State of La Liga

Probably the only orange stadium in the world.

Has the tv deal always been like this? I mean when the likes of Valencia, Depor could all challenge for the title in the early 00's was the tv deal structured as it is now? If not, why on earth did the other teams agree to have the tv deal arranged the way it is now?

Each team manages its own tv rights deal. So actually, there is no revenue sharing. Everyone is just doing their own thing. The problem with a collective deal, is that although Barca and Madrid would lose out, their main challengers(Valencia, Atletico) would also lose out so they also block a collective deal. The winners would be the smaller teams so the title race itself wouldn't really be more competitive, just the league as a whole. What would happen though is that Barca and Madrid would find it harder to compete in Europe and so that could make La Liga, well Spanish football lets say even less of an appealing product.

The difference with the early 00's is that Barca and Madrid have had excellent people on the boards in terms of raising the revenue. They've more than tripled it in the last 10 years. The rest of La Liga has been relatively stagnant.

oz187 said:

Each team manages its own tv rights deal. So actually, there is no revenue sharing. Everyone is just doing their own thing. The problem with a collective deal, is that although Barca and Madrid would lose out, their main challengers(Valencia, Atletico) would also lose out so they also block a collective deal. The winners would be the smaller teams so the title race itself wouldn't really be more competitive, just the league as a whole. What would happen though is that Barca and Madrid would find it harder to compete in Europe and so that could make La Liga, well Spanish football lets say even less of an appealing product.

The difference with the early 00's is that Barca and Madrid have had excellent people on the boards in terms of raising the revenue. They've more than tripled it in the last 10 years. The rest of La Liga has been relatively stagnant.

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And thats exactly why it should be changed, teams like Ray Vallecano are scraping by on pennies while newly promoted premier league teams are making millions. Just like at how Swansea and Southampton have been able to spend money. A healthy league creates tougher opposition and as a result we would no longer have ridiculous 100 point campaigns. As for The top 2 struggling in Europe, the revenue lost wouldn't be large enough to destory their European aspirations. It would take them down a peg or two but the likes of Madrid have proven that money doesn't always buy European success. Knockout competitions are often a lottery and a revenue loss of 50 million or so wouldn't have a great effect on Spains big 2 in Europe.

Rank in
2011–12 Club Revenue
(€ million) Country Rank in
2010–11
1 Real Madrid 512.6 Spain
2 Barcelona 483.0 Spain
3 Manchester United 395.9 England
4 Bayern Munich 368.4 Germany
5 Chelsea 322.6 England
6 Arsenal 290.3 England
7 Manchester City 285.6 England
8 Milan 256.9 Italy
9 Liverpool 233.2 England
10 Juventus 195.4 Italy
11 Borussia Dortmund 189.1 Germany
12 Internazionale 185.9 Italy
13 Tottenham Hotspur 178.2 England
14 Schalke 04 174.5 Germany
15 Napoli 148.4 Italy
16 Marseille 135.7 France
17 Lyon 131.9 France
18 Hamburg 121.1 Germany
19 Roma 115.9 Italy
20 Newcastle United 115.3 England

Look at the richest clubs in Europe we see that only 2 reside in Spain, the same number as France while there are 5 in italy and 7 in England. Not only that but the 2 in Spain are the 2 who sit on top of the list. Something seriously big has to change in La Liga.

How are clubs like Valencia,Atletico, Sociedad, Bilbao et.c supposed to step up to top European levels when they all have a shitload of debt and need to sell their best players every year.
The gap will only get bigger till we reach scotland proportions.
Barca's/Real's level and revenue won't drop either so the other needs to go up.

Yet Spain's economy is failing badly and investors are all looking for the English clubs rather than la Liga.
Look at the list even a bad club like Newcastle is above a club like Atletico or Valencia.
Epl clubs are robbing all the liga teams off their best players, they have no future.

I envision future football to be an all European commercial league with the biggest teams competing with each other (Bayern, Barca,Real, Manu etc.) and a play off system.
Eventually this will lead to something like that, the market is ruined by Perez and the oil clubs sine the early 00's, normal clubs cant pay the salary/fee to compete and get less revenue than the biggest clubs with the best players.

So eventually it will be ruled by the elitist clubs, ruled by billionairs and multinational investment groups.
The fun for fans will be in the lesser important 2/3th European division where teams like Lazio, Fiorentina, Betis ,Bilbao wil compete with teams like Schalke, Werder, Ajax, Psv, Porto, Fenerbahce, Everton etc.
The focus will be a little less on commercialism and a little more on football.
In the end leagues as we know it (especially la liga ) will dissapear in the end at this rate.

Still, there is one huge difference between Scotland and Spain. Spain has established football academies at almost every team in first division and several in second division. Even lesser teams like Real Sociedad or Sporting Gijón produce first division players on a regular basis. The problem right now is that the teams can't offer competitive salaries and at the same time spanish footballers are among the most desired on the market.

This will not always be the case though, in the near future I foresee german players overtake spanish as the most marketable. The fact that spanish teams are less active on the transfer market means that more spanish players will take the places before occupied by foreigners.

Kerrybai said:

And thats exactly why it should be changed, teams like Ray Vallecano are scraping by on pennies while newly promoted premier league teams are making millions. Just like at how Swansea and Southampton have been able to spend money. A healthy league creates tougher opposition and as a result we would no longer have ridiculous 100 point campaigns. As for The top 2 struggling in Europe, the revenue lost wouldn't be large enough to destory their European aspirations. It would take them down a peg or two but the likes of Madrid have proven that money doesn't always buy European success. Knockout competitions are often a lottery and a revenue loss of 50 million or so wouldn't have a great effect on Spains big 2 in Europe.

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A sudden revenue loss would have a big impact since for example they sign player on 5 year contracts based on their revenue projections. It also wouldn't necessarily stop 100 point leagues since the likes of Valencia would also weaken and hence be less likely to take points off the top 2. In the short term it could make things worse. A less attractive Barca and Madrid would also make the league less appealing to viewers. It's definitely a good idea to move towards collective agreements for the long term, but it has to be done in a stable way. In the short term it's up to the La Liga clubs to do a good job restructuring(which Valencia for example have managed to do so far).

Another thing is that most clubs have to move away from the traditional system of fans owning the club.

Like I've always wondered why ortega doesn't just buy deportivo .

Just shows you the strength of this league when a team which is 10th is so pathetic and limp against a 10-man Madrid. I remember the days when this league was the very best. this sociedad team would've been in the bottom two. Seriously, La Liga has been very boring for quite some years now. Madrid could've played with 9 men and still won this match.

hellsangel1 said:

Just shows you the strength of this league when a team which is 10th is so pathetic and limp against a 10-man Madrid. I remember the days when this league was the very best. this sociedad team would've been in the bottom two. Seriously, La Liga has been very boring for quite some years now. Madrid could've played with 9 men and still won this match.

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Weird that you are posting this in a season where there's four/five tough teams.

hellsangel1 said:

Just shows you the strength of this league when a team which is 10th is so pathetic and limp against a 10-man Madrid. I remember the days when this league was the very best. this sociedad team would've been in the bottom two. Seriously, La Liga has been very boring for quite some years now. Madrid could've played with 9 men and still won this match.

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As much as I agree with it, and agree PL is much more exciting to watch. But excitement doesn't always reflect to the competency of a league. I find the top three in your league to be far superior than other's, but this doesnt make the league incompetent. Moreover these year it is quite even if you count the points.

Alik said:

Weird that you are posting this in a season where there's four/five tough teams.

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I talked about the strength of the league as a whole and not just who is in the top 4.

Bundesliga is just about when Bayern wins, not if. Serie a almost the same with Juventus, Premier league does have some diversity in the title race and the top 4 spots, but not all that much. La liga have a proper 3 horse race that no other league has at the moment, or last season. La liga is exciting in my opinion.

draconifire said:

As much as I agree with it, and agree PL is much more exciting to watch. But excitement doesn't always reflect to the competency of a league. I find the top three in your league to be far superior than other's, but this doesnt make the league incompetent. Moreover these year it is quite even if you count the points.

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I've never been a Premier League fan (not a fan of the whole kick-and-rush style of football) but it is far more competitive than La Liga (part of it has to do with financial strength and part due to the fact that the refs in BPL are more fairer to the smaller teams and less corrupt compared to their Spanish counterparts).I grew up as a Serie A and La Liga fan in the 90's. I found a more refined and technical style of football more to my taste but it's such a far cry from those glory days that it's just boring now. Atleast Barca were fun to watch in the Pep and Vilanova era but since most of last season, Barca have gone so stale. Seriously, I mostly look forward to the Champions League now........at least things are less predictable there.