The loss of Sergio Ramos and Lionel Messi in the same transfer window will hit La Liga hard.
The Spanish top-flight has often been seen as the league where all of the top footballing talents want to play, but that’s no longer the case.
Money rules, as it always has, and so once Paris Saint-Germain started flashing its petro-dollars, there was only ever going to be one outcome.
La Liga chief, Javier Tebas, as is his wont, just sat back believing that he still held all the aces, but he well and truly had his fingers burned by the French giants.
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Tebas has always been his own man, and has consistently fallen out with his own member clubs, as much for the antiquated way in which the league is run as anything else.
Clearly not taking the situation seriously was a grave error of judgment, and with Kylian Mbappe not expected to arrive for a year, there are no real ‘superstars’ for La Liga to market themselves with over the next 12 months.
No wonder he went to town on PSG via his personal Twitter account.
‘Club-states are as dangerous to the football ecosystem as the Super League,’ he wrote.
‘We were critical of the Super League because it destroys European football and we are just as critical of PSG. Covid losses + 300M; TV revenue in France -40%; And + 500M in salaries? Untenable.’
Los clubs-estado son tan peligrosos para el ecosistema del fútbol como la Superliga. Fuimos críticos con la Superliga porque destruye el fútbol europeo y somos igual de críticos con el PSG. Pérdidas Covid +300M; ingresos de TV en Francia -40%; ¿y +500M en salarios? Insostenible.
— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) August 31, 2021