Spain at risk of following Scotland if Barca and Real allowed to maintain stranglehold
SPANISH football is riding the crest of a wave. The national team are world and European champions, while Barcelona dominate the club game, and Real Madrid, home to Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho, are no slouches either.
Yet beneath the surface all is not so rosy. The same individual selling of broadcast rights that has made Barca and Real the two highest earning sports clubs in the world has also left several La Liga sides in serious financial difficulties.
The top two earned more in 2009-10 than their 18 Primera Division rivals combined and have a far healthier wages-to-turnover ratio of 51 per cent than the others, who average a dangerous 69 per cent, according to Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance.
Without a change in revenue distribution towards the more egalitarian models used in Europe’s other top leagues, however, the concern is that a perennial two-horse race could lose its appeal to viewers and the Spanish game suffer.
“You do slightly wonder how long you can sustain these levels if they are not facing meaningful competition week in, week out,” says Deloitte’s Dan Jones.
“Spain looks like Scotland. The model of having two teams absolutely dominate on and off the pitch is not a healthy one.”