English football needs Spanish rules

One of the most famous football functionaries in Europe, the president of La Liga, which unites the clubs of the top and first Spanish divisions, Javier Tebas said that the most popular model for the development of club football in the world – English – is flawed. According to him, the English Premier League (EPL), which is the richest football championship in the world, is simply financially unstable. He also noted that the financial imbalance in European football, which forces clubs outside the Premier League to look for new sources of income, was one of the reasons that gave rise to the controversial Super League project, and called for the same regulation in the Premier League as in La Liga. .

One of the most famous football functionaries in Europe, La Liga President Javier Tebas, made a number of high-profile statements indicating that not everything is in order in European club football. Speaking in Brussels at a conference dedicated to protecting the European football ecosystem, the head of La Liga lashed out at the English Premier League. Note that, according to the general opinion, it is she who is a role model. In the list of the most successful sports leagues in the world, with an annual income of € 6.1 billion, it is second only to the top three American championships – the National Football League (NFL, income – € 17 billion), Major League Baseball (MLB, € 9.8 billion) and National Basketball Association (NBA, €9.54 billion).

Even the National Hockey League (NHL), despite playing nearly 1,400 games a season against 380 games in the Premier League, is almost €1.2 billion behind the English championship.

Nevertheless, Javier Tebas is sure that it is the Premier League that poses a threat to the stability of European football – simply because it is unstable itself. Mr. Tebas recalled that last summer the Premier League clubs spent for the purchase of new players € 2.2 billion. This is a record not only for summer additional campaigns, but for any season as a whole, amounting to almost half of the costs incurred to strengthen all the big five leagues (in addition to the Premier League, it includes the championships of Spain, Germany, Italy and France).

The head of La Liga admitted that this imbalance has worried him for many years, but now it is of particular concern. In his opinion, Premier League clubs live beyond their means.

“Essentially, Premier League clubs are financed by their owners who have unlimited financial resources, and this leads to distortions in the market. Well, they earn a lot, but in fact they are losing money, – said Javier Tebas. – You pour €0.5 billion into the Premier League every year. What does it mean? It means you are unstable.”

Note that Premier League clubs, even though its worst clubs receive fantastic amounts for performances (the worst team in the Premier League, Norwich, earned over €110 million in the 2021/22 season, which is €20 million more than they got, for example, Bayern for another triumph in the Bundesliga), for the most part unprofitable. At the end of the 2020/21 season (the last season for which full reporting is available), only three teams – Wolverhampton, Leeds and Manchester City – showed a profit. To normalize the situation in the Premier League, and it affects all football, since the unreasonable generosity of English clubs leads to higher prices in the entire football industry, Javier Tebas proposes to implement the La Liga scheme throughout Europe. Its essence boils down to the fact that clubs that show losses cannot register new players. By the way, it was this rule that forced Barcelona to breake down with Lionel Messi in 2021.

Mr. Tebas also touched upon the issue of the Super League. Scandalous project started spring 2020. Then 12 European top clubs – English Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, Spanish Atletico, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Italian Inter “And” Milan “,” Juventus “- announced the creation of a tournament not controlled by UEFA. True, it lasted a little more than a day and actually fell apart after all the English teams left it, unable to cope with the pressure. Atlético Madrid, Inter and AC Milan followed suit. Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona have not abandoned the Super League project.

According to Javier Tebas, the last three clubs will soon come up with a new Super League project. He admitted that it is the financial bias towards the Premier League that is forcing other top clubs to look for new ways to earn money.

But at the same time, he confirmed the rejection of the Super League as such, noting that he perceives its initiators as people who came to “rob his house.”

Alexander Petrov