A long journey through the desert:
LaLiga has lost most of the leadership it was used to have in the last few seasons. The state that manages all the issues from the professional clubs did not admit the fact that the competition was decreasing its attractiveness both for the fans and for the companies that require a fast revenue on their high investments on a product that was at its peak value thanks to the presence of the best players in the world a few seasons ago.
It is true that the revenue for LaLiga on the TV rights and commercials last season was higher than expected due to the pandemic. Ads were the only visible thing in the empty stands and the audience on TV was huge.
However, this benefit was not enough for the clubs to balance on the huge financial lost due to the lack of fans in the stadiums and the non-existent sell of merchandising. This fact did not matter at all to LaLiga, as this management and revenue is taken cared of by the clubs.
The exit from the best player in the world has proved that the sand under the Spanish football´s feet is too thin, the sand of the desert that must be crossed in order to reach the promised land.
In fact, that promised land must be very different to the one that has dried up to become into a desert. Messi has been the last one of a long list where there are also other top players like Ramos and Varane.
This journey must be used to reconsider the business strategy that Spanish football should have and I am saying this from the most ignorance of the subject. I am saying this because several leagues have passed us with a similar model.
The difference: the distribution of everything (revenue and expenses) is more fair. Just make a quick search and compare LaLiga with its competitors, that is to say, the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A.
Loose lips…
Bartomeu requested publicly a couple weeks ago the release of the audit ordered by President Laporta on the current economical situation on FC Barcelona. No one even seemed to be thinking about Bartomeu anymore. I believe that he was expecting that the situation that the audit ended up reflecting wouldn´t be as bad as thought so he could blame Laporta for Messi´s exit.
Laporta´s press conference a few days later to attend Bartomeu´s request was a huge comeback to his management. I guess that Bartomeu is now planning on the right strategy to defend himself from the overwhelming data.
Laporta showed an untenable bankrupt situation. Bartomeu will now have to explain himself and he could be in serious trouble. Furthermore, LaLiga must also explain why they have let this to happen. The first auditor for the clubs in the first and second division is LaLiga and it seems that they have not done their job right.
The non-profitable institution has been the accomplice for the lost of worth of the competitions they run. Messi´s exit is the biggest knock that Spanish football has received on its value market.
His bark is worse than his bite:
The decision from four professional clubs (Oviedo, Athletic Club, Barça and Madrid) to accept the agreement with the CVC investment fund has infuriated Tebas. However, his anger has not been directed to the four clubs but, as usual, to Florentino.
Just remember that Tebas had to say when the Super League project failed to flourish. Tebas is the barker dog, you can see him coming and he does not bite at all. Florentino is the peaceful and custodian dog, the dangerous one for the intruder, for the one who wants to break into the property he is looking after for.
There are a lot of details on that agreement that we do not know about, and I am not aware of the ones that have made this four to reject the proposal. According to Tebas, the anual percentage that the fund was meant to receive in the next fifty years was based on the revenue for the clubs, or at least that is what I understood during his explanation at the press conference. I just see that this point is impossible to accept for Madrid, neither for Barça and Athletic.
They are the only historical clubs that are not S.A.Ds. They are non-profitable sporting entities that are required to reinvest the entire revenue in order to make the institution grow. They are the only professional clubs that belong to the associates and and they must show the economical data to them.
Of course there are more reasons (the Super League in the case of Real Madrid and Barcelona, for example), but I would not allow the board of directors from my club to make any movements that would put it in danger if I were an associate from any of them.
Anyone could say that this is precisely what the board of directors have done when they have tried to create the Super League. I would tell them that in the end UEFA will have to give in part of their power and negotiate a restructuring on the best club´s competition in the world that can satisfy to the ones that bring the most revenue.
The solution is not to increase the number of clubs participating on an already tight calendar. On this topic both Ceferín and Tebas will end up biting their own mouths like any barker dog.
Translated by Guillermo Bermejo.
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