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| Luis Manuel Rubiales, president of the Spanish Footballers' Union announcing the players strike that almost halted the beginning of the current campaign |
Some football fans believe La Liga is slowly becoming the biggest and
best league in the world. You can't exactly blame them; Spain does posses two
of the world’s biggest sides in Real Madrid and Barcelona, arguably the
greatest player of my generation in Lionel Messi with Cristiano Ronaldo coming
a close second and the national side currently holding onto the World Cup and
European Championships with a smug grin on their respective faces.
When the nation is the world’s best in the game and, on a club level,
one of the top two is dominating European football, it is hard to disagree with
the majority that believe the best football is coming from La Liga. However, when
you take a moment to look at the broader image, you will see all is not as rosy
as it all seems in Spain’s top flight.
Barcelona may play the football that dreams are made of while Real
Madrid will forever be a global brand but when it comes to the ‘best of the
rest’, you will see the rest continue to lag behind the league’s top two sides.
Third placed Valencia finished a massive 25 points behind last year’s champions
Barcelona while Europa League qualifiers Sevilla, Atletic Bilbao and Atletico
Madrid all finished level on 58 points, a whopping 38 points behind the Blaugrana.
In comparison to the biggest leagues across Europe’s Europa League
qualifiers, Tottenham Hotspur finished 18 points behind champions Manchester
United, Lazio 16 points behind AC Milan and Hannover 96 15 points behind
Borussia Dortmund, it is a stark contrast to the ability to compete on the
biggest level behind their Spanish counterparts. In the English, Italian and
German leagues that were mentioned, finishing in a Champions League place is
the aim for a number of these teams who often dream of winning the title.
In Spain, however, dreams of usurping the big two are left simply in
tatters when reality kicks in that becoming the number 1 team in Spain is a
near on impossible task and while some may argue that the competition between
the two is enough to make it the world’s best, some fear that La Liga is
beginning to resemble the Scottish Premier League rather than challenge the English
Premier League as the best league in football.
When you compare
the two, you will see that both have two stand-out candidates as the best in
the league; Spain has the aforementioned Barcelona and Real Madrid, heated
rivals Celtic and Rangers are the Scottish equivalent. The ‘best of the rest’
was Hearts in the SPL, who finished third last season, a massive 30 points
behind eventual champions Rangers.
Furthermore, the
financial clout of the top two sides in comparison to the rest of the league really
leaves the average scratching their head in disbelief. I relate back to the
superb article by Sid Lowe in this month’s issue of World Soccer. In his double-page spread on the recent (almost)
strike action in Spain, he outlines the money that the likes of Barcelona and Real
Madrid make in terms of TV revenue (120 million Euros between) in domestic TV rights
in comparison to third placed Valencia who could take back almost a third of
that figure (42 million Euros) to supplement the rights to show their games.
Sid also explains
that La Liga brings in almost half of what the Premiership brings in TV revenue
(1,270 million Euros compared to the 612 million Euros) and while Manchester
United may only earn around 60 million Euros, half of what Real Madrid and
Barcelona bring in, the 42 million Euros that Valencia took from TV revenues
last year is only 1 million Euros more than what Premiership debutants
Blackpool bought in for their relegated campaign via the same channels.
Spain’s elite are
also facing a mounting debt crisis with the total debts of Spanish clubs
amounting to around 4 billion Euros, with Madrid and Barcelona owing the
colossal amount of 1 million Euros between them. However, the two giants of the
game can service their debts with around 60% of Spaniards claiming to support
the champions and the runners’ up thus allowing them to generate massive
revenue through advertising, merchandising and the aforementioned TV revenue.
It appears as
though the only way to challenge the top two is through massive financial
backing off the pitch which is where Malaga come into the fold. Back in June
2010, the lowly Spanish outfit were purchased by Qatari investor Abdullah
bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al Thani and as of July that year, the wealthy
Sheikh became President of the club and after finishing 11th last
season, bought it upon himself to bankroll the club to the upper echelons of
Spain’s top tier.
Manuel Pellegrini, previously of Villarreal and Real
Madrid, was bought in to send the Spanish side up the table and with him, a
mass number of superstars followed. Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Joaquin Sanchez and
Santi Cazorla all joined this summer to help propel the club up the table and
despite losing their opening encounter to Sevilla 2-1, big things are expected of
them.
However, fans of the club have every reason to be
cautious about their new owners, especially after the furore surround Racing
Santander when the club was bought by Ali Syed. Hailed as a saviour of the
club, the Indian entrepreneur then disappeared without a trace with his shares
now being fought over in court.
A false dawn for not only Racing fans, but perhaps fans
of the Spanish game hoping to find a new team that can challenge the
monopolising Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top of the La Liga pedestal.
Having lasted longer than Ali Syed, Sheikh Al-Thani has invested heavily in
Malaga and while it may be a long and bumpy road in the journey to usurping the
European heavyweights, some are hoping the trip will be worth it in the long
run, even if the money has to arrive from outside investors rather than the
ability of La Liga’s top sides to break the stranglehold that Madrid and
Barcelona have had on the league since 2004, when Valenica became the last club
outside the two to win the competition.
Laters,
Macca
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