The Scotlandification Of La Liga

m@cc@

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/1567/my-say/2010/05/19/1932442/my-say-the-scotlandification-of-la-liga

Sarath Balachandran examines why the La Liga is becoming a two horse race and whether or not anything can be done about it....

The gap in points between 2nd and 3rd place in La Liga this year is the elephant in the room for the Spanish FA, and here’s why it may only be a taste of things to come.

Barcelona’s outgoing president Joan Laporta concluded his telephone call with his counterpart at Valencia Manuel Llorente looking rather pleased with himself. ‘Better late than never’ isn’t a dictum that holds true in football very often but in this instance it fits the bill rather well.

A year ago Barca pulled the plug on a deal to bring David Villa to the Camp Nou, a move that reportedly left the man widely regarded as the world’s best striker in tears. Over the course of the season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s failure to fit into the scheme of things under Pep Guardiola has led to an implicit acknowledgement that a mistake was made. Laporta is determined, with only hours of his presidency left to ensure that he corrects that mistake.

Mundo Deportivo reports that Friday will see David Villa presented officially as a Barcelona player, a move that will surely have clubs around Europe groaning in dismay at the thought of having to quell an attacking quartet of Xavi, Iniesta, Villa and Messi next season.

The groans should however be loudest within Spain. Valencia will not be the same team without Villa. And when you consider that they ended the season 28 points off the leaders and still finished third, you have to wonder what awaits the competitiveness of top flight football in the country.

The skewed nature of the league is primarily driven by a lack of parity in financial resources available to the different clubs. This disparity stems partly from the way TV rights are distributed in Spain, with each club being allowed to negotiate their own deals with TV companies (as opposed to a unified sale of rights to the entire league as is done by the EPL and the Bundesliga). This results in a highly skewed distribution of income with Barca and Real making more money than the rest of the league put together. And while there have been demands to change this system, the likelihood of such a change coming to pass is practically non-existent .This is because besides Real Madrid and Barcelona, other clubs like Sevilla and Valencia have also previously opposed such a change as they fear they will earn less under a unified system than they do now.

Valencia are a sad example of how badly things can go wrong when other clubs try to compete with the big two on the same financial level. Considering their enormous debts, only luck and help from their municipal council has allowed them to get into the champions league and hold on to their prize assets thus far. Their jig though appears to be up, with reports strongly suggesting that the sale of Villa to Barcelona will soon be followed by David Silva being sold to Real Madrid.

And Valencia are by no means alone in this, Sevilla will almost certainly lose Luis Fabiano this summer, Atletico are quite likely to lose Kun Aguero and Racing barely managed to hold onto Sergio Canales for half a season. Villareal have an ageing team and their unsound financial footing means that replacing the likes of Pires and Senna will be a near impossible task.

Add to this the fact that Real and Barca will add quality players over the summer, many at the expense of other la liga sides and it is not difficult to see why this season’s record haul of points for both sides could soon be the norm rather than a freak occurrence. Long gone are the days of the likes of Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao, Deportivo or Valencia pushing for the title. The fact that these clubs appear to be resigned to the idea that they must now compete in what is effectively an alternate league to the big two is perhaps the most damning indictment of the Spanish league.

Ultimately though, a situation such as this where the El Classicos are the only games that matter all season in the context of the title race cannot be good for either Real or Barca. Scotland provides ample proof of that. A weakened league will not help their European aspirations, nor will it aid their quest to induce top talent from around the world to come to Spain.

How can the situation be remedied though? Certainly a forced leveling of the monetary playing field is not a feasible idea. The hope has to be that a team shows up next year and using bargain buys and good young players, manages to challenge the big two, like Sociedad in 2002-03. Unlikely as it sounds, there appears to be no other avenue for a challenger to the big two in Spain, unless some oil rich investor is casting a glance towards Iberia.

Possibly a knee-jerk reaction but the 28-point gap this season is certainly startling.

JPA

4th were closer to the relagation zone than to 2nd.

Le King

Now Valenica selling Villa etc. Gap will keep getting bigger.

flahavaj

What do you expect when the bigger teams are able to negotiate TV deals on their own behalf, ensuring they have a vastly bigger income and spending power than all the rest?

"Scotlandification" meanwhile, is a tremendous word.

jesus_thats_gre

Common enough type word:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russification_of_Finland

****in Russians!!!!!

RandolphEsq

The football is still so exciting to watch, and this season Real and Barca achieved a ridiculous number of points each. Atletico won the Europa league! Fabregas wants to play in Spain, Mourinho wants to manage in Spain (admittedly those 2 want to head to Barca and Real respectively), Ronaldo wanted to play in Spain. The football is still top class