La Liga strips off voting rights of Real Madrid and Barcelona; excludes them from meetings to decide the league’s TV rights
The LaLiga president wants to send a clear message to the superclubs
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LaLiga President Javier Tebas has reportedly stripped Barcelona and Real Madrid from their rights to vote in the television rights meetings after the clubs proposed another version of the European Super League. According to a report on Friday by Catalan news outlet, Voz Populi, the chief of LaLiga has also excluded the Spanish giants from participating in the meeting.
Barcelona and Real Madrid, along with Italian giants Juventus are the only existing members of the ESL project, despite huge fan outcry. All of the English superpowers and Atletico Madrid had already announced their withdrawal from the project under huge backlash from the fans. Earlier today, Tebas was seen calling the new ESL format “a wolf in disguise of a granny”.
The recent move by Tebas is being seen as a blatant show of power to restrict clubs from creating the ESL. However, the Madrid court verdict that bars UEFA from taking any punitive action against the ESL or the clubs that promote might land the LaLiga president in hot water.
The new ESL Format
In its original rendition, the ESL was supposed to be played by the ‘traditional powerhouses’ of European Football. This plan crashed within days of its formal announcement. Two years later, the idea has come back with a facelift and increased inclusivity. The recently announced plan is going to include 60 to 80 teams in the competition. Each team is also going to play a minimum of 14 games.
A22, the Madrid-based governing body of the competition, has reportedly approached multiple clubs to join the league. Surprisingly, none of the English clubs was asked to join.
The ESL chief Bernd Reichart said on Thursday, “Our discussions have made clear clubs are often unable to publicly speak up against a system where the threat of sanctions is used to stifle opposition. Our dialogue has been honest, direct, and fruitful. There are clear conclusions about the need for change and the building blocks of how to achieve it.”
Why ESL?
The main reason behind the re-emergence of the league is the financial situation of the clubs. The COVID pandemic has left multiple clubs in financial ruin. Despite the financial breakdown of major clubs like Barcelona and Juventus, English clubs have been thriving.
New takeovers and a huge influx of cash have made the gulf between the PL and other leagues even bigger. The fact that 31 of the 36 transfers in the January transfer window were done by English clubs, stands as a testament to that fact.
The new format of the ESL is an attempt to break out of the supposed monopoly of the PL and the UEFA. According to the promoters of the competition, this will even out the playing field.
Why Such opposition from Tebas?
Among all the league presidents, LaLiga President Javier Tebas has been the most vocal against the ESL. This is due to the fact that LaLiga is heavily dependent on both Barcelona and Real Madrid for television rights.
The Spanish giants have a global fan base. This means, for LaLiga to stay relevant, it has to feature these two teams. In the 21/22 season, LaLiga earned €1.58 billion in broadcast distribution, of which approximately €450 million was from the distribution of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. It is understood from multiple reports that Atletico Madrid will also move with whatever Real Madrid and Barcelona will decide.
This means, if the big three of LaLiga pull out of UEFA competitions, LaLiga will lose a serious source of revenue that it gets from European football’s current governing body. This is the primary reason behind Tebas’ opposition.
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Arpan Ghosh
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