Here, an explanation of historical stats strongly indicates that past handicaps to the English Division One have masked the Premier League’s age-old dominance in Europe
By the 29th of May, 2026, Crystal Palace FC had just won the UEFA Conference League, the 3rd English triumph in four seasons, and Aston Villa FC had won the Europa League, a second consecutive win by an English club. This added fuel to the fire that the Premier League is Europe’s bully-boy league as surmised by Ex-England goalkeeper Paul Robinson on BBC Radio 5 Live: “We always talk about the Premier League and it being the strongest league [in the world]. Two English teams have European competitions already and we have another one to come on Saturday. You see the dominance of the Premier League.”
Yet, the afore-referenced Champions League final was lost, making it three seasons a PL team hasn’t lifted a European crown three seasons. A look back at the last couple of decades shows that the EPL is far from all-domineering.
It clearly is one of the best, if not the best league, but how dominant has England’s top flight been over the decades compared to now? Is there a historical trend to the EPL getting stronger over time which may point to the future or is this period cyclical?
I geeked out and counted up how many UEFA trophies the confederation’s top four leagues (England, Germany, Italy and Spain) have won in each decade then ranked them.
Why those four nations’ leagues? Because they are the only ones who have been ranked as the best leagues in UEFA’s historical coefficient as well as holding the top four places in 2026.
Without waffling any longer let me lay out my findings and I’ll explain it in context.
Below, is a table displaying the total number of trophies won by the clubs of England (Eng), Germany (Ger), Spain (Spa) and Italy (Ita) from the 1950s – 2020s, and where each nation ranks for each decade.
Those trophies being UEFA’s four most important competitions to have existed: The Champions League, Cup Winners Cup, Europa League and Conference League
Percentage of total trophies won for each decade for UEFA’s top four leagues
| ///////////// | ’50s | ’60s | ’70s | ’80s | ’90s | ’00s | ’10s | ’20s |
| 1st | Spa – 100% | Ita – 30% | Eng – 28% Ger – 28% | Ita – 23% | Ita – 33% | Spa – 35% | Spa – 60% | Eng – 65% |
| 2nd | Eng – 0% Ger – 0% Ita – 0% | Eng – 20% | Spa – 7% Ita – 7% | Eng – 20% | Spa – 17% | Ita – 15% Eng -15% | Eng – 25% | Spa – 36% |
| 3rd | Spa – 10% Ger – 10% | Spa – 13% | Eng – 14% Ger – 14% | Ger – 5% | Ger – 10% | Ita – 18% | ||
| 4th | Ger – 7% | Ita – 0% | Ger – 9% |
1950s: The first decade of UEFA club football: the European Cup (modern-day Champions League (CL)) was launched in 1955. Whilst all five editions were won by Spanish football (Real Madrid), that left England, technically, the joint 2nd most successful league and we should note that English football was hindered by not entering a team for the first of those five seasons which might contribute to explaining the poor performance, although probably not.
1960s: This decade had 20 editions of two competitions: the CL and the Cup Winners Cup (CWC). Whilst Italy’s Serie A was the most successful, winning 30% of these tournaments, England’s Division One teams won 20% of these tournaments, putting England in 2nd, above the Spanish/German leagues.
1970s: This decade had 29 editions of three competitions: the CL, CWC and (nine editions of) the UEFA Cup (modern-day Europa League (EL)). In this decade, Germany’s Bundesliga and England’s league were joint most dominant, each winning 28% of all trophies as English football really began to shine.
1980s: With 30 editions of three tournaments, the pendulum swung back to Italian dominance with Serie A lifting 23% of trophies, yet England’s Division One remained 2nd with 20% of editions won and could well have been 1st had it not incurred a five-year ban due to the Heysel Stadium Disaster.
1990s: The CWC was discontinued before this decade’s end with nine editions, while England’s strongest club – Liverpool FC – remained banned at the decade’s start. English football dropped to joint 3rd with 14% of silverware won in its least impactful decade, below Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A, and this can no doubt be explained because they had been out in the cold for so long and many of its top talent had moved abroad to compete for European silverware.
2000s: La Liga was now on top, though English football improved with 15% of trophies won and rose to joint 2nd.
2010s: La Liga enjoyed its heyday with over half the cups claimed, yet the Premier League’s strength continued to shine through by making 2nd place its own with 25% of all the successes.
2020s: Five editions of the newfangled Conference League have been played out, to date, and English clubs have won 65% of the 11 total UEFA trophies so far.
So, we see that, although the three rival leagues have had their days in the sun, English football has more consistently stood as either the most or 2nd most dominant in UEFA, despite the late start and excepting the weak era after the five-year ban. With nothing now stopping it, the strength of Premier League football is increasingly evident and, looking back, seems it was destiny. Expect the dominance to continue!
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