Is Brazil’s Football league really worse than European ones?

It has become common in Brazil to say that the football played within our borders is of poor quality. Our teams don’t have players of the same caliber as Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, or Neymar. The image of Brazilian football has also been hurt by the 7-1 defeat against Germany during the 2014 World Cup, as well as the successive corruption scandals involving CBF, the Brazil’s Football Confederation.

And while all of that might be true, Brazil’s Football League is still an attractive product. Let me explain. (In this article, I will not focus on off-the-field issues, like corruption by CBF executives.)

An unpredictable league

One of the primary ways to evaluate a league’s market value is its unpredictability. With the case of the Bundesliga, for example, Bayern Munich has won each of the last five titles – and while Bayern supporters are certainly not complaining, international spectators perceive the Bundesliga as utterly dull.

In Brazil, we usually say that the country has 12 big clubs. While not all of them are title contenders each year, it is fair to argue that the Brazilian League kicks off each year with around eight...