re: Countries in the Champions League + Michael Owen's thoughts

It's a sell first league outside of the top 2. Does not transition into sustainable success. The English and German economies allow their clubs to pay top dollar to keep their stars in domestic leagues AND buy up plenty of talent from Spain. La Liga is in a slow decline and who knows what it will look like if the Ronaldo rumors happen to be true. The sad thing is most clubs in Spain are content making a buck since they know their chances of competing with RM/Barca are slim as can be.

English soccer would crumble if faced with similar circumstances since their academies aren't in the same stratosphere as Spain, Germany or the Netherlands for that matter.