The Weak State of La Liga

     "[La Liga] is the dullest league in the world" - Eduardo Bandrés (former president of Real Zaragoza).  Is it?  How can a league with two of the most popular clubs worldwide be the "dullest league in the world"?  The answer is simple.  While Barcelona and Real Madrid continue to thrive, they make-up only ten percent of the league.  The remaining ninety percent is really struggling.
     At first glance, it would appear that La Liga is doing great.  After all, Real Madrid and Barcelona were recently ranked at the top of Deloitte & Touche's rich list, and they also managed to scored more points than any other team in Europe two seasons ago.  But if two teams are just so dominant both financially and on-the-field, then how can other teams compete?  And if they can't compete, then how is this a league that millions of people would want to follow?   Also, while one could assume that Madrid and Barcelona have amazing teams and that's why they lead the league in points, couldn't one also assume that the teams that they're playing are have horrible teams and that's why they consistently lose?
     Unlike in other European soccer leagues, the teams in La Liga create their own TV rights deals.  This appears to be fair because the better teams with the larger fan bases deserve more money.  But when two teams are earning right around 120 million euros per year, and the next highest club is earning less than 30 million euros per year, this is not in the best interest for the league as a whole.  La Liga is in a situation where the rich are only getting richer and unless something is done, it will only continue to get worse.
     As much as it must be great to be Barcelona or Real Madrid right now, if current trends continue, these two teams are going to be left without any competition at all.  The league is at risk of imploding if eighteen of the twenty teams are forced to spend more money than they take in just to have a small chance each year of competing.  As one director reportedly told Jorge Pérez, the secretary of the Spanish Football Federation, "if I do a good job economically, we'll go down and they'll kill me."  The teams in the league have to be financially irresponsible in order to have a chance to win.  If they're financially responsible, they have no chance to win, they'll be relegated out of La Liga, and then making money or having a chance to win become just that much harder.
     While the top two teams continue to thrive, the large majority of the league is stuck in a vicious, paradoxical cycle of being forced to spend too much money in order to stay afloat as a club.  Until something changes, whether it be through a salary cap, changing up the TV revenue sharing, or some other way, La Liga will continue in this weak state.


Sources:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/mar/28/barcelona-real-madrid-spain ; http://aeryssports.com/soccer/files/2011/05/fmkjd.jpeg

History of La Liga

     While those who follow Spanish football know that La Liga is made up of 20 teams all throughout different regions of Spain, they might not know the origins of the league's existence and how it came to be today.

     In April, 1927 the director of a Spanish football club, Jose Maria Acha, initiated the idea of a Spanish national league.  Ten teams were decided upon in 1929 to make up the first Primera Division.  Of the ten original teams, only Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Athletic Bilbao have yet to be relegated.  Barcelona and Real Madrid each won titles in the early years; however Athletic Bilbao was the clear power-house at first, reaching the finals of the Primera Divison six times and winning four times in the first eight years.

     La Liga was suspended during the Spanish Civil War, but it came back once the war had ended and continued as it had been before.  FC Barcelona had a period of dominance from the late 1940’s through the early 1950’s and Real Madrid had a great deal of success starting in the mid-1950’s and continuing on all the way through 1980.  Real Madrid won an unprecedented 14 times from 1961-1980 and then continued their dominance in the late 1980’s, winning five in a row.

     FC Barcelona won four in a row in the early 1990’s, and in the past decade, they have advanced to the same level as Real Madrid.  Many people today view La Liga as FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and then everyone else.  And in terms of both finances and on-field success, it truly is a league dominated by two.  The question now is just how long will these two teams continue to dominate La Liga, and is it inevitable that a third or fourth team will enter the mix as elite clubs in the next decade or two.

     Looking at the history of La Liga clearly indicates that Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have been at the top tier for most of, if not all of, the league’s existence.  Is it good for a league to have one or two teams consistently winning decade after decade while the other teams simply hope to have a successful year here and there?  Or would the league be better off being more competitively balanced?  Even if you think it would be better off for the league as a whole to avoid teams monopolizing the success, how to go about doing this raises another question:  should a salary cap be implemented?

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Liga#History ; https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj49n2G3nRXP2kuYPWOIQjfeLSHSVd5d65RqITaGqrX2pJNj4LW8cBalujIbFCT4rxtSkDxbVupJ2-PvUbcZQHR294stDRspACyfkEs0i2Novj6DgS0tbrPXPVNMhOroX8XGjRyiUIlgYc/s400/madrid60.jpg

Governance of La Liga

     La Liga is is the common name for the Primera Division within La Liga Nacional de Futbol Profesional.  As the top division under the Spanish football league system, La Liga creates passion and emotion for football fans throughout Spain.  La Liga has twenty participating teams which are able to play up or down through the internal division system.  The top two teams of the division B will rise to then play in the division A, while the third team is decided on a playoff game.  Conversely, the three worst teams in division A drop down to B.  This depends solely on the competitive win-loss record at the end of each season.  Due to this oscillating division participants list, 59 different teams have played within La Liga.  This alone creates an elite aura about the league contributing to its widespread popularity and competitiveness of the teams.  Teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona are continually successful within the system of La Liga, ever increasing the popularity around the globe.
     Seasons consist of a double round robin schedule where each team plays competitors both home and away.  This gives credibility to teams that win both at home and on the road.  The season lasts from September to June, while each team plays a total of 38 games.  This system that helps dominant teams stay in La Liga can be quickly questioned as certain teams are able to buy out the best players, shutting out competition from smaller clubs and markets.  Is this competitively moral?  Should each team have a salary cap in which they must operate under?  With the current governance, the wonderful divisional system on La Liga is tarnished by the uncompetitive lack of fairness between team expenditures.  How long will the current league set up last if the ever increasing gap between clubs becomes to big?  If one thing helps back up a change, it is the grotesque salaries that players make in which lower tier clubs cannot compete.

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Liga#Competition_format ; http://www.onbeingablacklawyer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/gavel.jpg

Sponsorship News

     After 5 games played, Barcelona sits second in the table and their bitter rivals Real Madrid tied for fifth.  Given their resources, this could be considered a slow start as both teams have seen some disappointing results.  However, this past week both seemed to show their true form and flex their muscle as both outplayed their opponents with lopsided scores.  Barcelona thrashed a seemingly strong Athletico Madrid 5-0, while Madrid topped newly promoted Rayo Vallecano 6-2.  Behind these scores, the disparity between the top teams and bottom teams is becoming more and more evident.
     Over the weekend, Barcelona's socios approved the deal with Qatar Sports Investment, which will see Barcelona receive 171 million euros in the next five years.  Although a controversial source of revenue, the socios approved the deal with a majority as  697 responded yes, while only 76 responded no.  When compared with other teams around La Liga, excluding Real Madrid, this sponsorship dwarfs all others.  At the beginning of the season several teams lacked shirt sponsors, and even to this point both Barcelona's and Real Madrid's recent opponents, Athletico Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, still lack kit sponsors.  If this trend remains we will only see the gap between the "top two" and the rest of La Liga grow.  For the sake of the league, both competitively and financially, these remaining teams need to find shirt sponsors.  However, should teams like Athletico Madrid settle with sponsorship deals that are under par or should they risk not getting any sponsor waiting for one that meets their financial demand?  This fine line can see these teams lose millions in sponsors which only expands the margin between the top two and the rest of the league.

Sources:  http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/news/members-accept-the-qatar-sports-investment-deal/ ; http://karllusbec.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/barca-qatar-foundation.jpg?w=378