La Liga wants to return to the top. It will pump up clubs’ budgets, help Real to Mbappé and Barcelona to Messi

La Liga may have been at the top of the world’s leagues in the last decade, with the duels between Real Madrid and Barcelona being watched by the whole world. But in recent years it has experienced a slight decline, and now the competition’s management wants to change that again.

A lot of people see the Premier League as the best league in the world, and there may be some truth in that, thanks to the six big clubs and huge viewing figures. However, it has to be admitted that the most successful in the last eleven years has been La Liga.

From 2010 to 2021, the Spanish teams have dominated the Champions League six times (4 times Real Madrid, 2 times Barcelona), while the English ones only three times (2 times Chelsea, 1 time Liverpool). The same disproportion can be found in the Europa League, where over the same period Spanish teams won the trophy eight times (4x Sevilla, 3x Atlético Madrid, 1x Villarreal).

Spanish teams are doing well at European level, but the domestic La Liga is lagging behind in terms of ratings. And that’s where the biggest money is, which is why even a relegated club in the Premier League can slowly afford more than teams from the top half of the La Liga table.

The days when Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Neymar, Thierry Henry, David Beckham and others were pitted against each other in El Clásico are simply gone. In the last duel between the irreconcilable rivals, players like Mingueza, Araujo, Nacho and Lucas were in the starting lineup.

El Clásico just doesn’t pull as much as it used to, just like the whole of La Liga. And that’s driving both clubs into financial trouble. Barcelona can’t register Lionel Messi or new signings, Real Madrid hasn’t spent a euro on transfers for four seasons in a row.

And that is about to change. La Liga president Javier Tebas wants to keep the best players in his league and to do that he needs Messi at Barcelona and maybe Mbappé at Real Madrid.

That’s why, according to Marca, La Liga has signed a deal with CVC for 2.7 billion euros for 10% of the rights. 15% of this amount can be used by clubs to strengthen their squads. Barcelona will collect 270 million euros, which should help it to keep Messi. Real Madrid will receive 261 million euros, which may help the arrival of Mbappé.

Clubs can also use the money to expand their executive teams, infrastructure or whatever they see fit.

Thus, La Liga has finally begun to fight the decline of its competition, for which Tebas has been criticized by Guardiola and Pique, among others. With the amounts collected in the Premier League, clubs could not compare, which is why the English top 6 could afford to strengthen their squad with star reinforcements, while the Spanish giants had to save.

Source: Marca