La Liga 14/15

[Flavia]

There's a threat of strike for TV rights going on:

La Liga ready to strike over TV rights - Espanyol chief

MADRID Wed Feb 11, 2015 12:52pm GMT

(Reuters) - Spain's top-flight clubs are ready to shut down La Liga if the government does not pass a law mandating collective bargaining for TV rights soon, Espanyol president Joan Collet said on Wednesday.
"We are ready to halt La Liga if this (law) does not come out in one, two or three weeks," Collet told Spanish radio.

"I have already spoken with clubs like Valencia," he added. "We would have to hold another assembly but we are ready if the government doesn't get a move on."

La Liga, where the broadcast rights are held by Barcelona-based Mediapro, is the only top European league in which clubs negotiate their own TV contracts.

Collet's comments come the day after the English Premier League agreed a new collective TV rights deal with Sky and BT Sport for 2016-19 worth 5.2 billion pounds ($7.95 billion).

Real Madrid, the world's wealthiest club by income, and Barcelona, the fourth richest, together take about half the annual La Liga TV money of 650 million euros ($735 million), one reason they usually finish far ahead of their domestic rivals.

"DISGRACEFUL SITUATION"

According to Esteve Calzada, CEO of Barcelona-based consulting firm Prime Time Sport, the ratio in England between the team that makes the most TV money and the one that makes the least is about 1.5 to 1 while in La Liga it is 10 to 1.

The team that earns the least in the new Premier League deal will get 106 million pounds per season while in Spain they get 11 million, compared with about 110 million for Real and Barca, Calzada said on Tuesday.

Many clubs in La Liga, including the likes of Espanyol, Valencia and Sevilla, are hopeful a collective deal would enable them to demand more from broadcasters which would then be shared out more equitably to create a more level playing field.

"We are still maintaining this disgraceful situation with the two clubs (Real and Barca) earning what nobody else in Europe earns," Collet said.

"The current TV contracts are nearing their end and because the law has not been approved we cannot negotiate the new ones," he added.

Collet blamed political interference for the delay in the law and said that while Barca appeared ready to accept change Real apparently were not.

 

[raskolnikov]

They are right imo, shared revenu is most prefered. However since this isnt communism and the market works the way it does eventually it doesnt matter much. Looking at what happened yesterday with the epl the logical prediction is national leagues will cease to exist and the European superleague will get there eventually. It favours traditional clubs who struggle currently due to the set up but change when people invest (eg Ajax, Hsv, Marseille, Milan, Celtic etc.).
I will just be an nba version of football with big clubs being toys of billionairs to entertain people who cant afford tickets
within 15/20 years is my guess.

 

[KingMessi]

They are right imo, shared revenu is most prefered. However since this isnt communism and the market works the way it does eventually it doesnt matter much. Looking at what happened yesterday with the epl the logical prediction is national leagues will cease to exist and the European superleague will get there eventually. It favours traditional clubs who struggle currently due to the set up but change when people invest (eg Ajax, Hsv, Marseille, Milan, Celtic etc.).

Will be the day I give up on European football altogether, tbh.

 

[khaled_a_d]

They are right imo, shared revenu is most prefered. However since this isnt communism and the market works the way it does eventually it doesnt matter much. Looking at what happened yesterday with the epl the logical prediction is national leagues will cease to exist and the European superleague will get there eventually. It favours traditional clubs who struggle currently due to the set up but change when people invest (eg Ajax, Hsv, Marseille, Milan, Celtic etc.).
I will just be an nba version of football with big clubs being toys of billionairs to entertain people who cant afford tickets
within 15/20 years is my guess.

Football already has its own NBA version,it is called Champions league

 

[raskolnikov]

Football already has its own NBA version,it is called Champions league

Thats an elitist cup which still can exist as the club tournament beside the super league.

 

[Luftstalag14]

When the collective TV deal is in place, will we be getting significantly less (less than 140m euros that we are getting now)? If so, that spells big trouble for us since revenue from the TV deal makes very significant portion of our total revenue, as we lag behind the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern on commercial sponsorship and merchandise sales (really don't get why we are behind them here).

 

[Raed]

When the collective TV deal is in place, will we be getting significantly less (less than 140m euros that we are getting now)? If so, that spells big trouble for us since revenue from the TV deal makes very significant portion of our total revenue, as we lag behind the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern on commercial sponsorship and merchandise sales (really don't get why we are behind them here).

Group or Collective bargaining doesn't mean equal distribution rights, it means that Barcelona and Real Madrid can negotiate, with their power, on the behalf of the smaller clubs. Meaning, La Liga, as a whole, can negotiate with Media Pro for a large total, but that total can still be distributed unequally.

So, lets says La Liga's rights are worth 5 billion, this 5 billion was added up by having every single club negotiate on its own. Levante, Atletico, Sociedad, etc...all negotiate separate deals. What they want is to have Real Madrid and Barcelona not reach an agreement and leave the smaller clubs behind in their wake, they want them to negotiate all at once. What would happen, optimistically, is that the total would be now 6 or 7 billion, and the smaller clubs have a similar % percentage of the total, but from a bigger total.

I don't think it is going to give La Liga clubs purchasing power, it will give them player retaining power. However there is a huge underlying problem and that is these clubs are not very well run. Some of the clubs had no sponsors beginning of the season, some of them sell players and not reinvest the money, some of them don't event have user/tourist friendly institutions with websites in only Spanish etc...They are very closed, they do not make it easy for new fans to join in. 20 million or so extra per team won't save the league, but it may help, I don't know.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Group or Collective bargaining doesn't mean equal distribution rights, it means that Barcelona and Real Madrid can negotiate, with their power, on the behalf of the smaller clubs. Meaning, La Liga, as a whole, can negotiate with Media Pro for a large total, but that total can still be distributed unequally.

So, lets says La Liga's rights are worth 5 billion, this 5 billion was added up by having every single club negotiate on its own. Levante, Atletico, Sociedad, etc...all negotiate separate deals. What they want is to have Real Madrid and Barcelona not reach an agreement and leave the smaller clubs behind in their wake, they want them to negotiate all at once. What would happen, optimistically, is that the total would be now 6 or 7 billion, and the smaller clubs have a similar % percentage of the total, but from a bigger total.

I don't think it is going to give La Liga clubs purchasing power, it will give them player retaining power. However there is a huge underlying problem and that is these clubs are not very well run. Some of the clubs had no sponsors beginning of the season, some of them sell players and not reinvest the money, some of them don't event have user/tourist friendly institutions with websites in only Spanish etc...They are very closed, they do not make it easy for new fans to join in. 20 million or so extra per team won't save the league, but it may help, I don't know.

Yeah, I guess Spain is not such a worldly country at all.

 

[Raed]

Yeah, I guess Spain is not such a worldly country at all.

Spain the country has nothing to do with the league. It is just that the league isn't attracting new fans, Barca and Real Madrid are. Valencia, Seville, Deportivo in my opinion, I think, lost fan bases since the early 2000s. I don't have numbers though, I could be wrong.

Villareal and now Atletico, mayyybbeee...most La Liga fans know players through matches against or through the few matches leading to a date with Barca and Real.

 

[KingMessi]

Barcelona and Real Madrid's top players could move to England in the wake of the Premier League's new television rights deal, La Liga president Javier Tebas has warned Spain's leading clubs. (bbc.co.uk)

 

[Hamzah]

Thats an elitist cup which still can exist as the club tournament beside the super league.

A lot of celtic fans here are desperate for there to be a European super league. They would be one of the bigger clubs in the world in that scenario.

I don't like it though for football as a whole, the romance of football is winning or doing well in your domestic league and then when you play others from Europe in the CL, it is more rare and each game means more. There is an actual history and story of football.

 

[KingMessi]

A lot of celtic fans here are desperate for there to be a European super league. They would be one of the bigger clubs in the world in that scenario.

I don't like it though for football as a whole, the romance of football is winning or doing well in your domestic league and then when you play others from Europe in the CL, it is more rare and each game means more. There is an actual history and story of football.

How about a European Super League in which you would need to win your league to qualify? A bit like the original Champion's Cup. So the league champions would participate in the Euro Super League the next season, instead of participating in their own domestic league (they'd still play in all cup competitions though). At the end of the ESL season, each league champion will play the first placed team in its domestic league in a 7 game series to see who gets to participate in the Super League the next season (the winner will also get awarded the league title for that year). This is unless the team participating in the Euro Super League finishes in a relegation spot in the ESL, at which point they're automatically sent back to their domestic league for the next season.

As for the title in the ESL, it should be divided into several conferences, with playoffs at the end of the season for the title.

So, for example, this season's ESL would include clubs like PSG, Man City, Atleti, Juventus, etc.

 

[DonAK]

I don't think a European Super League will be a big success or materialize anytime soon.

 

[KingMessi]

I don't think a European Super League will be a big success or materialize anytime soon.

I don't either. Just threw out a "structure" for a possible one.

 

[Hamzah]

I think that having the original champions cup format would be interesting. Winning your league would be extremely important then. It could also allow more balance because smaller countries champions are participating in the super league then the balance of power in football will be more spread out, like the old days. The problem with that is that several top clubs will miss out each year, and if one team always makes the super league then you get a one top team per league situation.

If you did do that I would still run the normal league along with the super league for the top club. The challenge for them is can they defend their title while participating in the super league.

To be honest though I like things the way they are and I like the champions league. I just think that things like FFP need to be implemented properly and tv deals better structured.

As for the big clubs in bad situations maybe the likes of celtic and Ajax are allowed into the premier league and bundesliga respectively. Porto and benfica into la liga etc.