Which national leagues have most (and fewest) teams in capital cities?

“As a Welshman living in Mali, I’m struck by the contrast in the number of teams based in the capital city playing in the top league,” mails Seán Smith. “Whereas the Cymru Premier has for much of its history not included a club based in the capital city (and currently only has one team based in Cardiff out of 12), 13 of the 18 teams in Mali’s Première Division are based in Bamako. Are there any other national top divisions that have a higher or lower proportion of clubs based in the capital?”

In England it has often been said that the Premier League, or the old Division One, is harder for London teams to win because of the number of derbies. This season, seven of the 20 Premier League sides are based in London. That means 12 London derbies apiece for Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.

As for answering the actual question, rather than bringing everything back to the Premier League, let’s start with the countries where few, if any, top-flight teams come from the capital. “BSC Young Boys based in Bern are the only capital city club in the 10-team Swiss Super League,” writes Opeyemi Ajala.“Brasília, federal capital of Brazil, has no football club in the Serie A (20 teams).”

Brazil isn’t the only gigantic country without a team from the capital in their top division. “In Major League Soccer (MLS), three of the 28 teams are Canadian – Toronto FC, CF Montreal and Vancouver Whitecaps” notes Thomas Wendt. “However, there is no team based in the capital Ottawa and, likely, never will be.”

“Australia is an example of a country with zero teams from their capital city,” adds Richard Mace. “There is no A-League men’s team from Canberra (although Canberra United do compete in