Tebas: “I’m worried about Barça’s situation…”
The president of LaLiga spoke to the Portuguese sports daily ‘A Bola’ about a number of different topics regarding Spanish soccer and clubs.
In an interview with Portuguese sports daily A Bola, LaLiga president Javier Tebas showed his concern about the current financial and sporting situation at Barcelona, and also to address issues such as racism, or homophobia that, at times, plague the football stadiums of this country.
“It worries me,” Tebas said of Barcelona’s economic plight. “But having said that, I know that the club has mechanisms that will allow it to get out of the state it is in. It will have to adapt and see what the best options are to find the way and solve the problem. Some will be more aggressive. and unpopular, others less so, and it will be the leaders who will have to decide what is best for the future of the institution”.
Barcelona’s high wage bill during the pandemic
So what is the solution for Barça? Tebas believes that the Catalans outstretched themselves and that is the root of the problem. “Barcelona has always had the habit of going to the maximum salary limit imposed by LaLiga. Then the pandemic happened, income fell drastically, but salaries remained high, and the contracts were lengthy - for several years due to the issue of amortization. The consequence was that they couldn’t adapt to the reduction in income. Other clubs, yes, managed to do it, Real Madrid, for example, never reached the limit they could reach, they were more cautious and that gave them room to maneuver, when the crisis arrived, be able to control the situation.”
The big stars and their influence in LaLiga
Tebas was asked how the departures of Messi and Cristiano, two legends of the game, affect LaLiga. He said the Spanish league was not greatly affected. “They didn’t cause any damage because we didn’t shrink, but with them we would surely have grown faster. The French league with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé did not grow, Cristiano Ronaldo went to Italy and the international income of the Italian league did not increase - ours did although we lost them both. The reason is that, both sponsors and audiovisual media, what matters most to them is that the competition is economically sustainable, that seven years later it continues to be very competitive and that there are always very good players in Spain. This year, we have the best in the world, which is Bellingham, last season Lewandowski was at a high level, Atlético has Griezmann, if Mbappé comes that will help us be more competitive and grow even faster.
As for the distance between LaLiga and the Premier League, he explained: “Adding the budgets of all the first division teams, the total budget of the Premier is 1.8 times greater than that of LaLiga, but we are in a sector where not everything is economics, there is also the sports part and, in this aspect, in our European history in recent years, we have won 60% of the continental trophies. In the current Champions League, there are four Spanish teams and two English teams... what we have to see in football is the balance between the two aspects, the sporting and the economic - in the first we are better, in the second, the Premier League wins.”
Racism and homophobia at Spanish football stadiums
Another topic that Tebas discussed concerned the monkey chants which Real Madrid’s Vinicius has had to endure on several occasions at Spanish grounds. “When this happens we use all means to identify who did it and report it to the courts. Spanish football is not racist, there are people who go to football who are racist and we don’t want them in the stadiums. There would be racism if in the 380 League matches each year, in 200 of them, chants with racist content were heard but that does not happen. Football has no place for those who insult others because of their skin color, political preference or sexual inclination.”
He continued, “In LaLiga we fight against homophobia and this year we have already made several complaints against homophobic attitudes within the stadiums. We seek to create a safe environment, without hatred, where everyone can freely make the decision that seems most convenient to them, a space where, if one day the player decides to reveal his sexual inclination, they do not allow themselves to be insulted by something that has nothing to do with football, if they mistreat him then we will be there to defend him”.
Tebas backed up his theory with data: “According to statistics, 10% of players would be homosexual, but we cannot force anyone to come out of the closet if they consider that they should not do so. In the same way that no one can force people who think in a certain political way to think in another way, this is part of individual freedom and no one can be forced to do what they do not want to do,” he concluded.