One of the current hot topics in football is the leaked discussions of a new European Super League, a 11 – 16 team league consisting of only the top European teams across England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.
This article looks to explain the incentives for the Spanish clubs Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid of joining such a league and ditching the Champions League and/or La Liga.
Current Financial Situation
Despite Real Madrid (£594m) and Barcelona (£571m) being the second and third highest revenue generating teams in world football in 2017 (behind only Manchester United), they continue to grow envious of the ever-increasing revenues of their Premier League rivals as the Spanish Giants see their revenue growth slow.
Atletico Madrid (£240m), despite their successes over recent years, still see their revenue severely lag similar Premier League teams who are arguably achieving less (Arsenal – £488m, Chelsea – £428m, Liverpool – £424m and Tottenham – £356m).
The below goes into the reason behind these discrepancies.
TV Money Compared
La Liga TV prize money for the 2017/18 season was a record breaking year for all La Liga clubs despite still paling in comparison to their Premier League counterparts.
Spanish clubs shared a €2.65bn (£1.8bn) pot which was split as followed:
- 50% shared equally
- 25% based on league position
- 25% of resource money
Of this £1.8bn pot, the top three in Spain received:
- Barcelona – £129m (7.2%)
- Atletico Madrid – £127m (7.1%)
- Real Madrid – £100m (5.6%)
- Average of top 3 – £119m
Taking this information with the graph above comparing them to their Premier League counterparts is telling, with the three biggest clubs in Spain achieving average TV money of £119m compared to the Premier League top 6 averaging £146m despite having double the number of big teams, making the average much more representative of the League’s financial clout.
Champions League Prize Money
A more contentious point is the overriding feeling that the split of Champions League prize money doesn’t adequately reward the top clubs. Last year both Liverpool and Real Madrid banked around £70-80m from their European endeavours which does seem a lot.
However a new European Super League could easily blow this amount out of the water should the clubs have greater control over distribution and the ability to negotiate their own TV deals and its economic distribution.
UEFA have headed this threat and announced they would be increasing the prize money available to Europe’s top clubs from €1.95m to €2.28bn (17%), with the new distribution also favouring Europe’s elite as a new point system of historic performance used to distribute 30% of the funds.
It looks unlikely that these changes alone will stop Spanish clubs from pursuing this new Super League however it may make them have second thoughts about such a hasty move with all the downsides such a transition may have.
Social Media
Everyone wants to be popular right? No more so than a sports team who have the huge opportunity to monetize all their social fans through advertising, merchandise and new sponsorship deals.
Other than Facebook (where they actually have more ‘likes’), La Liga clearly lags the cool kid in school by a fair few million which is another reason La Liga clubs want to move to the Super League. The proposed Super League would put Real, Atletico and Barca in front of the world to a greater extent than they currently are seeing.
This will help these clubs further increase their popularity and increase commercial revenues further.
What else are they doing to bridge the gap?
If this proposed move doesn’t happen, which is a real possibility given the backlash received since its leak, these three Spanish giants will have to find different ways to bridge the financial gap.
A 15 year deal with a US media company has been agreed for La Liga clubs to play La Liga games in the US for a total fee of €200m. This deal is a ground-breaking move in football and such lucrative deals may become commonplace in a few years.
It is also likely that should this deal be successful, Premier League clubs will join the party and benefit also which may increase the gap again.
Further to the above, this all part of a major push to rival the Premier League as the premium European League as detailed by the BBC.
Conclusion
There are a lot of reasons for Spanish clubs to want to join the proposed European Super League due to the financial clout it may bring so that they can better compete with their Premier League rivals however all these moves are risky and come at a costs with disgruntled fans and bad press which may negate any positive effects.
We, and the world will be watching to see how this story developments and other strategies deployed by La Liga to enhance their finances.
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