The future of Spanish football was on the agenda today as the bosses of 12 Spanish league sides met to fight for equal television revenue from Spanish television companies.
It was the Sevilla president Jose Maria Del Nido who instigated this meeting between the presidents of the clubs, and he made it clear that the presidents of Barcelona and Real Madrid were not invited. Along with Sevilla president Del Nido, there were representatives of Valencia, Villareal, Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, Espanyol, Granada, Malaga, Osasuna, Racing Santander and Real Zaragoza.
In an interview last week Del Nido claimed that the Spanish league was ‘’the biggest rubbish not only in Europe but the world.’’
‘’It is a third world league in which two clubs subtract the television money from the rest of us who are competing. We are running down the Spanish league,’’ he said.
While the big boys Barcelona and Real Madrid continue to take up hundreds of millions of pounds in the country’s television revenue, the other 18 teams must share a fraction of that. This allows the ‘big two’ to keep splashing the cash year in year out to bring in big name players.
In comparison, in the English Premier Division, all 20 teams are guaranteed at least £30 million each in television revenue, which then allows them to invest in their squads and pay big transfer fees and wages, this is in order for the league to become more competitive.
Fulham for example, who respectively are a mid-table Premier League side, spent £10.6 million on transfer deadline day to sign the striker Bryan Ruiz from FC Twente. No mid-table Spanish league side is able to spend anywhere near that amount on a player.
The gulf between Spain’s big two, Barcelona and Real Madrid, has become so huge it has been compared to the Scottish league. That is of course an exaggeration, but when Barcelona and Real Madrid take star players from the other La Liga clubs, it is extremely difficult for anybody else in the league to compete.
As a result of this, the Spanish league has lost some of its star players over the last year. David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Juan Mata have all left Spain for new challenges in the English Premier League. For many of Spain’s best talents, it’s either a move to Barcelona, Real Madrid or the Premier League.
I believe Barcelona and Real Madrid are ruining Spanish football by not sharing the television revenue evenly with the other 18 teams in the league. The Spanish Primera Liga is one of the biggest leagues in the world and it attracts millions of fans worldwide.
But the majority of those fans only tune in to see Barca or Madrid because they have the star names. If the other teams in the league were financially strong, it would make the league more competitive and we would maybe see four or five teams competing for the league. For the foreseeable future it will remain a two-horse race.
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