S(pain)

Forbes latest list for richest football clubs ranks   Real Madrid and Barcelona, first and third respectively on either side of   Manchester united. However none of the other Spanish teams could make it to   the top 20 of this list where as a premier league team who fought relegation battle last season was ranked 20^th on this list. Among the 20   richest football clubs seven come from England ( Manchester United, Arsenal,   Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Totenham and Newcastle United), five   from Italy(Juventus, AC Milan, Inter, Napoli and Roma), four from   Bundesliga(Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Hamburg), two from   La Liga (Real Madrid and Barcelona) and two from France (Olympique de   Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais). Jose Maria Gay de Liebana, economics   professor at the Universidad de Barcelona and Spain’s leading football   economist predicts Spanish football will kill itself within 5 years if   current troubles continue.

“ If things go on like this Spanish football   will kill itself. A year ago I predicted that La Liga had only ten seasons   left, now I see that five more would be a lot.”

Spain is now weighed down by an unsustainable debt of €4,100m (£3,532m) and has suffered a huge talent drain in recent transfer   windows. Alvaro Negredo was 24^th player to move out of the spanish   league this summer bringing the total number of spanish players in premier   league to 34. If you go back in Spain, national coach Vicente del Bosque’s   hometown club has gone bust and Andres Iniesta paid €240,000 to save his   former club, Albacete from similar fate.

For the fourth year running, Real Madrid and Barcelona top the table for football club income over the previous 12 months, with Real Madrid out in front for the eighth edition in a row with an overall income of over €500m (they are the first team to achieve this), followed by their fierce rivals (with €483m). Encouraging numbers for Castilians and Catalans, but damning statistics for the rest of the clubs in La Liga. The major reason for this financial mismatch of surreal proportions is uneven distribution of league’s finances. As it stands in La Liga, the ‘big two’ share 56 per cent of the league’s financial distribution while the remaining 44% is shared between the other 18 clubs – a staggering average of just 2.8 per cent compared to the 38% given to Real Madrid and Barcelona. This might also because of the fact that Athletico Madrid is the only side to win silverware in last 3 years apart from top two. Over the last few seasons every team out of top two had to sell their best players in order to reduce their debts. Athletico Madrid (Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcaof), Valencia (David silva, Juan mata, David villa, Ever banega, Sergio canales, Andres guardado, Adil rami, Alberto costa and Roberto soldado), Athletic Bilbao (Fernando Llorente), Villareal (Cristian Zapata), Real Sociadad (Illaramendi), Sevilla (Jesus navas).

League	Players Bought	Players Sold	Difference
Premier League	€306m	€59m	-€247m
Seria A	€237m	€210m	-€27m
Ligue 1 (French)	€247m	€82m	-€165m
La Liga	€228m	€288m	€60m

The financial crises however have a good impact on the national side with almost everyone in the squad playing in top teams of different leagues. Neither is the exodus affecting the number of Spanish players in La Liga. The percentage of spanish players in La Liga has always stayed above 60. The spanish players who leave are usually replaced by young players as the poor clubs do not have any other option but to develop young talent. All of this is good news for Del Bosque. Until he remembers that his hometown team Salamanca went out of business this summer, and that without massive cutbacks throughout the league for the foreseeable future others will follow.