Before we talk about the current situation it would be good to know a bit of history.
Back in the mid 90s, all the clubs negotiated collective deals with the TVs. It was the beginning of the PPV era and the big bucks. At some point, there were 2 digital operators that started a bidding war for the TV rights and, in that situation, the mid class clubs decided that it was better for them to negotiate by themselves rather than trying the collective way.
At that point, all the clubs got amazing contracts and, if you are old enough, you will remember how the Spanish teams started to buy stars from everywhere, breaking the dominance in the market of the Italian teams. All the clubs started to pay huge amounts of money.
The problem appeared with the new deals. The 2 digital operators merged into one, giving them a stronger position, and they also had experience with the PPV. They realized that the 90% of the PPV demands were for the games of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Basically, the business was in these teams, not in every team. The value of the rights of Barcelona and Real Madrid was huge, but the rest was just a bubble.
In the early 2000s, the new TV deals had to be signed. While Barcelona and Madrid kept signing higher deals, the rest got frozen or were lower.
From then to know, things went in the same line. The TV operators know the real value of the rights of each club and some clubs, ironically, the ones of the mid class, wanted to go back to the previous situation. What's the problem? The problem is that some clubs have created an income-expense structure that is impossible to change from one day to the next.
Now add the element of a financial crisis and the lack of sponsors. The clubs that were using loans and credits to maintain their activity saw how the cash flow got restricted and the system collapsed.
Still, everyone should look at how the clubs have been managed through the years. Despite the restrictions, Villarreal and Sevilla had kept a smart and intelligent line, which allow them to keep a healthy situation. Others, like Valencia and Atletico, wasted the money. The smaller clubs do not have the resources to compete.
I also believe that the collective TV deal is necessary... but at the same time, it'd be necessary to do things step by step. Obviously, now Barcelona and Real Madrid protect their interest. Basically, they'd need to renounce to a lot of money now. Given their structure of expenses, you can't do this in 2 days or the risk is the collapse of the big clubs.
The new deal, as someone said, it's basically the same. It gives more money to the smaller clubs, Valencia and Atletico are in a better position and the ones who complain were the ones who provoked this mess 15 years ago. Who pays the bills? Villarreal, Sevilla, Athletic,... these traditional mid zone clubs.
The problem isn't just the distribution of the money, the problem also is the terrible management of some clubs and La Liga in general. Some of these clubs have stupid owners that spend over the top, it doesn't matter if they had 10 or 50M, they would waste it all. Atletico Madrid or Valencia have been spending stupid amounts of money in terrible players or silly real estate deals that broke them. You can put Zaragoza there too (don't you remember how Villarreal got 10M from them for Ayala when he did not play a single minute with them?).
Also, who's to blame for the selling of Racing shares to the first Indian that appeared there? Who's to blame for the poor management of Mallorca before they got broken?
IMO, there are several problems to solve:
- A collective TV deal is a must, BUT it should be done step by step, not from one day to the next.
- Administrative punishment for those clubs who overdue money. Just as you can not play in Europe, you shouldn't be allowed to be in the professional football in general. Besides, there's a danger of infection. If, for example, Mallorca overdue the money of a transfer to Zaragoza, then Zaragoza will also have problems to pay their transfers to Racing and so on.
- A real and efficient control from an independent board should be implemented. It's evident that you can manage the private controls of the auditors nowadays.
- A professional organization in La Liga. A league with such a big potential and tradition should have a better organization, with less corruption. It's unbelievable to see how you know the hour and day of the games of the EPL since now and, in La Liga, you don't even know the day of the game which is going to be played in 15 days... and this is just an example.
