Valdano believes Barcelona and Madrid may leave La Liga

Former Real Madrid CF General Director Jorge Valdano told radio station Cadena Ser, with whom he now commentates for, that he believes both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona will soon quit La Liga. “In the future, Madrid and Barcelona will have to look to teams that are going at the same speed, and that will lead to a European league,” Valdano predicted.

Dismissed last May from Real Madrid after open disagreements with head coach José Mourinho, Valdano realized his judgment may have been clouded in regard to the vast gap in Spain’s first division. “Before, I defended Real Madrid’s interests but now I see things from a different perspective. The gap between the big two and the rest is getting ever larger. If you look to the future you have the feeling that it will only get worse.”

Valdano alluded to one of the sources of the top two’s dominance as being their disproportionate share of TV rights in Spain. With more spending power, the caliber of play increases, proven by Barcelona’s 5-0 stomping of top-four team Villarreal and Madrid’s 6-0 demolition of Zaragoza in the first round of La Liga. “Two teams, which have the rest of the world as their market, and the others only their local community. There will come a time when that won’t be convenient for the two big clubs either.”

Barcelona’s Economic Vice President Javier Faus expressed last February the idea of reducing countries’ domestic leagues, allowing more time for continental fixtures. However, he thought it unlikely that either Madrid or Barcelona would ever leave the Spanish league permanently.

“We are going through a period of transition, it depends what happens in Spain and other leagues,” Valdano said. “The problem is that the Premier League works, Germany works. There is a lot of passion for football. I don’t see them being very enthusiastic about leaving their national leagues.”

With the president of Villarreal stating after his team’s defeat at the hands of Barcelona that the top two teams were killing Spanish soccer, and with Sevilla’s president claiming that La Liga is “a load of rubbish,” the unrest is clear. Whether this discontent will lead to the departure of Spain’s two best clubs remains to be seen.

Source: Reuters