Steven Beitashour @ Toronto FC | 2015/16

[scuderia]

The league is much tougher than what some people think, surely better than UAE, Qatar league and not sure if it is worse than IPL if not better.

Have you watched the league before? I watch it on a weekly basis. I can promise you the MLS is a MUCH stronger league than IPL. No comparisons there.

[Iran_19]

That is why i am saying, he is playing in much better league and was playing for a very strong side such as Toronto FC, if a guy like Hossein Mahini get a call once in a while i don't see why Beitashour doesn't.

[Iran_19]

You do realize IPL is 7th in Asia right?
http://www.the-afc.com/afc-ranking/latest

I don't put too much emphasis on this ranking, for me Korean, Chinese, Japanese leagues are top 3 in Asia, following by Saudi, then you can put Qatar, UAE, IPL, Aussie which are more or less on the same level.

[PersianLegion]

I don't put too much emphasis on this ranking, for me Korean, Chinese, Japanese leagues are top 3 in Asia, following by Saudi, then you can put Qatar, UAE, IPL, Aussie which are more or less on the same level.

I think the ranking should be like this

1. Japanese league
2. Chinese league
3. Korean League
4. PGPL
5. Saudi league

[Ali Doust]

I think the ranking should be like this

1. Japanese league
2. Chinese league
3. Korean League
4. PGPL
5. Saudi league

I think Omar Khirbin would have something to say about that.

[teammelli91]

[Kevin Baxteron Twitter] "Expansion team LAFC is close to a deal with Iranian-American defender Steven Beitashour, 30, a free agent who played last year with Toronto. He also played for Iran in the 2014 World Cup"

Link: https://twitter.com/kbaxter11/status/951293015254970369

If they mean he played at right bench then yeah he played at the World Cup. He was behind Heydari and Montazeri and didn’t get a minute of playing time.

[Gotham]

I think Omar Khirbin would have something to say about that.

Lol more importantly the AFC ranking system has something to say about that. Like opinions even matter for league rankings

[Iran_19]

I think the ranking should be like this
1. Japanese league
2. Chinese league
3. Korean League
4. PGPL
5. Saudi league

Saudi league is much better than IPL.

[Nokhodi]

How are we comparing these leagues?
If its just infrastructure and salaries then we're not top 5 for sure.

If its about who has the best team, then AlHilal and Al Ain singlehandedly spend more on football than any other team in Asian football, and probably spend more than certain leagues. That's not professionalism.

If we're talking competitiveness, technical ability and even quality I would say PGPL is definitely top 3.

The J League is the only truly professional league in Japan. Clubs have revenue, their is tv money, clubs have infrastructure, proper academies, long term economic, professional and development plans...
Saudi, UAE, Qatar Leagues are subsidized by rich sheikhs, filled with mostly amateur players and a few exceptional talents.
China is a money washing outfit for vast real estate holding companies staffed same as the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Leagues.

K-League isn't bad, they just have issues with producing talent now, but their infrastructure is world class.

To me, professionalism doesn't necessarily mean a more enjoyable league or better product on the field.
You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the talent, or the passion, or the culture for it, nothing will happen.
A professional league will maximize talent, but each of these leagues have a different capacity.

I could also care less about AFC rankings, Asian Champions League,...

[Kiarash]

I could also care less about AFC rankings, Asian Champions League,...

Agreed on this part the most, you can also add the Asian Cup to that. That tournament lost all its prestige after TM getting screwed by AFC / the refs every time and the expansion to 24 teams in 2019.

I hope we just send our youngsters like Shekari, Esmaeilzadeh and Delfi next year to make a statement against AFC corruption.

[Iranianarsenal11]

Just my opinion, but Chinese teams in general I think are better than Japanese league teams..

[teammelli91]

Saudi league is much better than IPL.

In terms of money invested into their league (top coaches, top players, top brand jerseys, and the facilities) yes they are far ahead. But when it comes to talent I think we are pretty even. Personally I think our talent pool is bigger but due to dalals and the corruption they don't get the required attention.

Server Djeparov who has played in their league stated on Navad that their fields aren't that much different than ours. Same bad quality. Not their top clubs but their mid-lower tier clubs. They have the money but for some reason they don't invest some of it on their pitches.

Also our head-to-head record in the ACL since 2010 is Iran 30 wins and 28 losses. Against their top notch coaches + foreigners that they invest into their football. Even though they have went further than us in the last 8 years (reaching the final 3 times) it should still say something.

[Iran_19]

Agreed on this part the most, you can also add the Asian Cup to that. That tournament lost all its prestige after TM getting screwed by AFC / the refs every time and the expansion to 24 teams in 2019.

I hope we just send our youngsters like Shekari, Esmaeilzadeh and Delfi next year to make a statement against AFC corruption.

Asian Cup is still the best competition in national team level in Asia, you get a free pass as winner to play 3 great matches against a world class or very good teams in confederation cup which is a very big plus for a country such as Iran which has hard time to arrange decent friendlies, plus TM didn't win it over 40 years. You simply can't send your U19 team to such a competition. I am Ok to send U19 for U23 competition(Asian Games) but not Asian Cup

[Iran_19]

How are we comparing these leagues?
If its just infrastructure and salaries then we're not top 5 for sure.
If its about who has the best team, then AlHilal and Al Ain singlehandedly spend more on football than any other team in Asian football, and probably spend more than certain leagues. That's not professionalism.
If we're talking competitiveness, technical ability and even quality I would say PGPL is definitely top 3.
The J League is the only truly professional league in Japan. Clubs have revenue, their is tv money, clubs have infrastructure, proper academies, long term economic, professional and development plans...
Saudi, UAE, Qatar Leagues are subsidized by rich sheikhs, filled with mostly amateur players and a few exceptional talents.
China is a money washing outfit for vast real estate holding companies staffed same as the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Leagues.
K-League isn't bad, they just have issues with producing talent now, but their infrastructure is world class.
To me, professionalism doesn't necessarily mean a more enjoyable league or better product on the field.
You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the talent, or the passion, or the culture for it, nothing will happen.
A professional league will maximize talent, but each of these leagues have a different capacity.
I could also care less about AFC rankings, Asian Champions League,...

I don't even know we are in top 5, i mean look at our clubs result in last 25 years, not a single title, two finals, and that is it. Money and investment is big part of it, most of these leagues have at least 1-2 top players in their line-up. Something IPL never managed to have, and lets not talk about the infrastructure.
We can't just sit and say Iranians are more talented than Qatari, UAE, Saudi's, those days are over. Lots of top quality foreign players dominate these leagues.

[ali alipour]

The league is much tougher than what some people think, surely better than UAE, Qatar league and not sure if it is worse than IPL if not better.

Not comparing it to ipl since comparing leagues of completely different confederations is subjective and goes nowhere, but in general there is no evidence that MLS is a good or tough league. If anything it's a lot worse than what most people here apparently think.

Mls teams have consistently gotten poor Concacaf champions league results (in a very poor confederation where only one league is good, and even the Mexican league gets 50/50 results in the club world cup against Asian teams).

The national team with the most mls players couldn't even tie Trinidad and Tobago b team to make a World Cup playoff. This is with some decent European based players too so imagine how bad they would be with a fully mls team. This doesn't really bode well for the quality of the domestic players.

Because of the salary cap rule, majority of the foreign players are from mediocre places like Nordic leagues, lower levels of England, Central America, lesser leagues of South America and close to retirement passed stars(with a few exceptions like giovinco, Vazquez, piatti, villa, etc). Just look at some of the key players of by far the best team in the league. Bunch of no names like moor, zavaletta, Delgado, Osorio, rickets, mavinga etc. Even Iraqi player Justin Meram is statistically one of the best wingers in the league, yet in Asia he's pretty average.

Basically the league is competitive and teams can go back and forth at each other (becuase the salary cap made most of the teams in the league the same level). But when most of the players are average or mediocre, competitiveness is pretty irrelevant.