Is the Premier League Outshining La Liga?

With the start of the new Champions League campaign, one of the topics that has frequented Spanish commentary and blogs is – Is the Premier League outshining La Liga? Is La Liga are 2nd Tier League? (I don’t want to go there, but the same Spanish rags claim that Serie A is a retirement league and will get worse should Ibra or Kaká leave.)

OK, the yahoos from the Spanish rages, exaggerate, freak out and love high drama. They need to fill up their dailies and create news. But it’s been awhile since a La Liga team has won the Champions League, Spanish clubs are in debt, and people are worried.

Does the Prem brand better than La Liga? Is the Prem moving towards the NBA mega-sensation and is La Liga far behind? C’mon, La Liga still shows their games at 10pm at nite. This is not conducive to Asia and the the other foreign markets. Do the Spanish teams do a good job of promoting themselves overseas other than the Big Two? Look, Everton has been coming to the US every year and West Ham came over to play this past year. Pompey went to China. These teams are spreading the Prem love and they are NOT the Big Four. Is La Liga doing enough to earn fans and sell shirts? We have the best fútbol, shouldn’t that be enough?

Also what about the provincial, club media deals? Is this archaic? Is a league-wide agreement as used in England, more conducive to a strong league?

Deportivo La Coruña’s President has said that the future of Spanish football is foreign investment? Do you agree?

Here’s my two cents, I think Spain can learn a lot from the Premiership, particularly the media deals and distribution of wealth (even though the richer clubs still get more money due to more appearances on TV and attendances). I also adore the parachute package for teams promoted and relegated. Spain needs something like this drastically. I also think the branding can improve of La Liga, but in moderation. The league as a whole should try and assist in this matter. Why don’t they produce and offer Friday preview shows in Spanish? Why aren’t some of the Spanish football opinion shows made available, with dubbing or translation to foreign markets?

The infrastructure and organization in Spain needs vast improvement. Why are the games decided sometimes 3 hours before kickoff? How is that conducive to coach potato fans? The technology, camera angles, and TV picture, needs to get to the 21st century. The visuals are appalling. Have you ever compared a Prem or CL game to a La Liga game. The La Liga game pales in comparison.

We need access to more La Liga games on TV or via broadband. Why not offer the other games at a more moderate price? It’s difficult for Spaniards to watch non local games, let alone foreigners. This has got to improve. Also access to kits, merchandise, magazines, daily rags would be awesome. Do you know how hard it is to find an Athletic Bilbao kit?

But I like the provincial nuances and local flavor of La Liga and I for one, don’t want them to lose this. The play on the pitch is amazing, along with the parity and strength of the mid table teams. The cantera or youth academies keep producing wonderful talent. And there are players that are loyal or don’t want to go abroad – see Cazorla, Villa, Silva, Casillas. I don’t want foreign investment to come in and ruin La Liga or great an artificial market. We don’t need billionaires, just better marketing and business savvy. The Spanish owners already do a fine job sticking their clubs in the red. I also feel that the last remaining socio clubs, need to stay that way – Real Madrid, Barçelona, Athletic Bilbao, etc. It keeps accountability.

But where there is talent on the pitch and in the back office ie managers and technical directors, some will want to go abroad where the money is IE England. But I am not worried about the level of play or the trophies, to me it’s all cyclical. The money is in the Prem, but that is a bubble that will burst and a recalibration or reallignment will take place. The Premiership will not always be at the top. Relax.

And honestly I don’t want a super league. I don’t want to watch just the top leagues or the same teams always winning. That’s boring and not what football is all about. We already have the Champions League, World Cup and other tournaments where the cream of the crop rise to the top. Isn’t that enough?

OK, those are my thoughts, but I want to hear from you. What do you think? Give us your comments and we’ll read them on the podcast. We’d love to hear from you. It’s a fascinating topic, that won’t go away.

Chumpeons League

Ugh. Another stupid Chelsea v Liverpool match awaits us in the Champions League. If only, if only. Another dubious penalty awarded at Anfield in the dying moments while Arsenal were still celebrating an amazing cross-field run by Theo Walcott, who setup the defining goal at the time. The only ending that’s clearer is that there’ll be a similar penalty awarded at Old Trafford tomorrow.

Were there mistakes made by Arsenal? Absolutely. Their midfield had no presence to contend with Mascherano and Alonso, they had no pace up front with Hleb and Adebayor, and Cesc was efficiently eliminated from the equation early on by having to take a more defensive role with the injury to Flamini. People will be talking about the penalty, a classic dive arms flailing by Babel through Toure, who was flailing his arms just to avoid contact, but that’s not ultimately what brought Arsenal down.

I know we hardly talk about the Prem here, and with good reason the football is generally atrocious, but Arsenal are re-knowned as a proponent of Continental football in the lump-it-up garbage can that is most of English football, aren’t they? Stop talking that nonsense. They don’t have the players anymore to play the champagne football they played with Henry and Pires and that falls directly at the lap of Arsene Wenger. He has dropped the ball at restocking the side with world class quality players to play the way he wants to play.

He says he can’t compete with Manchester United and Liverpool financially. No, that may have been true 3 or 4 years ago, but they are the most financially stable club of the big 4 as an independent financial entity. Please, if Roman Abramovich went way today, Chelsea would drop like a wet turd.

This marks another year with no chance of silverware, yes I know the Prem is still mathematically feasible but please, when is the criticism going to fall on Wenger for his buys? He had a chance at Torres, a chance at some very talented stars just hitting their prime, why then does he insist on 15 year old starlet? Because he can.

I know I’ll get stick for this, they’ll say that Arsenal have a talented young side with promise for the future. When the loans come in for United and Liverpool they’ll have to pay for it somehow so that’s when Arsenal will strike. Not a chance.

I guess Barcelona are still hanging around…

A Prayer before Firing

When Guillem Balague wrote his book Season on the Brink, a tale of the unlikely victory by Liverpool in the Champions League Final, no one expected that title to hold sway on the Reds again so quickly, and for such different circumstances.All season, Benitez has been under fire by the American owners, by the Liverpool faithful, and by pundits who generally give Liverpool a wide berth, but much of the criticism is of his own making. I won’t get into his rotational policy. All European managers, or at least the successful ones, rotate players in and out for different competitions. His problem lies simply in that he has failed himself.Rafa Benitez did not beat AC Milan by himself.

He had a backroom staff that he brought over from Valencia, led by Chief Scout and ex-Merida and Albacete coach Paco Herrera, assistant and fitness coach Pako Ayesteran, and goalkeepeing coach Jose Ochotorena, who have all left since that victory in Istanbul. Ochotorena returned to Valencia to become their goalkeeping coach under apparently amicable circumstances, and Pako Ayesteran famously left under a cloud, as his friend and confidante Benitez threw him under the bus, taking away much of his authority as an administrator and trainer for the club. Ayesteran was also widely seen as a good cop to Rafa’s bad cop to the players, and his presence or lack thereof has been mentioned by some as a reason why the club have underperformed, but frankly these are professionals.

They shouldn’t need coddling by an understanding and sympathetic assistant.I believe the primary reason why Benitez is under fire is that he never adequately replaced Paco Herrera who left to become Sporting Director at RCD Espanyol, and with ex-Periquito Ernesto Valverde, he has taken the Barcelona club to within a breath of the La Liga leaders.Benitez on the other hand has been in charge of a revolving door of washed up players like Bellamy, exuberant workmen like Dirk Kuyt, and not-ready for prime time players (yet) like Ryan Babel. He lucked into Mascherano and had the brilliant signing of the new decade in Fernando Torres.

Now, obviously I’m no Liverpool fan, and I’ll probably get the most flack I’ve ever gotten with this post.Just know that I’ve been following Benitez since before his Valencia days, as he was about to take over from Cuper, and I sided with him in his battles against Mourinho (see one of my early posts on this blog in fact), but I can’t see where this will end well for him.We can blame the media for a perceived bias against Scouser Nation, or the lack of support from the new foreign owners, but ultimately Benitez has failed himself. He had a staff in place to deflect criticism and share responsibility which allowed him to do what he does best: develop tactics to defeat his opponents. Rather than continue with his winning formula, he never adequately replaced his backroom staff.