La Liga's top executive wants action taken to stifle the dominance
of Barcelona and Real Madrid after admitting Cristiano Ronaldo's
arrival in Spain has only served to strengthen the duopoly.
While Ronaldo signing for Madrid last year for a world record
80 million pounds (then $131 million) will help the league drive up
TV revenues globally, the Portugal winger is playing in a
competition that is a two-horse race.
With 12 matches to go, there are only two points separating
Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top, with Valencia 13 points
adrift in third.
"Ronaldo is a big help domestically and internationally (for
marketing), but he makes the league more one-sided," La Liga chief
executive Francisco Roca Perez told The Associated Press.
"Barcelona and Madrid will always be dominant but I'm not happy
that their dominance is so big that right now we still have
one-third of the competition ahead of us and they are 13 points
ahead of the rest. That is not good for anybody.
"It's not a question of having two teams very dominant, it's
a question that this dominance is getting too big."
While Madrid has amassed debts of €327 million to
strengthen its team, the league's concerns are about the debts
lower down the top flight. Roca Perez said he will later this month
unveil new financial regulations to prevent clubs amassing debt.
"We want to tighten the financial conditions, especially the
expenditure side of the Spanish teams. The ratio will probably be
player salaries and player amortization to revenue they get from
operations," Roca Perez said. "We are not extremely worried about
the top teams - Real Madrid and Barcelona - having debt because of
the real estate and other assets they have. I'm worried about many
other teams that don't have such capabilities and their debt can be
more troublesome."
Roca Perez believes the new rules will make Spanish teams
more attractive to foreign investors.
"Most of our investors are from Spain or Latin America, but
not from the United States or Russia like in England," he said on
the sidelines of Soccerex. "I think there is an opportunity there,
another league to take a look at. There is no reason not to get
international investors we hope and we look forward to having
them."
Central to La Liga's problems is the fact that Barcelona and
Madrid negotiate their own TV contracts, meaning that 47 percent of
the league's €1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) income goes to them.
The bottom 10 teams only get 16 percent of the revenue.
"In Europe we get more competitions where it's not difficult
to guess the outcomes," Roca Perez said. "We have a low degree of
competitive balance across the board. Spain is probably the worst
example right now. This is something we should definitely aim to
sort out to keep the competition interesting and fans riveted.
"We have a very tough situation because the television rights
are being sold individually. We need to find a way to get this way
readdressed, but you can't impose anything - there must be an
agreement between all the teams."
Roca Perez also wants La Liga to move from evening games by
playing one match each weekend at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. Spanish time to
make it more attractive to evening TV audiences in Asia.
