El fútbol, libre de impuestos

The 20th century was coming to an end when Spanish football met Luis Rubí. The official who took over the reins of Atletico Madrid to stop the economic tsunami of Jesus Gil. The Gil-Marbella-Atletico connection was causing a flow of money that had to be nipped in the bud. In this way, so media-friendly and always unfair to the Soriano magnate, we began to understand that football was already responding like a business.

From that "shirt case" that destroyed Atletico Madrid and burned them in the hell of the Second Division to the historic sanction of Manchester City, 20 years of financial doping have passed, as Arsene Wenger would say. City will be left without competing for two seasons in Europe and will have to pay a 30 million euro fine. A journalist with a hacker's spirit, a leak, a website that makes the alleged money laundering public and UEFA getting down to business. 

Arab and Asian money have saved football. Many evicted teams found a way to survive in the foreign economy. Clubs with roots in their cities, badly managed and hours away from disappearing were rescued by sheiks or yellow fortunes that became majority shareholders. The people walked in procession to their new presidents, they venerated them while ignoring that the club of their life became part of the holding of companies of great fortunes that do not understand the love of colors. 

UEFA began to regulate the influx of money into the clubs and each league set up a financial control to prevent sports hecatombes. Remember that Malaga of Pellegrini, Joaquin or Cazorla to which a resounding refereeing error left him out of a Champions semifinal. That team spent what it didn't have because it promised that it would end up entering it. Europe was finished and the money was finished, but not the debts. 

The economic control of LaLiga has Real Madrid and, above all, Barça in despair. The Catalan club has been making a fool of itself for months by trying to sign without money and selling off the players needed to balance those evil accounts in December. Real Madrid signs less, sells more and has a stadium to pay. The rest of the clubs can survive thanks to the fact that the income statement has to be balanced every end of the season. 

Petrodollars were coming into Manchester City in the form of sponsorships. The goal was to become strong in England by winning the Premier over and over again and try to go far in the Champions League, but without pressure. This has always been recognised by Pep Guardiola and the Catalan clan working in Manchester. Result: 400 million euros between defenders and goalkeepers since 2016 for a handful of local titles.

It didn't take a leak to know the City wasn't doing very well. Too much money, good transfers, good salaries... the Premier's nouveau riche didn't like being subjected to accounting. In England, the income from television rights is higher than in Spain. Also, the distribution is more balanced because that's what the big clubs have wanted to do to make the competition better. Unthinkable here. 
 

Real Madrid and Barça do not give up their income from the sale of rights. It is La Liga that has to do the financial engineering to earn more and be able to distribute it among the rest of the teams. Madrid and Barcelona don't want to know anything about LaLiga. They never support Thebes. They are the locomotive of Spanish football but their intentions go beyond that. In the summer tours, the two greats travel at will, closing multimillion-dollar contracts at the expense of false pre-season deals that then take their toll.

The City penalty further widens the gap between sensible football and football conceived as an object of profit, business and even the whim of the wealthy. Europe's top clubs have long been conspiring to set up their own competition. No strings attached, no controls, all the raggedness and creating that NBA they crave. If this happens, the day will come when Real Madrid will never see you again in Zorrilla or when Barça will no longer travel to Vigo. 

Now the retaliation will come. Manchester City will try to revive the Super League or any other crazy project that harms UEFA. You will be faced with the harsh reality of your federation. England does not accept that its century-old domestic football is subject to the economic interests of a few. They will not allow their teams to emigrate when it is in their interest and leave them hanging on to a competition admired the world over. Football, without taxes, is not football.