Domination by Barcelona and Real Madrid making Spain the new Scotland

[Sachin=GOD]

La Liga claims to be the best league in the world, but beneath the glitz of the big two lies a very different picture

The headline was as alarmist as it was partisan. "The government," declared Spain's best-selling newspaper, "is trying to kill Spanish football." It was November 2009 and the Socialist party prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced an end to "the Beckham Law". The sports daily Marca, part of the right-leaning El Mundo group, was furious. Presidents of the country's biggest clubs threatened to lead a strike. At the Spanish League they were talking as if the four horsemen of the apocalypse had reared into view.

According to article 93 of law 35, originally introduced by the previous Partido Popular government in 2004, foreign executives earning more than €600,000 (£540,000) a year are taxed at 23%, rather than 43%. In theory, the aim was to encourage talent to come to Spain: in practice, following a modification in 2005, it gave Spanish football clubs, already boosted by the collapse of the pound, a huge advantage. Of the 60 people who qualify for the lower rate of tax, 43 are footballers.

Beckham was the first beneficiary of the new rate, hence the informal name. Or rather Real Madrid were, as he had agreed a net salary. Another Englishman, Jermaine Pennant, reveals the practical implications: Real Zaragoza pay him £49,200 a week; an English club would have to pay £80,000 to match his net salary. Cristiano Ronaldo's current salary would cost a Premier League club €5m more than it costs Real Madrid.

Now, suddenly, that privilege is being removed. The consequences will be dire. "If the government want a substandard league …" warned the league's vice-president, Javier Tebas.

Figures quickly emerged claiming that Spanish football generates 85,000 jobs and turns over €9,000m a year. The real cost to La Liga could be losing its hegemonic position, a "superiority" in which it revels.

"Objectively, Spanish football is the best in the world," announced the league's president, José Luis Astiazarán. "Spain won Euro 2008, Barça the European Cup, and our league's the best, superior to England." The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Karim Benzema and Zlatan Ibrahimovic last summer provided all the proof he needed. The best players in England, Italy and France had departed for Spain. More than €455m had been spent by Spanish clubs on transfers – a 72% increase, more than any other country. Ever.

But, insisted Astiazarán, those days could soon end. Never mind the fact that 43% still puts Spain's tax band below the 50% in the United Kingdom, revoking the Beckham Law will be the demise of the domestic game. "In a few years our league will be average because it won't attract the world's best," complained Tebas. "It is the end of the league of the stars." The law will be repealed from the new tax year but, at least, will not be applied retrospectively, so existing contracts are protected.

Tebas may even be right, and not only due to the Beckham Law, because beneath the glistening surface Spanish football is in crisis. According to José María Gay, Spain's leading expert on football finance and an adviser to Uefa: "La Liga is dying." The Osasuna president, Patxi Izco, admits: "I fear a financial meltdown." "Football," insists another director, "is seriously ill."

The €455m transfer spend disguises a troubling reality. Last year, despite winning the treble, Barcelona made only €8.8m and have a debt of €350m. Madrid signed €258m worth of players but only after their president, Florentino Pérez, turned to two friends who are both presidents of banks and who loaned Madrid €151.5m.

The argument is that their debts are serviceable. In fact, Pérez insists that high expenditure is necessary to generate money and Madrid have become the first club to take income beyond €400m. But doubts remain; costs outstrip income, shirt sales are lower than those of Liverpool and Chelsea; Bernabéu attendances are down 7%; and the debt stands at €683m. Publicly, Pérez insists: "Madrid must always remain a club owned by its members." Privately, the possibility of becoming a plc has been discussed.

But would that solve anything? The evidence suggests not. In the early 1990s, a new law obliged every club to become a plc, with four exceptions – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna, who were given special exemptions for socio-cultural reasons. Shares were issued and the slate wiped clean. It was supposed to be a panacea. The theory was simple: presidents would be more careful risking their own money. They were not. Often their fans would not let them.

"We're operating on a war economy," reveals one director, "but supporters don't see it like that. They just want to win." Jorge Pérez, the secretary of the Spanish Football Federation, admits that one director told him: "If I do a good job economically, we'll go down and they'll kill me." So he spent money he did not have. Only 8% of what football clubs spend on average can be covered by liquid assets.

Look back over the clubs who have competed in the Champions League recently and the situation is alarming: Valencia's debt is more than €600m. Like Real Madrid (who sold the their training ground for €447m to the council in 2001, wiping out their €278m debt), a property deal was supposed to be their salvation. However, the market crashed at just the wrong time. Now Valencia have two stadiums – one they cannot sell and another they cannot afford to finish building.

According to the third largest shareholder at Atlético Madrid, their debt is above €300m. Villarreal have just failed to pay their players for the first time because the ceramics industry from which their owner, Fernando Roig, makes his money has been hit hard by the crisis. Deportivo La Coruña are more than €120m in debt. Mallorca are desperately seeking a buyer and preparing for administration. Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad have been relegated and, with no parachute payment to break the fall, went into administration. Real Sociedad's president at the time was a certain Astiazarán, now the league's president.

"We need to avoid trying to compete with Madrid and Barcelona and sinking ourselves," says Ramón Monchi, sporting director at Sevilla. His club have been successful but there is concern, too: their success has been built on player sales, which requires continued success and a buoyant market. The latter has disappeared; the former depends on European qualification, hence last week's sacking of their coach, Manolo Jiménez.

In all, Gay calculates Spanish football's debt to be €3.5bn. The Spanish federation still owe the players' union €6.8m and, according to the former president of the union, Gerardo Movilla, an estimated €100m is still owed to footballers in unpaid wages. The state loses out, too: Atlético owe the tax man €15m; 50% of their transfer income is embargoed.

Michel Platini says there are five or six top-flight Spanish clubs in danger. Yet the danger is relative. The irony is that the lack of control also helps to protect the clubs from going out of business – in the short term at least.

As Spain's secretary of state for sport, Jaime Lissavetzky, puts it: "We need to be able to hand clubs yellow cards, a warning. But we have no coercive force. It's one thing taking the temperature, it's another handing out medicine." Even administration does not necessarily mean applying the brakes. While it is a last resort it is often a handy one, open to abuse. Unlike in England, there is no footballing penalty for going into administration.

The federal nature of the Spanish state, made up of autonomous communities, also offers a crutch upon which to lean. Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla have all benefited from favourable property deals involving their local councils; Atlético plan to move to Madrid's municipally owned Olympic Stadium, selling the site upon which the Vicente Calderón stands to the council. Many clubs do not have that option: Sporting, Racing, Almería, Getafe, Deportivo, Málaga, and Valladolid all play in municipal stadiums.

Valencia have been propped up by Bancaja, their principal creditor, to whom they owe €220m and who, despite the club's mounting debt, backed a share issue to the tune of €95m. "Without them we would have gone down to Second Division B," admits their president, Manolo Llorente. Bancaja are a savings bank and they do not want to upset customers by sending their club to the wall. As one director of another savings bank puts it: "Clubs have an emotional power they use as a kind of blackmail." When Sporting Gijón went into administration, Gijón council bought their "brand image". As one insider puts it: "The council could not let us disappear; Gijón without Sporting is not Gijón."

Whether or not clubs go into administration, they can never compete with the big two. Remove Madrid and Barcelona and there was a 40% decrease in summer spending. Only five clubs spent over €5m. During the winter transfer window only three clubs spent anything. But how can you ignore Madrid and Barcelona? They are La Liga. That is the problem.

According to reliable statistics Madrid have 13.2m fans while Barcelona have 10.4m. Valencia are third with 2.1m. Nearly two-thirds of all football fans in Spain support one of the big two. And supporters of other clubs almost invariably choose Madrid or Barcelona as a "second" team.

The Madrid-Barça dichotomy is self-perpetuating. The media insist they are giving people what they want, that theirs is a business decision. The editor of one newspaper admits: "Every Madrid win is 10,000 more in sales." El País's match reports for Sevilla and Villarreal the day after the clásico contained a total of no words. The director of one television channel insists it would be a "disaster" for the channel if anyone other than Madrid or Barça won the league.

The dominance is felt most on TV – and that is the crux of the issue, the precarious foundation upon which Spanish football is built. Unlike elsewhere – and even Italy is going collective – Spanish clubs negotiate individual television deals. "The lack of a centralised deal is the biggest problem we face," Tebas says. The reason is clear. Madrid and Barcelona will earn approximately €120m in rights each year until 2013. Last season's third-placed side, Sevilla earn around €20m; Valencia, currently third, make under €30m – less than Portsmouth. Right throughout the league, the imbalance is extraordinary. Competing is impossible.

The problem is the league are powerless to impose a collective deal, although they continue trying. Just as their plans – announced last week – to impose salary cuts and wage limits on clubs can only get the go-ahead if the clubs themselves, and Madrid and Barcelona in particular, agree to them.

"It's not normal to have two clubs earning 15 times more," says Villarreal's Roig, "and it's going to be very hard to get the clubs to agree to change now. There's no unity, the league has a very difficult role. I'm not worried about Sheikhs [pumping money into England], I'm worried about our own organisation."

An insider at Sevilla adds: "The mentality of every club is always purely selfish and we're not sure that it would be beneficial for us [to campaign for change]. If we push for unity we might lose our position as the third or fourth biggest club: we could get closer to Madrid and Barcelona, but we would also see smaller clubs come closer to us."

Perhaps the most fearful remark about La Liga's "big two" problem comes from Sevilla's sporting director, Monchi. "Spain," he says "reminds me of Scotland."

In 2008, the then British culture secretary Andy Burham warned of the risk of the Premier League becoming too predictable. "In the US, the most free-market country in the world, they understand that the equal distribution of money creates genuine competition," he said. Spain provides further proof from the other end of the scale. But few see it and few debate it – after all, much of the media lives off the duopoly too.

One headline in Spain recently declared: "La Liga becomes the best in Europe." The "evidence" was two-fold: Madrid and Barcelona's place at the head of Deloitte & Touche's rich list; and the "big two" racking up more points than any other team in Europe. A closer read suggests the exact opposite. Madrid and Barcelona were at the top but there was not one other Spanish club among the leading 20 and their points totals – a record at both clubs – suggest that while they are good sides, maybe the teams they are playing against are not. Valencia, third going into this weekend, were 18 points behind. No other major league has such a gap.

"We need to recognise that the smaller clubs are necessary for the competition," says Roig. "After all, 15 clásicos at the Bernabéu and 15 at the Camp Nou would be a bit boring wouldn't it?"

Some of his counterparts believe it is already too late.

Eduardo Bandrés, a former president of Real Zaragoza, says: "This is the dullest league in the world."

guardian



Spain in pain! Watch it, Real and Barca, you're turning into Scotland...

By Martin Samuel
Last updated at 1:06 AM on 28th April 2011

There is a match in Spain on Wednesday night that brings together arguably the two best teams in the world. The five meetings of Real Madrid and Barcelona this season have developed into an epic saga, and their Champions League semi-final collision is its enthralling denouement.

Make the most of it, though, for it cannot last. Spain is now the home of a two-team league; and the power of such a sequestered rivalry is rarely permanent. Look at Scotland.

Wind back roughly 40 years and the big Glasgow clubs were as strong as any in Europe. Celtic were the first British team to win the European Cup, in 1967, and returned to the final three years later. Rangers lost the 1961 Cup-winners' Cup final to Fiorentina and the 1967 final to Bayern Munich before emerging triumphant against Dynamo Moscow in 1972.

Celtic and Rangers have both reached European finals recently - Celtic contested the UEFA Cup with Porto in 2003, Rangers the same tournament with Zenit St Petersburg in 2008 - but without success, and a run in the Champions League is increasingly unthinkable.

If one of the Old Firm make it out of the group, it is considered mission accomplished, although progress to the Champions League knockout rounds has happened just twice this century, Rangers losing to Villarreal in the last 16 in 2006, Celtic to Barcelona in the same round in 2008.

This miserable fate will not befall Spain's big two, who are enshrined as part of Europe's elite and can only become more established once Michel Platini's abominable financial fair play rules cement an entire continent's football teams in place.

Yet that does not mean they cannot suffer gradual decline. Yes, there are financial issues in Scottish football that will never be a factor for Spain's big two, but the malaise stretches beyond that. Celtic and Rangers have it too easy at home, so even if they had the players to match Europe's best there would be a very real danger of underachievement, caused by the weakness of the domestic game.

In 2009, when Celtic drew Arsenal in the third qualifying round for the Champions League, they prepared for this test with an away fixture at Aberdeen. Pittodrie was once something of a fortress and Aberdeen a force at home and in Europe, but those days have long gone. Aberdeen have defeated Celtic once at home since December 22, 2001, and in a league in which teams meet four times in one season, that is some trot. Celtic have played Aberdeen five times already in this campaign and have won 4-0, 3-0, 4-1, 1-0 and 9-0.

So, before the Arsenal game, all went according to plan and Celtic duly dispatched Aberdeen 3-1, going three goals up before half-time. Not a moment of this was genuine preparation for the visit of Arsenal, who won 2-0 in Glasgow, comfortably.

At the end of the game, the Parkhead faithful were thanked for their support, and their attendance welcomed for the next home fixture: versus St Johnstone. Celtic won that 5-2 and then travelled to London where they lost 3-1 and the main talking point was a dive by Eduardo, the legacy of which was another woeful idea from Platini, the useless additional assistant referee behind each goal.

Battle of Britain matches pass unheralded these days and it is not just familiarity that has bred contempt. There was a time when games between the champions of England and Scotland could go either way. Not any more. Rangers defended for their lives against Manchester United in their Champions League group this season, and earned a precious stalemate at Old Trafford, but never looked like winning, either home or away.

The lack of domestic competition leaves them unprepared. Say what you like about wannabes such as Manchester City, but they keep our big guys honest. They have to improve, they have to invest, or they will fall behind. Rangers and Celtic can dominate in Scotland with inferior players, who will then be undercooked and found out beyond their cosy, parochial world.

That has not happened in Spain yet, but give it time. At the weekend, Jose Mourinho sent a Real Madrid reserve team to play in Valencia and won 6-3. Just two of the players who started the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Tottenham - goalkeeper Iker Casillas and central defender Ricardo Carvalho - were in the starting line-up at the Mestalla, yet the final score flattered Valencia, who were 6-1 down before scoring two meaningless late goals as Madrid made changes.

This is the beginning of La Liga's reinvention as New Caledonia. Valencia are supposed to be part of a triumvirate of strong Spanish clubs, not cannon fodder, just as the likes of Aberdeen, the Dundee clubs and Heart of Midlothian once challenged the Old Firm.

A lopsided television deal, in place since 1996, in which clubs negotiate individually, giving the lion's share of the revenue to the big two, has led to Barcelona and Real Madrid pulling away from their rivals, in the way Manchester United would were the same policy to be implemented in the Premier League.

As it stands, the broadcast revenue gap between Real Madrid and Valencia is £64.7million annually. Meanwhile, for every £7.9m in television money received by mid-table Levante, Barcelona collect £132.2m.

There will be a new television contract implemented from the 2014-15 season, but even that will give Barcelona and Real Madrid 17 per cent each of the whole, with Atletico Madrid and Valencia receiving 10.5 per cent each and the remaining 16 clubs splitting the leftover 45 per cent, at less than three per cent apiece.

'It is shameful that the Spanish league have the most unfair revenue sharing in Europe,' says Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido. Yes, but as King Tee* said, the payback's a mutha. (*West Coast rapper, huge influence on Notorious B.I.G., Mourinho-sized ego, somewhat untroubled by fame.)

Barcelona and Real Madrid may delight in their domestic supremacy, but the evidence suggests it has already begun to have a debilitating effect. Barcelona have laid claim to being the best team in the world for four years now, but in that time have won the Champions League once, and only then because an incompetent referee called Tom Henning Ovrebo refused to admit they were second best to Chelsea at the semi-final stage.

They were not strong enough to defeat a dogged Inter Milan side last season, or Manchester United in 2008, and there are genuine fears about the match in the Bernabeu. Madrid, for all their investment in the stellar names of the world game, last won the Champions League in 2002. Something is wrong.

The clue is the last four years of La Liga, in which the influence of more than a decade of an unjust television deal, plus the corrupting effect of UEFA's Champions League money, have really taken hold. Real Madrid won the league by eight points from Villarreal in 2008, with Barcelona an ordinary third despite possessing the creative nucleus of the Spain team that won the European Championship weeks later.

Since then, however, it has been a two-horse race. Barcelona were nine points clear of Madrid in 2009, with Sevilla 17 points adrift in third. Last year Barcelona finished on 99 points, with Madrid on 96 and third-placed Valencia on 71 and it is much the same this season: Barcelona with 88, Real on 80, and then a chasm to Valencia with 63 points, Villarreal on 57 and Athletic Bilbao on 51.

Manchester United may be in a strong position in the Premier League now, but it was October 30 when Spain's big two first occupied the places at the top of the table and they have been unshakeable since.

In England, by contrast, from that date the top two spots have passed through Chelsea-Arsenal, Chelsea-Manchester United, Arsenal-Manchester United, Arsenal-Manchester City, Manchester United-Manchester City, Manchester United-Arsenal and Manchester United-Chelsea. No great surprises there but hardly the procession that has taken place for several years in Spain.

Of course, if one of Spain's big two triumph in Europe again this season, the fear of the two-team league will seem like so much doom-mongering. Yet there is a reason why Pep Guardiola, manager of Barcelona, is rumoured to want to move on, and why Mourinho as good as wears a sandwich board advertising his availability for a major Premier League job. Boredom.

For all of its beauty, La Liga increasingly lacks a challenge. Knocking Barcelona off their perch will appeal to Mourinho, and Guardiola may still be living his boyhood fantasy, but neither man appears to be thinking long term.

Barcelona have a football team from the heavens right now and would be champions in any league, in almost any era. What happens, however, when this team of wonders move on and the club stay supreme with inferiors, as Rangers and Celtic do now?

The Old Firm no longer attract the best coaches because the greatest test for a manager in Glasgow is putting up with the irrationalities of sectarianism. The best Scottish managers work in England, and have done for many years. Rafael Benitez, meanwhile, is showing no great desire to return to Spain, because he knows only two clubs can win the league. Where is the appeal in managing Villarreal or Valencia? It is a stepping stone, that is all.

Much is said of the Barcelona youth academy, La Masia, but a report published this month made Barcelona and Real Madrid the two highest paying sports teams in the world, ahead even of baseball's New York Yankees. The average wage for a first team player at the Nou Camp is £4.94m annually, and at Madrid £4.6m. The average Yankee earns £4.2m a year. So it is not just impeccable grooming that keeps Barcelona on top.

They are riding the wave of an exceptional generation of players, kept happy by exceptional salaries, but when this era ends they may revert to the familiar blueprint of high wages and higher transfer fees.

This is the policy that has condemned Real Madrid to the Champions League wilderness for eight years. There is no guarantee of producing a strong team in Europe, if they do not face a fierce challenge domestically.

Competition is important. It keeps a club fresh, it keeps players on their toes. When the Scottish Premier League opens for business at the start of the season with two clubs odds-on for the title and their nearest rival 100-1, it is no wonder European nights end so often in disappointment. Shooting fish in a barrel is no test of marksmanship and no preparation for the rigours of battle.

At the Bernabeu, it may seem as if Spain has all the answers, but how will they escape the familiar trap of the two-team league? How will they stay sharp if Valencia have been reduced to the thinking man's Aberdeen?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/art...Scotland-.html


Simply unbelievable. Its like only two clubs exist in the La Liga and all others may as well as stop competing because they have literally no hope of catching up with Real or Barca for years to come.

[kabira]

very sad indeed.

[Sachin=GOD]

Manchester City earned £55.5m from their superb 2010/2011 Premier League season.

The Blues finished third, and the combination of prize money and TV cash boosted the Blues coffers.

Champions United became the first club to top the £60million mark (£60.4m).

Blackpool were the lowest earners of the Premier League but still saw £39.1million go into their coffers, while Chelsea earned £57.7m and Arsenal £56.2m.

The figures released by the Premier League also show that it has the smallest difference in earnings between the champions and the bottom club in terms of ratio of any major league in Europe.

England's top club earned 1.54 times as much as the bottom in TV money - down from 1.66 last season. In Spain, where TV rights are negotiated on a club-by-club basis, Real Madrid and Barcelona earn 12.5 times more than the smallest clubs in La Liga.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "We believe that our income distribution mechanism, the most equitable of Europe's major football leagues, rewards sporting success while also guaranteeing a significant amount to each club in order that they can plan from one season to the next.

"Many have commented on the competitive nature of this season's Barclays Premier League.

"The clubs deserve huge credit for putting on a fantastic competition. We believe the way we distribute broadcast income plays a part in allowing each club to compete at the highest level."

The Premier League distributes TV rights money based partly on performance, partly via equal shares of TV income, and partly on the number of times a club's matches are screened live on domestic television.

This season, each club received £13.8million as the equal share of domestic TV rights and £17.9million as the equal share of overseas TV rights.

On top of that, every place in the Premier League table is worth £756,000 - West Ham received that amount and Manchester United £15.1million.

Facility fees of £582,000 are paid to a club every time they play in a live TV match - with a minimum income of £5.82million even if a club has been involved in fewer than 10 live games.

Manchester Evening News


LaLiga can learn a thing or two from this.

[sunnyji_2k]

Manchester Evening news.........Apthetic PArtisan English Media....

Check which team has won the Europa league most times in last few years....

Sevilla,Atletico,Villareal can give very tough competition to any club team

The problem is Barca are way above any other team in Europe and Madrid though less than Barca will beat most club teams on most days.

[Sachin=GOD]

^these are official figures released by the respective football associations of England and Spain so how can Manchester Evening News be partisan in quoting them

[sunnyji_2k]

^these are official figures released by the respective football associations of England and Spain so how can Manchester Evening News be partisan in quoting them

They are selectively quoating the figures....

Like they quoted the revenue earned by the clubs, but didnt quoate what was the profit at the end of the season.What is the debt?

English clubs are the ones that are most in debt.and hardly a few like Arsenal who dont spend money in Transfer earn any Profit.

Again just look at the performance of the Spanish teams in Europa league and you will know.

[Sachin=GOD]

Point is that in their leagues these are way behind Barca and Real madrid and have almost no chance of winning the La Liga anytime soon and thats simply because of an unhealthy dominance of LaLiga by Barca and Real Madrid and that is what the articles in the OP are pointing at.

[sunnyji_2k]

Point is that in their leagues these are way behind Barca and Real madrid and have almost no chance of winning the La Liga anytime soon and thats simply because of an unhealthy dominance of LaLiga by Barca and Real Madrid and that is what the articles in the OP are pointing at.

It is because Madrid and BArca are way way stronger and not that these teams are weak.they are just comparatively weaker.In another league they will be title contenders.As theri perfromance in Europa League shows.

[Sachin=GOD]

It is because Madrid and BArca are way way stronger and not that these teams are weak.they are just comparatively weaker.In another league they will be title contenders.As theri perfromance in Europa League shows.

they do well in the Europa League but most of them never do well in the Champions league and usually do not manage more than the group stages in Champs league while in other leagues (say the EPL) there are far more teams that make it to the champs league.
Barca and Madrid are way way stronger because they have far far more money - Barca and Madrid earn 12 times as much TV money as the smaller clubs - bechaare small clubs kya karenge jab paise hi nahi milenge aur saare paise Madrid/Barca le jaayenge!!!

[Andy]

they do well in the Europa League but most of them never do well in the Champions league and usually do not manage more than the group stages in Champs league while in other leagues (say the EPL) there are far more teams that make it to the champs league.
Barca and Madrid are way way stronger because they have far far more money - Barca and Madrid earn 12 times as much TV money as the smaller clubs - bechaare small clubs kya karenge jab paise hi nahi milenge aur saare paise Madrid/Barca le jaayenge!!!

This.