From Christian mud to Messi sludge
The great novel about Leo Messi's departure from Barcelona has a new actor. The league has issued a two-point statement warning that the player has a termination clause in his contract and threatens not to apply for a visa prior to leaving the federation if the amount is not paid. The letter from the football association highlights the serious economic problem that has plagued Spanish football for some years now.
Real Madrid and Barcelona. Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi. They were the four legs that have supported Spanish football for a decade. Cristiano left in 2018 and LaLiga did not issue any statement making public the small print of his contract. Nor did he demand payment of the clause or hinder the ghosting of the visa. Spanish football had just signed with Telefonica the sale of the TV rights until the 2021-2022 season for 2.94 billion euros. The presence of Messi and Cristiano was negotiated for that amount, although neither party could guarantee it.
Last June Javier Tebas made one of those statements that do not bode well. Just like his response to a possible massive case of positive COVID-19. He spoke of CR7 and Messi. "The impact of Cristiano's departure was almost nil, we hardly noticed it. If Messi were to play in another league we would notice it a lot because he is the best player in history. Leo continues giving a lot of value to our competition and I give him the advice to stay, "said the president of Spanish football innocently. Advice I sell...
Football is a business. It was when it needed to re-launch the competition after the lockout, and it will be to renegotiate its TV rights in a year's time. The problem is that in those three seasons he will have lost the other leg that holds his business arguments. Without Messi Spanish football is devalued a lot and Thebes knows that England and Italy drown out the transfer market. Presenting Spanish football to the teleoperators with Real Madrid and Barcelona as the locomotives is the only thing he will have left. Bale, Griezmann, Hazard or João Félix do not have enough media weight to demand more money. What's more, in the last sale Vodafone preferred to run out of football rather than bid for such a high amount. In the end, Telefónica gave in, after rinsing out with Mediapro, because its business after buying the Champions League was to add LaLiga and close the market. But always losing money and gaining prestige.
As an example of the depreciation of the national football is worth a button of the Premier. The vortex in which Valencia lives is leading him to give away players as was the case of Parejo. But more bloody for his fans and for the Spanish football was the sale of Rodrigo Moreno. The Spanish centre-forward was halfway through wearing red and white a year ago and is now a player with Leeds. A recent promotion to the Premiership has paid 30 million euros for a highly sought-after striker. Bielsa's team is guaranteed at least 90 million euros for their matches on television. Valencia paid 74 million euros last season. That difference is what, little by little, has made English football deserve Spanish football. Italy has also updated its distribution system by copying the Premier League system. Two models that are more equitable than the Spanish one which is largely limited to the audience. And there the same ones always win.
LaLiga is the company that represents First and Second Division clubs. A body that should be neutral when its members decide to do business with its assets. The clubs are companies and they need to make money or at least not lose it and Barça de Bartomeu has an important economic hole that would be saved by the sale of Messi. It may seem that La Liga is siding with Barcelona in this delicate situation, but what it does is to trip up an operation that would save a club that is 50% of Spanish football economically. The conflict of interest is obvious.
The visa is nothing more than an alibi from the employers to make the fans believe that they have in their hands the departure of Messi from Spain. They know that it is the RFEF that deals with the withdrawals and, ultimately, is the FIFA that should give the go-ahead to the operation.
The subject of the clause is another garden in which La Liga has got itself involved. Demanding the clause of EUR 700 million plus VAT is a toast to the sun. No club is going to deposit that money for taking Messi and anything done below that amount is not reported to LaLiga because it is an agreement between clubs.
The moral of this story is that Spanish football has been living off Real Madrid and Barcelona for years. Exploiting Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo Milking the cow more and more with each new television contract. But it has never worked on becoming strong as a competition and matching its teams. The distribution of rights should have been levelled out much more by giving power to the humbler teams and cutting revenue to the powerful. But the two powers refused to lower their stakes to the benefit of the others. Madrid and Barcelona are forced to sell jointly with the rest of the clubs and this has greatly undermined relations with La Liga. They prefer to go it alone in everything else as their preseason shows in the last years. There will be football after Messi, but it will not be the same.
