Which is the strongest second tier league?

bluenine wrote:One of the biggest strengths of Italian football has been the amazing level of Serie B... for teh past 20 seasons, Serie B will easily be in the top 10 of european leagues.

The Championship has been improving steadily, but even now I think Serie B is the strongest. EPL and la Liga have caught up with Serie A, but teh second division in Italy is still huge and very difficult to win. Thats why I am surprised when people assume that Juve (with all their stars) will easily overturn the 17 point penalty. Its not going to be that easy, believe me. Remember Batistuta's Fiorentina, anyone??

I agree- I think Serie B is definitely stronger than English 1st division. More so now because in England the Premiership sides are noqw so far ahead of the Championship sides- the only Championshsip sides who can compete in the EPL are those with fairly large budgets and fanbase, and strong youth teams- ie West Ham, Wigan etc.

In the days of the Anglo-Italian Cup however in the mid 90's, the old 2nd division had the beating of its Italian counterparts.

But with the rich getting ticher in the EPL, and the poor getting poorer in the lower leagues,

Im v suprised people think it is a particularly good league. Been to see Leeds Utd play on a number of occassions the past two seasons and the quality of sides outside the top 6 is really quite poor