Finding a financial balance within La Liga will not happen unless league-wide, serious restructuring is done to share revenue. In the current system, top-tier clubs must make more than smaller clubs within TV revenue sharing. It is the current understanding that if certain clubs and players increase television attraction more so than an opponent, the overall TV revenue will not be split equally. There are many reasons for the larger clubs to protect this right, including how the revenue acts as a necessity to sustain all of larger clubs inflated player salaries so there are zero non-paid salaries. If the players continue to be offered enormous salaries, the big market teams will continue to fight for more revenue. So unless there is a well-structured salary cap, one that does not scare off the footballers to other leagues both nationally and internationally, there will continue to be imbalance.
One could say that as it is seen in the EPL, a balanced revenue sharing from TV contracts helps maintain more thorough competition. However, a full-blown restructuring would need to happen in La Liga. Completely evening the playing field between particular clubs and markets simply is not realistic, and most likely will not happen in a democratically governed sport that has turned more into a business than anything. The large market clubs need the large endorsements and revenues in order to even stay afloat. Jose Maria del Nido is quoted as saying, “The kind of debts that Real Madrid has, in truth, is manageable, just as the €532 million debt (2010 audited figures) that Barcelona has, but to make them serviceable, both clubs need to generate money, at least €400 million annually, to sustain themselves. A reason why they are resisting any major restructuring of the TV money deal – at least for now.” So what is the best way for financially balancing competition between clubs? Is the Super League indeed what should happen?
Sources: http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/opinion-pieces/the-truth-behind-del-nidos-tv-deal-revolution/ ; http://file.shotsharing.com/photo/311414490/mid/Mediapro's-sign-on-top,Torre-22@-Mediapro,-Barcelona.jpg
Sources: http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/opinion-pieces/the-truth-behind-del-nidos-tv-deal-revolution/ ; http://file.shotsharing.com/photo/311414490/mid/Mediapro's-sign-on-top,Torre-22@-Mediapro,-Barcelona.jpg
Even if we assume that a salary cap or restructuring the TV deals would indeed be good for the league, how would La Liga go about doing this? It seems to me that, like you alluded to, Barca and Madrid would simply leave La Liga to create their own league. Maybe when setting-up La Liga decades ago it would've been smart to forsee the possible problems with each team creating their own TV revenue deals, but now that this system is already established, I just don't see how you can go about changing it without some major conflicts.
ReplyDeleteObviously top squads like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have a lot of lobbying power in the decision making process when it comes to league reform. What I am wondering is to what extent they use this power and if there are any detailed scandals that have occurred recently where they take advantage of this power, making it impossible for underdog teams to rise to higher ranks.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it surprises me that fans remain so loyal to their favorite teams even when they have no chance of winning the cup over Real Madrid or FC Barcelona.
As we saw in the video in class, loyalty for certain clubs goes far beyond success on the pitch. Also teams view success in different ways. Getting into the Champions League would be considered a success for some teams, while avoiding relegation would be considered a success for teams that just got promoted. So for teams like these winning cups is not always how they view success. Also, there are many competitions that a team could win: La Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Copa Catalunya and so on. So there are many possibilities to win.
ReplyDeleteAs for Barcelona and Madrid stopping league reform, there has not been much outspoken denial. However, if they were willing to give up their TV revenue, there would already be a new structure in place. The fact that the Sevilla director Jose Cruz continually fights for this television right reform unsuccessfully shows that Barcelona and Madrid do have that strong lobbying power.