Electric_Micnic
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Virg1975 I don't see how you could rank that Dutch team that never won anything as higher than tenth. This myth has grown up around them ((largely due to David Winner's superb but slightly biased Beautifal Oranje) that they could have won the 74 World Cup final if they had wanted to but were more interested in humiliating the Germans. The facts don't bear this out; Germany were almost a match for Germany in terms of flair (Beckenbauer, Overath) and won because they had a killer touch up front in the peerless Gerd Muller.
As for 1976 you're downplaying the talent in what was probably the best Czech team of all time and there is no guarantee they would have got by the Germans either.
They were genuinely unlucky in 1978 and were definitely the best team of the tournament, but for the reasons you've outlined already the tournament was devalued so much that no country could have taken much glory from winning it.
In terms of tactical development and pioneering attacking football the Dutch at the time were great, but that's more down to Ajax, and they managed to back up their potential with trophies, which is why they are ranked on this site as the best club side of all time. Yes Feyenoord contributed much to the Dutch side of the time but the Ajax team are the true pioneers of the period.
I'm no great fan of the Spain team but their achievements cannot be argued against. Not bad for a team that lost 3-2 in Belfast in Euro 2008 Qualifying!
Overall it's a very authoritive list thats hard to find fault with. Great to see the Gernany team of the 1970s finally getting some credit, not somehow cast as the destroyers of the dream of Total Football as many pundits have put it down through the years.
Main problem I would have would be the Italy side of the early 1980s being in there; they failed to qualify from a far from impressive Group on home soil during Euro 1980, and fell apart quite spectacularly in the aftermath of their World Cup win, winning just once in Euro 1984 qualifying in a group with Sweden, the Czechs, Romania, and Cyprus