"Circle of Parity", an interesting concept originated from the National Football League (NFL), has now crossed the Atlantic and landed in European football. This is not only the ultimate symbol of competitive level, but also uses mathematical logic to interpret the core connotation of "in the league, everyone can defeat the opponent".

This season, La Liga (LALIGA EA Sports) has completed the "win-loss closed loop" ahead of schedule. This is not only the fastest record achieved by La Liga in the past ten years, but also ahead of other top European leagues. This statistic fully demonstrates the balance and unpredictability of modern Spanish football.

Inspiration from the NFL

"Closed loop of victory and defeat" is a popular concept in the American football world, which refers to the fact that all 20 teams in the league form an unbreakable chain of victory and defeat: team A defeats team B, team B defeats team C, and so on. In the end, all teams are connected to each other through the relationship of victory and defeat, forming a complete closed loop. This data is a hard-core quantitative indicator of the true competitive balance of the league. Such a closed loop can only be formed when the gap between strong and weak teams is small enough and the competition is sufficient.

In European football, this concept has rarely been mentioned before. Now, with the NFL landing at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Spain, La Liga has also embraced this concept of balanced competition with hands-on practice.

La Liga completed the closed loop ahead of schedule this season

This season, La Liga completed the "closed loop of victory and defeat" in just 11 rounds, which was the earliest in the past ten seasons. The previous records were: Round 12 in the 2015/16 season, and Round 13 in the 2018/19 and 2023/24 seasons.

Currently the other four major leagues have failed to do this. Verona and Fiorentina in Serie A and Wolves in the Premier League have yet to win. Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich remains undefeated and has yet to suffer its first defeat of the season. Although all teams in Ligue 1 have wins and losses, they still lack the winning-loss relationship required to form a closed loop, and the closed loop has not yet been formed.

The secret of La Liga's "balanced competition"

It is no accident that La Liga can close the loop in advance. First, there is the balanced distribution of television broadcast revenue. Since La Liga reorganized its broadcast system in 2015, the gap between the highest-paid clubs and the lowest-paid clubs has narrowed from 10:1 to 3.5:1.

Secondly, it is the implementation of the financial supervision system. La Liga uses financial supervision to urge clubs to operate within their own capabilities and make rational investments. This economic control policy allows each team to compete in a relatively equal environment. Combined with La Liga's continued emphasis on the training of youth players, multiple factors work together to create a more competitive league pattern from top to bottom.

It is this league ecology of "anyone can win" that keeps fans full of expectations and allows the story of La Liga to transcend the championship competition itself and continue the purest passion and surprise of football.