Could Spain's mistakes lead to Europe's downfall

Barcelona and Real Madrid have been perennially at the top of Spanish football. But never has their dominance been more apparent. The stark divide the two teams and the rest of the league is difficult to see.

The Spanish league markets itself as the best league in the world owing to the fact that it possesses the best players in the planet. But on closer examination, it is evident where most of the talent pool is concentrated. Not only that but just the gap between Real and Barca , and the rest of the teams is so vast that it seems insurmountable.

Just think about the last few years, the team winning that league has been scoring around 100 points over the course of a campaign where there’s only a 114 points on offer. That, in itself is a sad reflection of the lack of competition that they face.

But there are several reasons behind such a sad duopoly existing in the first place. The one that probably stares everyone in the face is the lopsided manner in which revenue is split among the teams. It enables the Big two to keep a stranglehold on the finances and in the recent that has made it virtually impossible for teams to compete with them on or off the pitch.

In most top leagues in Europe, and we shall take the Premier League and Bundesliga as primary examples, the teams negotiate for television revenue collectively. As a result the split of the pie is a lot more even and it facilitates a greater competition in the league itself and also provides some fiscal security to the smaller clubs.

This helps clubs not only retain players but to also strive to sign better talent. Moreover, if a team were to get relegated they receive ample parachute payments to in order to aid them adjust and it provides a financial blanket to help with long term securities with such clubs.

But ludicrously in Spain the teams negotiate for the television revenues individually. Real and Barcelona respectively have an immense global brand valuation. Naturally they receive the lion’s share of the money. The situation is so bleak that while they receive to the tune of 150 million Euros each as TV revenue, the next best paid teams such as Valencia and Athletico Madrid get around 40 million Euros. What is even more appalling, is that teams who are near the lower reaches of the league such as Levante closer to a mere 10 million Euros and parachute payments for relegated teams barely seem to exist.

With figures like there is little left to wonder as to why the hegemony at the top of the league is unlikely to be broken any time soon. Real and Barcelona, as was typified by this summer, continue to spend absurd amounts of cash on the best talent in the world. While teams like Valencia, Malaga and Athletico keep on punching above their weight while consistently having to sell their top level talent to help their financial situations. Mata, Soldado, Negredo, Cazorla, Isco et al have all had to leave their clubs as a result of the financial peril that their teams were in.

The Spanish television revenue structure needs to be re analysed and for sure revised. Without a restructuring, where the smaller teams get a bigger chunk of the financial benefits there is chance that the health of the La Liga and of every top European league could be at stake.

With the current system, we have already witnessed Real Mallorca going into administration and we have seen several teams struggle financially and as a result having to off load their top players just to make ends meet. In the long term, there could be more football clubs like Real Oviedo who could have their very existence under threat.

The sad thing is the Big 2 are under no obligation to become more generous. With the amount of political clout they have, there are chances that this abysmal system will not change for the foreseeable future. This needs to be addressed and addressed now. The longer this situation carries on, the more damage that is going to be cause. The sort of damage that cannot be repaired.

Long term, there is a distinct possibility that as teams start folding up in Spain and as the quality of football deteriorates, we may see these two teams use their aforementioned influence and pull out from the Spanish football system altogether.

I believe there is a very realistic chance that the failure of the Spanish league could cause ripple effect where the reverberations could be felt across all of Europe. They could easily pull out of La Liga and convince the top teams within Europe to pull out of their respective domestic leagues. The reason simple: the magnitude of the economic benefits these teams stand to gain is tremendous.

I am sure the idea sounds far fetched, but just think about such a scenario. With the new age of billionaire sheikhs, Americans and Russian oligarchs who have waded into football, they would easily realize that this would propose an opportunity to make bucket loads of money. Additionally they more often than not have no sense of tradition and loyalty to the domestic leagues. Their agenda is maximization of profits and such a move could pose that opportunity.

If such a circumstance were to crop up then it is assured that revenue for the teams across Europe would dry up and the survival of several teams and in fact European football itself could be up in the air. Can you imagine a Premier League without Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool? Can you imagine a Serie A without Juventus, Milan and Inter? These are realistic prospects if an insular European league were set up in the manner of the NBA in North America. We must avoid the possibility of such a situation ever prevailing.

I realize a lot of this sounds difficult to digest, but the Spanish league needs to do a better job at protecting its own. It needs to take a stand and they need to adopt a change in the division of television revenue. If the necessary steps are not taken, there could be far reaching repercussions across Europe that could damage the very fabric of the game that we have all loved for so long.