Features

Football's dominant forces

Author: Lynda Collins
Date: 10/01/2010
Football betting

The so-called 'big four' have dominated in the English Premier League in recent years, but a number of leagues across Europe have suffered the same fate with a handful of teams continually challenging for honours.

Prime amongst those is Scotland's SPL, with Celtic and Rangers having won every league title between them since Aberdeen won back-to-back crowns in 1983-84 and 1984-85, under the expert guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Since that point, Celtic have secured eight championships, while current champions Rangers have taken the honours on 14 occasions.

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The Gers' record includes nine consecutive titles between 1989 and 1997, with their overall title haul a massive 52, ten more than the Bhoys, with Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian the next best with four successes apiece.

In the Netherlands the triumvirate of perennial sportsbook favourites Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord have called the shots for even longer than Rangers and Celtic have in Scotland.

Only current champions AZ Alkmaar have denied the illustrious trio since 1964, winning the Eredivisie crown last season, as well as in 1980-81.

Otherwise, the Dutch title race is almost a foregone conclusion even before the season has got underway, with PSV having lifted the trophy on seven occasions in the last decade.

The shop is even more closed in Portugal, where Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon account for all but two titles since the end of the Second World War.

Belenenses took the honours in 1945-46, before the big three shared put the silverware between them until the 2000-01 campaign, when Boavista broke the stranglehold.

However, the cold, hard truth is that only eight teams have ever won the Portuguese league title, with Benfica, Porto and Sporting accounting for all but eight titles between them.

Benfica lead the way with 31 championships, with Porto four behind the Lisbon Eagles and Sporting a further five back from their deadly city rivals.

In Belgium the domination of Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Standard Liege is not quite so great, but they have still won all but five Jupiler League titles in the last three decades between them.

Their domination has been broken by Beveren, Mechelen, Lierse and Racing Genk (twice), but the rest of Belgium can all but give up on a title tilt before the end of summer each year.

Some of the former Soviet states have also been dominated by one club, with Skonto Riga crowned champions of Latvia on 13 consecutive occasions up to 2004.

Dynamo Kyiv won nine successive titles in Ukraine before being dethroned by Shakhtar Donetsk in 2001-02.

Suddenly Manchester United's 11 league titles in 17 seasons do not seem like the total domination that they appear to be at first.

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