last minute winner was enough to defeat a dominant Bayern Munich.

But it seems that from 1999 and on, the only football worth watching according to local press is the EPL. If you ask an EPL fan who was the greatest player of all time it's none other than George Best.

Well, who else could it be? I mean, he did play for Brisbane Lions in Australia's NSL alongside Robbie Slater... Who else possibly could rival that?

Another hypothetical. Imagine that after decades of "soccer" ignorance by Australia's media (apart from SBS) that football news became the "norm". Highlights of a deflected goal scored by second rate players in a Birmingham vs Wigan shin-ball clash will make the news, but should Kaka score a winner for Milan against Juventus, Eto'o score a cracker for Barcelona against Villareal or Totti score for Roma against Lazio (teams with tradition playing top class football) we are even lucky to read more than two paragraphs about it on an English speaking website!

And now, after all this, the English press are trying to brainwash readers and viewers further by stripping football of tradition 100% by suggesting Italy has it all wrong by playing Italians instead of buying foreign talent.

Is Italian football really starved of talented players? Is Italian football lacking skill, technique and excitement? Are world class players avoiding Italy? Why would Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ibrahimovic, Milito, Lavezzi, Mutu, Buffon, Trezeguet, Mancini, Pirlo, De Rossi and Cassano want to play in Serie A if it was devoid of any hype or lacked any talent?

Why is it that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United for Spain if the EPL was so great? Why did Ronaldinho, Gattuso, Rosina and Adriano all refuse to go to the EPL? Probably because they're all aware that England is not the best league in the world.

Is Italy now a haven for retiring players to earn the big dollars? Certainly not. This was, and still is the case in England.

Veteran footballer Fernando Hierro retires to the EPL in 2005 at age 35 after signing with Bolton after a year in Qatar with Al Rayyan.

Is it time Serie A stooped to luring 15 yr olds from every corner of the planet instead of developing its own talent? This is the English way.

The English have a history of one thing only. Invade, enslave, and strip anything of its heritage.

Since 1999, World Football has been under invasion from the English speaking press, foreign billionaire investment in the EPL, a relentless marketing scheme by certain broadcasters which own TV rights for the EPL and constant lack of respect from the English media and so called "coaches".

Could the world be so easily enslaved and brainwashed? It appears there is an anti-Italian football sentiment amongst the majority of the English speaking press.

Surely there is hope for Australia's A-League to be the best in the world shortly. All it needs is two or three billionaires to come over and buy up some foreign football talent...we already have the English speaking press here. EPL marketing achieved it so anything is possible!

On a serious note here are the facts.

Fabio Cannavaro holds the 2006 World Cup for Italy in Berlin, Germany.

Currently Italy are the World Champions, Spain are European Champions. The Champions League history since 2000 shows that Spanish teams have won 3 times, Italian teams 2 times, English clubs 2 times and one title each went to a German and Portugese club.

These were the UEFA Champions League finals since 2000.

Real Madrid - Valencia, Bayern Munich - Valencia, Real Madrid - Bayer Leverkusen, AC Milan - Juventus, Porto - Monaco, Liverpool - AC Milan, Barcelona - Arsenal, AC Milan - Liverpool and Manchester United - Chelsea.

From this what can one conclude? Besides the dire Manchester United - Chelsea final in 2008 and the fortunate win of 2005 (Liverpool's 3-3 penalty win over AC Milan) there was some attractive football played by Spanish, German and Italian clubs.

Since 2000 there has been 7 clubs represent Italy in the Champions League, 9 for Spain and 6 for England. Overall Italian teams have made the Champions League final 25 times compared to England's 16 and Spain's 20.

Let's have a look at the past 16 years of domestic football. In 1992 Chris Waddle was the Player of the Year in England while Marco Van Basten and Roberto Baggio were gracing the fields of Italy. 

Let's move on five years to 1997. It took an Italian footballer, Gianfranco Zola, to draw attention to the EPL. Zola won the 1997 EPL Player of the Year while Roberto Mancini and Zenedine Zidane won the awards in Italy.

After seeing the class of Serie A players, EPL clubs spent the next five years signing anyone with a Serie A or La Liga club listing on their resumes. 

By 2001 EPL clubs had signed many Italian players. 35 year old Teddy Sheringham was voted FA Player of the Year while Francesco Totti and Zenedine Zidane led the way in Serie A. Still a huge difference in class.

The past few years have seen Kaka, Ibrahimovic, Nedved and Cannavaro lead the way for Serie A, while Henry, Lampard and Cristiano Ronaldo, all unproven at the very highest level, have raised the bar in England.

A big slap in the face also goes to La Liga in Spain. Clearly the competition and depth there is by far better than England.

The top four in the EPL will always be competitive in Europe thanks to foreigners getting them over the line but nothing can make up for the never-ending blunders and long balls of the EPL. What other league would ever sign former England Under 21 international Titus Bramble?

What does this all mean? From a Champions League view point it's all fairly even. From a domestic view point Serie A plays the most attractive football, is the most competitive and has the greatest depth. Spain is a close second and one could argue that English football is somewhere amongst the top leagues thanks to its foreign players.

Mercenaries playing football ping pong in the EPL will never strip the Latin football world of it's greatness.

Long live Serie A.

David Ferrini
AusItalia.com