England still in the World Cup!

It’s become the trendiest theory to explain England’s failure at this World Cup: Premiership clubs play too many games so that by the time the summer rolls around Premiership players are too exhausted to play well at international tournaments. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this theory, including the fact that stars like Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney have gone missing in South Africa. But the actual numbers paint a more nuanced picture.

The top four leagues remain pretty well represented among the eight national teams that are still alive in the World Cup. The German Bundesliga leads with 37 players left in the tournament. Spain ’s La Liga follows with 33 players remaining. Italy ’s Serie A comes third with 28 players. The Premiership is fourth with 19 – with the largest contingent of those players on the Dutch squad.

Even though the Bundesliga and La Liga appear to be head and shoulders above the others, the numbers are skewed by the fact that the national squads of England, Italy, Germany and Spain are made up almost entirely of players from their home leagues. With England and Italy out of the competition, and Germany and Spain still in it, the numbers will obviously be stacked in favor of the Bundesliga and La Liga.

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