Spanish football: The rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer

Racing de Santander

Last week, the football world was witness to a unique spectacle. No, it was not the closing of the winter transfer window or a head turning signing by one of Europe’s big clubs. This was in Spain, a quarter final second leg clash between Racing de Santander and Real Sociedad abandoned after just a minute after kickoff.

The home club, Racing’s players, in a show of solidarity over unpaid wages, just stood around the centre circle as Sociedad kicked the ball around, and the referee had no option but to award the away side the tie, through forfeit.

Apparently, Racing’s players had decided a few days ago, and made public, that they would not play until their chairman resigned. These players have not been paid wages since September, various websites reported. Racing plays in the Segunda B, the Spanish league’s third tier.

Their run to the quarterfinal of the Copa del Rey has been phenomenal, knocking out two Primera Liga sides along the way. What this also did was give them a platform to voice their concerns at a big stage.

The only downside was that they wished they had drawn Barcelona or Real Madrid, so that the impact would have been larger. However, partly their goal was achieved when their Chairman was sacked by the shareholders.

The glaring issue is the financial model in place at La Liga. Now, it is a classic case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It is almost inevitable that Barca or Real will secure the league title(only this season Atletico from the ‘others’ is making a fist of it), and most of it is down to finance.

TV rights are shared in a ratio where the Catalans and Real Madrid get 50% of the revenue(close to $200 million this season), while the rest of the 18 clubs receive a share from the remaining revenue. (Rayo Vallecano receives just around $14 million). No wonder then that the transfers of Gareth Bale and Neymar can be financed.

The point that I am trying to make is that there is something fundamentally wrong with this model. Already Spain’s unemployment rate is upwards of 25% and this unfair revenue sharing structure would only lead to more clubs going bankrupt. Every year, the La Liga title race is so boring, in that, whoever drops fewer points than the other(Real and Barca) are crowned champions.

Is it fun to get clubs decimated 0-5 and 1-6 ? What does it do to players’ morale knowing that they enter a “match” in which they practically have no chance? To add to that, there are clubs like Santander who even refuse to pay wages.

To their credit, Santander have managed to play their games, have only a 21 member razor thin playing squad and travel only by bus, sometimes to the tune of over 1400 miles. There were stories after their Round of 16 win earlier this season that the players did not even pick up their chairman’s call. They did not want him, of all people, to ruin the moment.

That this was brought to light in the public eye is commendable, and hopefully action will be taken, in terms of unpaid wages. The club has itself been banned from next years competition, but if this stand had not been taken, there would have been little action on the part of the board. The sad thing in all this is, there are more clubs on the brink, who are waiting for their 15 minutes of fame, just to make a basic point – Pay when I do my job.