----------------------- BLESSINGS AND CURSES IN DISGUISE ------------- An account about THE CONTRASTING STATE OF TWO FOOTBALL POWERHOUSES NOW: (EPL & 3 LIONS) VS. (LA LIGA & LA FURIA ROJA) ------------------------------------------------------- In the last seven (7) years, that is from 2006 till date (2013). There have been a total number of forty three (43) tournaments organized by both The International Federation of Association Football [FIFA] and the Union of European Football Associations [UEFA].The teams from Spain’s top-flight league, the LA LIGA together with their national side (LA FURIA ROJA) have largely dominated and won twenty four (24) of these football competitions.As to whether this year’s 2013 Confederations Cup organized by FIFA and UEFA’s U-21 championships becomes the twenty fifth and twenty sixth titles to be annexed by the Spaniards, will still be a question to be answered by the 30th of this month.I believe all these immense Spanish successes achieved, largely is as a result of a ‘curse’, which seems to have been a disguised ‘blessing’. On the other hand, teams from England (EPL) and their national side (3 LIONS) have together won five (5) out this total tournaments staged. Which in the same way is largely as a result of a ‘blessing’, which in actual fact has been a ‘curse’ in disguise for them? These blessings and curses are so intertwined and linked to each other in such a way that, one would need a serious intellect to decipher it and make sense out of. I did a thorough analysis of the football money league list compiled by the world-renowned multinational financial and auditing firm DELOITTE & TOUCHE. This money league list is basically, rankings and the comparison of football clubs based on incomes generated annually.My deductions were as follows: The top twenty (20) revenue generating clubs are all in the UEFA jurisdiction and are based in one the Europe’s ‘big five(5)’ footballing markets ENGLAND,ITALY,GERMANY,SPAIN AND FRANCE.Out of these twenty (20) clubs, only two (2) are from SPAIN and they happen to occupy the 1st and 2nd positions on the rankings, thus Real Madrid and Barcelona,Seven (7) are from England, five (5) from Italy, four(4) from Germany and two(2) from France. Initially I was surprised to see clubs like VALENCIA,ATHLETICO MADRID or SEVILLA not making the top twenty(20) but after a thorough analysis, I went ahead to ascertain the reasons for this development and realized a simple fact, which is; the LA LIGA is not really viable business wise as compared to the EPL. Proper marketing management and unlimited revenue generation streams have seen all the EPL clubs to be doing creditably well in all aspects of revenue making (match day, broadcasting and commercial sources etc).Whiles in LA LIGA, aside Real Madrid and Barcelona who are also doing well in all aspects of revenue just as their English counterparts, the remaining clubs struggle and are still struggling with revenue generation.The current economic situation in their country and what I call blatant financial and suicidal injustice has worsened their situation. No wonder at the start of every LA LIGA season, there is some sort of strike by players and clubs regarding unpaid finances due them. A typical example of what I mean by financial and suicidal injustice is this, in the EPL, the broadcasting rights is sold in bulk to pay-per-view TV right holders and so the total revenue accrued from this medium is equally shared among all clubs with the inclusion of lower division clubs with respect to the tier in which a club plays. Over the last 3 years, the broadcasting revenue of the EPL was worth £ 5 billion and it is expected to grow exponentially in the years ahead and so, such amount is shared among the clubs in England.In Spain however, it is a different story altogether, revenue from broadcasting is the major source of revenue for LA LIGA’s clubs and the LFP (Liga de fútbol professional) has structured the system in such a way that, each club is able to negotiate its own TV rights deal and so the bigger the club as in terms of following (audience), reputation and brand recognition, the more the money, because pay per view TV right dealers will preferably like to deal with you. Real Madrid and Barcelona are always able to negotiate value for money business deals with their TV right holders (MediaPro) whiles the remaining eighteen (18) teams are left to struggle for an elusive deal by themselves in which they find it hard to get because of the their low profile, following (audience), reputation and brand recognition as a result find it hard to attract TV right holders. As a result of all these and other setbacks, the top two top [ clubs (Real Madrid and Barcelona) are always able to purchase any player from any source, that they feel will strengthen them.By this, they are able to mount serious title challenge for all trophies available on offer year-in-year-out, whiles the remaining teams continue to wallow in playing as substitutes.This even prompted Fernando Roig Alfonso, the chairman of Villarreal to make his infamous comments two seasons ago; that, it’s high time, the LFP aids them in revenue generation, so that the other teams can also compete effectively and failure to rectify it will result in the loss of interest in the country’s premier club competition in the near future. The only available option of improving their squads is by depending on their home grown talents. In England, the result of proper marketing management and seamless revenue generation streams has seen the clubs become commercially viable and financially stable.Given the above premise, English clubs are rich and are able to buy good players they also firmly believe will strengthen them. This also rather has resulted in limiting the opportunities available for their homegrown talents. The financial challenges which many see as a ‘curse’ for the LALIGA teams has forced them to heavily rely on their youth players to always replenish and improve their respective teams.This in the long run has ultimately ‘blessed’ the country’s national team set ups with unlimited pool of talents, whiles in England, where everything about their finances has been a ‘blessing’ because clubs can purchase any player they want, the national teams have long been ‘cursed’ with limited and questionable talents and hence the woes it has been going through for the past decade and still counting. This is evidently clear as can be seen that most Spanish teams field 6-10 indigenous players week-in week-out. This is not the case with the EPL clubs; most of their players playing for them week-week-out are other nationals.According to a recent publication by Daily Mail, among the ‘big five’ European markets, England has the lowest percentage of domestic players in their home leagues.This could be further inferred from these stats below. Which indicates a very deplorable state of the national team set-ups. NB: Spain – 61% nationals play in local league France- 60% Germany 47% Italy 46% England 36% Another key factor, which has seen Spain dominate these few, is also as a result of the top two (2) clubs building their respective clubs around indigenes. The Real Madrid club firmly rest on the shoulders of the Spanish guys like Casillas, Ramos, Alonso etc. whiles with Barcelona, it rest on people like Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta, Pedro, Pique etc and it is the majority of these players that represent their national team. Whiles in England, apart from Manchester United that mostly build their clubs around the English players, Lately, all the other big clubs are losing it or have lost it and building their teams with foreigners, which has also affected the national team to an extent. In conclusion, a strong commitment to youth policy coupled with uncontrollable forces and a particular brand of football, thanks to Johann Cruyff and his beloved Barcelona, has seen Spain soar above its peers for the past decade. They have really proven that “THERE IS A BLESSING OUT OF EVERY MISFORTUNE”. The English on the other hand has only paid lip service to their youth policy and never expected to see their national team set-ups in this sorry state. There have been plans to revamp it and introduce a system called 6+5 rule (where clubs are supposed to field 6 foreigners and 5 UK players) which strategy could also go a long way to address issues.Many have argued that the English players are not that good but they are just hyped to match a certain ego and status they don’t deserve. I don’t quite believe this assertion and if there is a reason for people saying that, I will put it at the doorstep of the POUPULARITY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. If there is any advice I would like to give to the incoming chairman of the FA (Greg Dyke) and all people that would like to see England do better very soon at least at the national team level, they should go back to the basics of nurturing the youth to be better players and it could not have been said better than this bible quotation which says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he grows,he will never depart from it”-Proverbs 22:6 Thank you
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:36:52 +0000
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