“We are just about happy with how it has all gone down,” Javier Tebas told reporters at a news conference at La Liga’s Madrid headquarters on Thursday afternoon.
“We did not want to boost the Super League,” said the president of La Liga. “They (the politicians) don’t see the importance of this issue. Real Madrid President Florentino Perez (Florentino Perez), has an enormous importance in this country. Twenty-six countries in the EU have stated that they support the current model rather than the Super League. But we have many mechanisms to fight it, and we will do so.”
Tebas was speaking after a meeting of all 42 Primera and Segunda Division clubs, which was called to react to the Spanish parliament agreeing a new ‘Sports Law’ that will govern the country’s football industry going forward.
The final wording for this legislation was thrashed out at a meeting of the Spanish parliament’s culture and sports committee on Tuesday, after months of intense lobbying in public and private between two camps spearheaded by La Liga chief Tebas and his Real Madrid counterpart Perez.
As well as their differences over the Super League and whether clubs joining it should be ejected from Spain’s domestic league, the two sides were also split over if La Liga had the right to agree commercial deals collectively for all clubs, and if the Spanish federation should have the right to intervene in the league’s business.
The 39 (out of 42) Primera and Segunda Division clubs backing Tebas (Athletic Bilbao stayed out of the fight as they have not gone into the ‘La Liga Boost’ partnership with US investors CVC) thought the issues so serious that they publicly considered shutting down a round of La Liga games if the politicians did not yield to their demands for last-minute changes to the legislation.
Tuesday’s three-hour debate was broadcast over YouTube and included speeches from politicians on all sides, including representatives of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Unidos Podemos from the ruling coalition, and the main opposition Partido Popular (PP).
Voting on the suggestions was held up by more frantic behind-the-scenes negotiating, including a crucial last-minute phone call between Tebas and Miquel Iceta, Spain’s minister of culture and sport.
A show of hands resulted in 12 votes. In the end, the politicians did what they tend to do — they tried to keep everyone as happy as possible.
The deal agreed between Tebas and Iceta meant the strike was averted, but nobody was fully content with the new legal rules that will govern Spain’s football industry for the considerable future, and future battles seem inevitable…
A fear that the new ‘Sports Law’ was going to heavily favour the interests of Madrid and BarcelonaThis led to a coordinated campaign of action. La LigaMany club presidents, and many club executives.
On Monday October 17, all 14 members of La Liga’s Comision Delegada — consisting of presidents and chief executives of Primera and Segunda clubs, along with Tebas — met with Iceta and the CSD (sports council) president Jose Manuel Franco.
La Liga president Tebas (Photo: Irina R. H. / AFP7 / Europa Press Sports via Getty Images)
During that meeting, the politicians heard the clubs’ concerns that the proposed law seriously endangered the current structure and sustainability of Spanish football.
La Liga showed the government a report — which The Athletic has seen — that claimed that the new law as drafted could negatively impact Spanish football in future to a total of €9.1billion (£7.8bn, $9.1bn) over the next 10 years.
If La Liga was unable to reach collective agreements with sponsors or industry partners, Madrid or Barca might veto images of KarimBenzema or Robert Lewandowski being used in promotional material or at centrally organized Clasico events in China or the US.
La Liga warned that this could lead to a loss of €2.6billion in sponsorship income, €3.5billion in TV rights, and €2.7billion income from its La Liga tech arm over the next decade. It also argued that legal uncertainty caused by the new law could put at risk up to €2billion due to La Liga and its clubs through its deal with US investors CVC.
This is a very bad scenario. La Liga can still negotiate TV rights together under the new law. It’s protected by a Royal Decree that dates back to 2015.
The bigger issue was that La Liga’s business model, which has made it more financially and structurally stable over the past decade, would be at risk.
Tebas was elected La Liga president in 2013 with the backing of the ‘G-30’ group of smaller Primera and Segunda clubs who felt pushed around by the big two. His key change was a more equitable distribution of TV revenues, which previously went to Madrid and Barcelona.
Although this allowed smaller clubs to eliminate their historic debts and improve their financial position, Clasico clubs felt that they weren’t being properly rewarded for the interest generated. This is also directly linked to the salary limit rules that Tebas established, and which Joan Laporta, Barcelona president, criticized so strongly last summer.
Barcelona president Laporta, striker Robert Lewandowski (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images
So through recent years, La Liga and its two biggest member clubs have been involved in regular rows — in the media and in court. This was continued in Madrid and Barcelona, pushing the failed European Super League launch for April 2021, and the ‘La Liga Boost’ partnership announced later last year with CVC.
The fear around La Liga is that the new ‘Sports Law’ could now pull apart the ‘structure’ which has been built under Tebas over the last decade, owing partly to Perez’s considerable political power. Barcelona club members met with politicians to create the legislation’s text in recent weeks. The Catalan club are currently looking for any ways possible to improve their financial position, hence their continuing alliance with Perez for the Super League and against Tebas’ centralising revenues in La Liga.
Another sticking point for La Liga and the clubs in the ‘Sports Law’ draft was an article that gave the Spanish federation more power to interfere in La Liga’s business. This could lead to future Spanish football deadlock due to the bad relationship between Tebas, his Royal Spanish Football Federation counterpart Luis Rubiales.
La Liga stated that it was concerned the federation would succumb to pressure. UEFAOr FIFATo unilaterally reduce Primera’s number of clubs from 20 to a lower number, such as 16, The AthleticHe was informed. It requested that the new law be made to allow it to speak before any rule changes by the federation which could affect La Liga or clubs.
Tebas and 39 clubs A big display of unity was made. A parade of club leaders spoke to Spanish media outlets. They discussed their concerns with the various drafts of the legislations and highlighted the problems their clubs could face if it did not include their proposed amendments.
“Our position is the same as all 39 clubs,” Sevilla president Jose Castro told Movistar TV. “We support a law which does not cause problems for creating new business. We are proud to have one of Europe’s strongest leagues and we can not make it worse. There are certain phrases that need to be changed so that all clubs have equal opportunities. Above all the meritocracy which has allowed us to get results, in Spain and in Europe.”
Sevilla president Jose Castro (Photo: David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images)
A well-planned PR campaign was also launched to inform citizens and fans that something was happening. The message “Ley del Deporte para todos” (A ‘Sports Law’ for all) was placed on TV screens during most La Liga games at the weekend, next to the scoreline in a space that had been occupied by messages in support of Ukraine and against racism in recent weeks.
The aim was to sway public opinion in their favour and to help convince the politicians before Tuesday’s crucial vote. It was so strong that the clubs were prepared to close all Primera or Segunda games for a week before the leagues’ break. World CupNovember 10,
Castro was not able to answer Castro’s question about whether they would risk their lives by making such threats, though no club president had ever intended to do so. “We are not afraid of making decisions, even if they are not good for anyone. We have to defend the rights of the 39 clubs, the rights of La Liga, and the rights of the fans,” the SevillaThe president stated.
Over all this is the Super League Project, which Perez & Laporta continue pushing for. Juventus president Andrea Agnelli.
The only real way that any new ‘Sports Law’ could impact Spanish football’s sustainability and finances as disastrously as La Liga has suggested — those estimated losses of €9billion — would be if it helped facilitate Madrid and Barcelona shifting their main sporting focus to a European Super League.
Spain has not been as opposed to the ESL project as other countries. The Spanish government hesitated at the attempt to launch ESL in April 2021. Most of Europe had already dismissed the idea, including Boris Johnson (then the UK prime minister).
Perhaps due to the degree of influence Perez wields among the country’s political and media elites, there was much less condemnation of his ideas, and very little ridicule. Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes was initially the sports minister. He said that Perez would need to be consulted before making any conclusions. But he soon joined all the EU governments when the launch became a disaster.
That consensus led to an article being included in an early draft of the new ‘Sports Law’ that excluded any clubs who joined unauthorised external competitions from taking part in La Liga and the Copa del Rey. This was similar to what the British government had indicated it would do to stop English clubs participating in unapproved competitions.
La Liga and the other clubs were confident that they were covered. However, it was revealed last September that PSOE, Partido Popular and both political parties withheld their support of this article. A new draft of the law then contained an article stating, “The granting of a licence (to play in a domestic competition) can never be conditioned by the participation in other competitions or sporting activities.” Exactly the opposite of what the earlier draft had said.
Tebas immediately took to Twitter and objected.
Algunos NO saben el daño económico que harán al fútbol nacional, para “beneficiar”a dos.¿por qué solo escuchan y creen al de siempre?Así nos va.
PSOE y PP retiran su ‘amenaza’ al Madrid cuatro días antes del anuncio clave de Florentino sobre la Superliga https://t.co/dSfNBBdU6u— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) September 29, 2022
“Some people do NOT know the financial damage they will do to our country’s football, to ‘benefit’ just two,” the tweet said. “Why do they just listen and believe the same person as always? That’s how things go. PSOE & PP withdraw their ‘threat’ to Madrid four days before a key announcement by Florentino about the Super League.”
There was no big announcement at Madrid’s AGM, but Perez did repeat his usual arguments in favour of the new competition — that UEFA was a monopoly holding back football, that the bigger clubs should meet more often, that younger fans are bored by the current structures.
Similar happened at Barcelona’s annual assembly in early October. Laporta told socios the European Super League was “the solution that football needs” and a “necessity” for Barca. It was suggested that the Catalan team would not have to rely on financial leverages to resolve its financial woes, which would be hundreds of million more euros.
Barcelona’s economic vice-president Eduard Romeu also said at Barca’s assembly that the Super League was a primary reason it had declined to enter La Liga’s CVC deal along with most other Spanish clubs, instead selling a share of the club’s future TV income to US financier Sixth Street (which had also backed the Super League project).
That shadow has hung heavily over the debate about the new ‘Sports Law’ during the past week, with multiple presidents and executives at other clubs mentioning it. “We are all against the Super League, except just a few,” said Sevilla’s Castro, without having to say who those few were.
After all the last-minute lobbying and phone calls, there were mixed levels of satisfaction at the result of Tuesday’s meeting.
Of the three main points La Liga wanted underlined in the new legislation, they got all they wanted in only one — more freedom from intervention by the Spanish federation and its president Rubiales.
They still have the legal backing to make collective commercial deals. However, it is not exactly what they wanted. Still, the vast majority of clubs were happy that a threat to their business models from the “big two” was avoided, and La Liga is confident its CVC deal is safe.
Perez, Real president will be happy with legislation that says clubs will not automatically be expelled from La Liga when they join the Super League. The politicians said they had received legal advice that “we cannot support something that at this moment is subject to a court case”.
(Photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)
This referred to the case currently at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, where the Super League ‘rebels’ allege that UEFA has a monopoly position in European football that cannot be justified. Although a decision is expected by the European judges in December, the case is likely not to be resolved until much later. So the politicians were able to dodge making any set ruling on the treatment of clubs if they were to join a Super League — which Perez can consider a victory in his continuing efforts to keep the Super League fire burning.
Thursday’s meeting of representatives from Primera and Segunda clubs featured a sharp exchange of views between the Madrid and Barca delegation and the other side, led by Tebas. However, none of the 39 clubs were able to withstand Tebas’s threat of closing down all Primera and Segunda matches due to Super League issues.
Madrid did not officially react to the committee’s decisions, and Perez has been in hospital this week for a minor operation. Barcelona did release an official statement which did not mention the Super League by name, but claimed a victory as La Liga had been stopped from “appropriating” commercial rights which the clubs will now still be able to exploit individually.
The statement was made hours before Barcelona left the Champions League group stages. Atletico Madrid and Sevilla also fell at the first hurdle in UEFA’s premier club competition, It was the first time in this century that only one team (Madrid), made it to the knockout stages.
That should bring deep debate and reflection about the current competitive level of La Liga’s best teams. These past weeks, however, Spanish football’s biggest powerbrokers have been involved in their usual complex. Power and money are at the heart of these battles.
Although the latest Tebas vs Perez encounter ended in a technical draw (but not without much politicking or dealmaking), it isn’t over.
(Photo by JAVIER SORIANO/AFP via Getty Images
