End of Premiership dominance?
- Thread starter Barcaman
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Beast
The Observer
Real Madrid lead Spain's charge to usurp Premier League as numero uno
Sid Lowe
After a record-breaking summer of spending in La Liga, Spain believes it has the best league in the world
Sixty-six words signalled a seismic shift in football. A brief, blunt statement on Manchester United's website announced that the English champions had accepted Real Madrid's £80m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo. It was the morning of 11 June, less than a year since Spain had become European champions; barely a fortnight since Barcelona had completed a unique treble; and just four days since Kaká had joined Real for €65m [£57m] from Milan. This was even bigger yet.
"The club will not comment until further notice," United's statement concluded. Everyone else did. In the middle of the NBA play-offs, Ronaldo's transfer led news bulletins coast to coast in the United States. He was the front-page story all over the world. In the Bernabéu boutique 3,000 shirts were sold in two hours. 80,000 people crammed in just to watch him parade down a colossal catwalk, perform a few kick-ups and shout: "Un, dos, tres ... ¡hala Madrid!" Some had camped outside for hours; others could not get in at all.
Last night, he played his first competitive game. It already feels like he has been around for ever; it was only Deportivo La Coruña and yet everyone seemed desperate to catch it.
When Florentino Pérez announced that he was making a comeback as club president, his campaign slogan declared: vuelve la ilusión. The ilusión returns – the hope, the magic, the excitement, the expectation. He had overseen the longest trophyless drought in over 50 years during his first spell, but he was quite right. Expectation had never been higher. There has been a buzz about the Bernabéu since that insane day in June, a fascination. €150m spent in four days had returned Real to centre stage; another €128m helped keep them there.
Real's friendly with Liga de Quito pulled in almost three million viewers – the highest pre-season figure ever. Pérez talked insistently about returning the club to their "rightful place" at the centre of the universe. Recognition was almost as important as results – and Real certainly had that. They eclipsed everything. Even Barcelona's treble appeared forgotten. "You turn on the telly and everyone's talking about Madrid," said Gerard Piqué, Barça's former Manchester United defender. Win or lose, Real are the club you just cannot take your eyes off.
Yet the spotlight on Real means a spotlight on Barcelona. The Ronaldo effect works beyond the Bernabéu; combined with Barcelona's success, it catapulted Spain, Catalan rivals included, back into football's collective consciousness.
The sycophantic media have cast Pérez as national saviour, not just Real's white knight – as if he were some benevolent benefactor for everyone else's clubs. What made the arrival of Ronaldo so huge was not just the deal itself but what it symbolised, that it completed the set and confirmed the shift, bringing football flooding in. Spain had the world's best club side; they had the world's best national side; and now they had the world's best player, too – holder of the Ballon d'Or for Europe's best player and Fifa's world crown.
When Sky belatedly announced that they had won the rights to show La Liga in the UK this season, there was relief. People actually cared. Last night, the Spanish season finally got under way and everyone was watching. An unprecedented television deal means more than 300 Spanish games will be shown in the US. The Premier League made its bow two weeks ago; Serie A, a week later. Everyone has been waiting for Spain – as if they have been deliberately saving the best until last.
And, although European results may yet prove otherwise, La Liga can now claim to be the best. At the start of every match on one Spanish TV station last season, the commentator announced: "Welcome to the best league in the world!" The response was inevitable: what, have you bought the rights to the Premier League? Comfort came in the performances of Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Cesc Fábregas, but even the most passionate defenders of the Spanish game conceded defeat. After all, the Premier League have boasted three out of four Champions League semi-finalists three seasons running. Real had failed to win a single knockout tie in five years of European competition. The biggest club of all had been forced to face the fact that it was no longer a big club at all, dragging La Liga with them.
Not so now. "Welcome to the best league in the world!"? Probably. Why thank you. Forget 2009 – 2010 could be Spain's year. Even the Champions League final will be held at the Santiago Bernabéu. And then the European champions bid for a first World Cup, a solitary defeat in three years justifying their status as the bookmakers' favourites. First, though, La Liga, currently trailing the Premier League in terms of Uefa's coefficient, will launch what one newspaper declared "an assault on the English crown".
It is one they are well-equipped to launch. It is not just that Real signed Kaká, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, it is that they struck a blow to their rivals: Spain took the best player from the Italian, English and French leagues. Barcelona then signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Serie A's top scorer. If you can't beat them, buy them. Meanwhile, Valencia resisted bids for David Villa, Euro 2008's top scorer. Atlético Madrid have kept Diego Forlán, holder of the European Golden Boot, and Sergio Agüero – Maradona's son-in-law. Xavi Hernández was named the best performer at Euro 2008 and Wayne Rooney declared Andrés Iniesta the world's best.
Kaká, Ronaldo's predecessor as holder of the Ballon d'Or and Fifa's award, plays here; Lionel Messi, Ronaldo's certain successor whatever Rooney says, does, too. Four of the top five players in the world play in Spain. The other is a Spaniard. Eight of the first 10 play in La Liga. "It's one thing wanting to believe we have the best league," the former Real Madrid captain Manolo Sanchís says, "now we can objectively say we have." "La Liga have made some marquee signings and is probably the best in the world," Rio Ferdinand concedes.
La Liga's clubs have spent more on transfer fees this summer than those of any other league in Europe – including England's. Spain's €472m outlay is a record and, on the face of it, the Spanish are entitled to think that their pre-eminence will continue thanks to a weakened pound and favourable tax regime. European players cost English clubs roughly a third more than they did 18 months ago; matching Kaká's take-home salary at Real would cost a Premier League club €4m more. Real Zaragoza will pay Pennant £49,200 a week, an English club would have to pay £80,000 a week. Andrey Arshavin has warned the English game of an "exodus" from the Premier League.
Beyond the headlines, it looks rather different; financial muscle remains the preserve of the two. A pair of behemoths – two of the top three in the world, by revenue – does not necessarily make for a powerful domestic league. Real account for €268m worth of Spain's transfers, while Barcelona have spent just short of €125m. Only three other clubs have bought a single player for more than €5m; the average total spending is €5.6m. Real's budget this season stands at €420m, Barcelona's at €405m. The next highest stands at less than a quarter of that.
Spain has produced wonderful clubs – this century 2000 Valencia have reached two successive Champions League finals, Sevilla have won two Uefa Cups, while Villarreal and Deportivo have reached Champions League semi-finals. Since 1996, when Atlético Madrid won the league and cup double, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Deportivo, Valencia, Espanyol, Betis, and Mallorca have all won domestic trophies and there have been runners-up medals for Celta, Recreativo, Osasuna, Getafe, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao.
But Barcelona and Real Madrid account for 21 of the past 25 La Liga titles. Worse, theirs is a self-perpetuating duopoly whose grip is tightening, backed by a biased media and more than 70% of the population who declare themselves supporters of one or the other. It is hard to imagine that they will not win 21 of the next 25 – a possibility that insiders admit frightens the Spanish Football Federation.
Just as money from Sky funded the boom in English football, so television deals hold the key to understanding Spain. The former Real president Ramón Calderón once claimed that he had signed a €1.1bn, seven-year deal for TV rights with the production company Mediapro. In fact, the real figure was closer to the €600m that Barcelona get for a six-year deal with TV3 – still greater than the approximately £60m that Manchester United earned domestically last year.
So far, so good. But television deals in Spain are struck individually; no collective bargaining leaves little bargaining for the rest. Third-placed Sevilla earn just short of €30m – less than Burnley will make this season. Atlético Madrid, Spain's most popular club outside the big two, get €42m a season. Numancia's deal earned them €5m. "The lack of a centralised deal is the biggest problem that Spanish football faces," insists the league's vice-president Javier Tebas, but he has done little to arrest it.
On the opening day of last season Numancia beat Barcelona. The man who scored the winning goal earns less in a year than Thierry Henry in a week. Still, at least they won. It does not happen often: with five weeks of last season remaining, Real's lead over the team in third was greater than it has ever been – in a season in which the consensus was that they were not very good. Much has been written about whether Real can afford to spend as they do, rather less about whether other clubs can afford for them to do so.
Jorge Pérez, the secretary of the Spanish federation, says 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. A study conducted at Barcelona University found that only 8% of what clubs in Spain spend comes from their own funds and that the game's debts top €3,500m. Perhaps it is not a bad thing, but nor is it coincidence that foreign investors have not converged on Spain. Few clubs are truly attractive. The two that really are, they cannot buy.
Not that anyone who packed into the Bernabéu last night cared. As Spanish football embarks upon what could be the greatest season in its history, no one wants to be reminded of the potential pitfalls. And amid all the excitement, it is impossible not to be carried along with it. Don't stop them now, they're having such a good time. Forget Cool Britannia, it is time for Viva España.
Sid Lowe
After a record-breaking summer of spending in La Liga, Spain believes it has the best league in the world
Sixty-six words signalled a seismic shift in football. A brief, blunt statement on Manchester United's website announced that the English champions had accepted Real Madrid's £80m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo. It was the morning of 11 June, less than a year since Spain had become European champions; barely a fortnight since Barcelona had completed a unique treble; and just four days since Kaká had joined Real for €65m [£57m] from Milan. This was even bigger yet.
"The club will not comment until further notice," United's statement concluded. Everyone else did. In the middle of the NBA play-offs, Ronaldo's transfer led news bulletins coast to coast in the United States. He was the front-page story all over the world. In the Bernabéu boutique 3,000 shirts were sold in two hours. 80,000 people crammed in just to watch him parade down a colossal catwalk, perform a few kick-ups and shout: "Un, dos, tres ... ¡hala Madrid!" Some had camped outside for hours; others could not get in at all.
Last night, he played his first competitive game. It already feels like he has been around for ever; it was only Deportivo La Coruña and yet everyone seemed desperate to catch it.
When Florentino Pérez announced that he was making a comeback as club president, his campaign slogan declared: vuelve la ilusión. The ilusión returns – the hope, the magic, the excitement, the expectation. He had overseen the longest trophyless drought in over 50 years during his first spell, but he was quite right. Expectation had never been higher. There has been a buzz about the Bernabéu since that insane day in June, a fascination. €150m spent in four days had returned Real to centre stage; another €128m helped keep them there.
Real's friendly with Liga de Quito pulled in almost three million viewers – the highest pre-season figure ever. Pérez talked insistently about returning the club to their "rightful place" at the centre of the universe. Recognition was almost as important as results – and Real certainly had that. They eclipsed everything. Even Barcelona's treble appeared forgotten. "You turn on the telly and everyone's talking about Madrid," said Gerard Piqué, Barça's former Manchester United defender. Win or lose, Real are the club you just cannot take your eyes off.
Yet the spotlight on Real means a spotlight on Barcelona. The Ronaldo effect works beyond the Bernabéu; combined with Barcelona's success, it catapulted Spain, Catalan rivals included, back into football's collective consciousness.
The sycophantic media have cast Pérez as national saviour, not just Real's white knight – as if he were some benevolent benefactor for everyone else's clubs. What made the arrival of Ronaldo so huge was not just the deal itself but what it symbolised, that it completed the set and confirmed the shift, bringing football flooding in. Spain had the world's best club side; they had the world's best national side; and now they had the world's best player, too – holder of the Ballon d'Or for Europe's best player and Fifa's world crown.
When Sky belatedly announced that they had won the rights to show La Liga in the UK this season, there was relief. People actually cared. Last night, the Spanish season finally got under way and everyone was watching. An unprecedented television deal means more than 300 Spanish games will be shown in the US. The Premier League made its bow two weeks ago; Serie A, a week later. Everyone has been waiting for Spain – as if they have been deliberately saving the best until last.
And, although European results may yet prove otherwise, La Liga can now claim to be the best. At the start of every match on one Spanish TV station last season, the commentator announced: "Welcome to the best league in the world!" The response was inevitable: what, have you bought the rights to the Premier League? Comfort came in the performances of Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Cesc Fábregas, but even the most passionate defenders of the Spanish game conceded defeat. After all, the Premier League have boasted three out of four Champions League semi-finalists three seasons running. Real had failed to win a single knockout tie in five years of European competition. The biggest club of all had been forced to face the fact that it was no longer a big club at all, dragging La Liga with them.
Not so now. "Welcome to the best league in the world!"? Probably. Why thank you. Forget 2009 – 2010 could be Spain's year. Even the Champions League final will be held at the Santiago Bernabéu. And then the European champions bid for a first World Cup, a solitary defeat in three years justifying their status as the bookmakers' favourites. First, though, La Liga, currently trailing the Premier League in terms of Uefa's coefficient, will launch what one newspaper declared "an assault on the English crown".
It is one they are well-equipped to launch. It is not just that Real signed Kaká, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, it is that they struck a blow to their rivals: Spain took the best player from the Italian, English and French leagues. Barcelona then signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Serie A's top scorer. If you can't beat them, buy them. Meanwhile, Valencia resisted bids for David Villa, Euro 2008's top scorer. Atlético Madrid have kept Diego Forlán, holder of the European Golden Boot, and Sergio Agüero – Maradona's son-in-law. Xavi Hernández was named the best performer at Euro 2008 and Wayne Rooney declared Andrés Iniesta the world's best.
Kaká, Ronaldo's predecessor as holder of the Ballon d'Or and Fifa's award, plays here; Lionel Messi, Ronaldo's certain successor whatever Rooney says, does, too. Four of the top five players in the world play in Spain. The other is a Spaniard. Eight of the first 10 play in La Liga. "It's one thing wanting to believe we have the best league," the former Real Madrid captain Manolo Sanchís says, "now we can objectively say we have." "La Liga have made some marquee signings and is probably the best in the world," Rio Ferdinand concedes.
La Liga's clubs have spent more on transfer fees this summer than those of any other league in Europe – including England's. Spain's €472m outlay is a record and, on the face of it, the Spanish are entitled to think that their pre-eminence will continue thanks to a weakened pound and favourable tax regime. European players cost English clubs roughly a third more than they did 18 months ago; matching Kaká's take-home salary at Real would cost a Premier League club €4m more. Real Zaragoza will pay Pennant £49,200 a week, an English club would have to pay £80,000 a week. Andrey Arshavin has warned the English game of an "exodus" from the Premier League.
Beyond the headlines, it looks rather different; financial muscle remains the preserve of the two. A pair of behemoths – two of the top three in the world, by revenue – does not necessarily make for a powerful domestic league. Real account for €268m worth of Spain's transfers, while Barcelona have spent just short of €125m. Only three other clubs have bought a single player for more than €5m; the average total spending is €5.6m. Real's budget this season stands at €420m, Barcelona's at €405m. The next highest stands at less than a quarter of that.
Spain has produced wonderful clubs – this century 2000 Valencia have reached two successive Champions League finals, Sevilla have won two Uefa Cups, while Villarreal and Deportivo have reached Champions League semi-finals. Since 1996, when Atlético Madrid won the league and cup double, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Deportivo, Valencia, Espanyol, Betis, and Mallorca have all won domestic trophies and there have been runners-up medals for Celta, Recreativo, Osasuna, Getafe, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao.
But Barcelona and Real Madrid account for 21 of the past 25 La Liga titles. Worse, theirs is a self-perpetuating duopoly whose grip is tightening, backed by a biased media and more than 70% of the population who declare themselves supporters of one or the other. It is hard to imagine that they will not win 21 of the next 25 – a possibility that insiders admit frightens the Spanish Football Federation.
Just as money from Sky funded the boom in English football, so television deals hold the key to understanding Spain. The former Real president Ramón Calderón once claimed that he had signed a €1.1bn, seven-year deal for TV rights with the production company Mediapro. In fact, the real figure was closer to the €600m that Barcelona get for a six-year deal with TV3 – still greater than the approximately £60m that Manchester United earned domestically last year.
So far, so good. But television deals in Spain are struck individually; no collective bargaining leaves little bargaining for the rest. Third-placed Sevilla earn just short of €30m – less than Burnley will make this season. Atlético Madrid, Spain's most popular club outside the big two, get €42m a season. Numancia's deal earned them €5m. "The lack of a centralised deal is the biggest problem that Spanish football faces," insists the league's vice-president Javier Tebas, but he has done little to arrest it.
On the opening day of last season Numancia beat Barcelona. The man who scored the winning goal earns less in a year than Thierry Henry in a week. Still, at least they won. It does not happen often: with five weeks of last season remaining, Real's lead over the team in third was greater than it has ever been – in a season in which the consensus was that they were not very good. Much has been written about whether Real can afford to spend as they do, rather less about whether other clubs can afford for them to do so.
Jorge Pérez, the secretary of the Spanish federation, says 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. A study conducted at Barcelona University found that only 8% of what clubs in Spain spend comes from their own funds and that the game's debts top €3,500m. Perhaps it is not a bad thing, but nor is it coincidence that foreign investors have not converged on Spain. Few clubs are truly attractive. The two that really are, they cannot buy.
Not that anyone who packed into the Bernabéu last night cared. As Spanish football embarks upon what could be the greatest season in its history, no one wants to be reminded of the potential pitfalls. And amid all the excitement, it is impossible not to be carried along with it. Don't stop them now, they're having such a good time. Forget Cool Britannia, it is time for Viva España.
Cule Angles
Visca el filòsof!
It's a league which produces consistently the best football in my opinion but the duopoly is becoming a concern and as Sid points out the grip of the "big two" will only become ever greater. Even with the new TV regime the leading marketing line is that Spain's Gol TV channel has three live games a week "one of which will always involve Barça or Madrid". The others seem to be there to make up the numbers to a large extent. This isn't vastly different from the situation in Italy or England where realistically only three to four clubs can challenge each season but the media coverage in Spain isolates the top two to an even greater extent than in the other major leagues where press coverage remains more neutral.
antonnn
Blue Blooded Aussie
Yeah Spain has always been the most entertaining league but at the same time it's even more predictable than England and Italy when it comes to who can win the title. Italy have 4 main teams(though Roma aren't very consistent), and always 1 or 2 others who can push the team who are 3rd/4th, while England have a top 4 but 4th is usually pushed a bit by the 5th or 6th teams, as we saw last year. Spain have the occasional surprise packet to push the top 2 but they can never keep it up for seasons, although Sevilla seem to be making a good fist of it the last few years.
I'll say one thing about Spain though, they seemingly have the best mid-table teams from what I can tell. England's are pretty weak, and Italy are hit and miss.
I'll say one thing about Spain though, they seemingly have the best mid-table teams from what I can tell. England's are pretty weak, and Italy are hit and miss.
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Poor_Sunyol
In Lucho we trust!
Bring on the Super League.
Shame on you Sunny
Cule Angles
Visca el filòsof!
Going wildly off topic, but the super league isn't a sustainable concept because the big clubs' reputations and "business models" are built on being consistently successful, there's no way any of the big clubs would settle for becoming midtable outfits.
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