Barcelona president Sandro Rosell wants to cut the size of La Liga from 20 to 16 clubs, although he is prepared to accept a transitional membership of 18. This appears to be his price for accepting a more equal distribution of television money through collective selling.
Barcelona president Sandro Rosell wants to cut the size of La Liga from 20 to 16 clubs, although he is prepared to accept a transitional membership of 18. This appears to be his price for accepting a more equal distribution of television money through collective selling.
There may be a bigger agenda, however. Recently we reported that there is once again talk of a European Super League. A prerequisite would be smaller domestic leagues. If they were gaining additional television income from a Super League, Barcelona might be prepared to accept a smaller share of the Spanish pot.
Rosell admitted that Barcelona was ‘not in a good position’ financially which is something of an understatement given that it owes $700m to banks. This suggest that the mutual ownership model does not prevent the accumulation of large football debts.
Rosell also considers that Barcelona is disadvantaged by not being able to raise capital to compete with benefactor clubs. He is upset about foreign interests moving into Spain and spending heavily, as in the case of Qatari-owned Malaga. He considers that foreign owners are coming to Spain because there are no more clubs to buy in the Premiership, although clearly he has not heard of Everton.
La Liga has fundamental problems that will not be solved by excluding a few clubs. Because of the Barca-Real duopoly it risks becoming another version of the Scottish Premier League with a lack of real competition ultimately undermining the interest of fans.