• La Liga clubs owe £3.03bn according to university
study
• Wages outstrip income at Sevilla, Atlético and Valencia
Barcelona players celebrate at the Estadio Ramon
Sanchez Pizjuan. Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images
The debate over which
league has the better players is sure to continue but off the
pitch La Liga
is also competing with the Premier
League for the unwanted accolade of most indebted top
flight.
Less than 24 hours after
a Guardian investigation revealed
that Premier League clubs were carrying combined debts of
£2.9bn, a Spanish academic
study put the figure among all 20 La Liga clubs at €3.53bn
(£3.03bn).
Debt among Spanish clubs had risen marginally in accounts for
the 2008-09 season from the previous year's figure of €3.49bn,
according to research by the University of Barcelona professor José
María Gay. Of the 20 La Liga clubs, only the two huge teams that
dominate income and exposure – Real Madrid and Barcelona – and the
relegated minnows Numancia made an operating profit.
Labour costs, largely accounted for by player wages, made up 85%
of total operating income. At several clubs – including Sevilla,
Atlético Madrid and Valencia – outgoings on wages were
significantly higher than their operating income.
Unlike the Premier League, where a collective television deal
means that broadcasting income is divided equally between all 20
clubs and weighted according to the number of appearances and final
league position, Spanish clubs conduct their own negotiations. That
has led to an unbalanced situation where Real Madrid and Barcelona
were able to bring in half of their ¤560m income from media
rights.
With rival clubs clamouring for a Premier League-style
collective deal but the big two resisting for fear of damaging
their competitiveness in the Champions League, Gay suggested that
the status quo would have to change or the Spanish game would be
left in its "death throes".
"Barça and Madrid will have to make an effort, sacrificing today
so the league can flourish," Gay said. "One step back, several
forward. If this does not happen, the league will be in its death
throes."
This season Barcelona beat Real Madrid to the La Liga title by
three points, with Valencia finishing a distant third, 28 points
behind the champions. "Who can win the league? The answer is
obvious: Barça or Madrid. Madrid or Barça," added Gay. "Nobody
else. Maybe now is the right time to renegotiate the rules of the
economic game between all the protagonists."
Gay said that the current model was unsustainable. "Let's not
kid ourselves, Spanish football is in a very difficult situation,
like our economy," he wrote. "You can't spend more than you earn.
This is the fundamental rule for economic survival."
The economic woes of the Spanish game were highlighted yesterday
when Real Mallorca, who only narrowly missed out on qualifying for
the Champions League on the final day of the season, said they
would file for voluntary administration within the next few days.
The club has been labouring under debts of ¤85m and has failed in
its attempts to find a buyer.
Real Mallorca have been up for sale since the former president
Vicenç Grande's property company filed for insolvency in 2008.
Mateu Alemany, the managing director and majority shareholder, said
the move would "open up positive opportunities" and was "a solution
not a problem". He added: "There will be a philosophy of austerity.
The insolvency will affect the entire first-team squad...and those
who earn the most."