ANALYSE THIS – Spain still rules the big team sports

GENERAL - Even though tonight’s Champions League final may be without a team from Spain, we believe that Spain is still the most powerful force in team sports across Europe. We have looked into numbers in elite European competitions in football, basketball and handball. Only to find that Spain reign.

Across the board

We have analysed all semifinalists in Champions league (football and handball) and EuroLeague (basketball) since 2000. Spain has produced the largest number of semifinalists in all of those team sports - 20 in handball, 18 in football and 13 in basketball. Spain is also the only country with least one semifinalist in those sports.

Nations on most Euro handball, basketball and football titles - since 2000

FC Omnisport from Barcelona

FC Barcelona is the only club in Europe that has won a trophy in every of those competitions since 2000. An interesting fact is that the official name of its basketball and handball branches is also FC Barcelona. The football team from Catalunya has won three Champions League titles (2006, 2009, 2011), its handball team also three (2000, 2005, 2011) and its basketball team two (2003, 2010).

Analysis brought to you by Slavko Jeric, a most loyal contributor on this website (find him on Twitter at @lavkeri). Slavko will soon be the first to join our Editing Team having started feeding us content from the community. You could be the next if you can roll with this. Think you can? Drop us a line at sportsdesk@infostradasports.com Thanks!