DUBAI // About 128 million of the 350 million people in the Mena region are fans of Spain's Primera Liga, Fernando Sanz said, explaining why the league went to Dubai to open its first office outside of Spain.
"Real Madrid and Barcelona are the biggest clubs in the world," said Sanz. the general director of the Middle East office. "We are here for all the clubs in the league, in general, and all the countries are equally important for us, not just the UAE."
It sometimes seems everyone in the region is a fan of one of Spain’s big two clubs, but some have suggested their dominance has made the league boring.
The extended run of Atletico Madrid near the top of the table has provided a welcome change. “This is great news for us that Atletico Madrid has come up and is giving competition to Barca and Real,” Sanz said. “Even the mid-table clubs, like Villareal, Valencia, Sevilla, are difficult teams.
“We have seen, a couple of years ago, Athletic Bilbao beat Man United in the Champions League, and our clubs perform well in the Europa League as well, so the teams are really strong.”
Spain’s is the only league in the world where TV revenues are not distributed evenly among all clubs. Barcelona and Real Madrid take 60 per cent of the revenue and also work on private TV deals.
Sanz defended the arrangement.
“See, Barca and Real are the two biggest clubs of our league and the world – the league works because of them,” he said. “I don’t mean the league can run only by them. We need all 20 clubs. But they take our league and country around the world, so this is something different for us.
“Real Madrid and Barcelona are lucky clubs because they generate annual revenues of up to €500 million (Dh251.1bn). So they can buy the best players like Bale, like Neymar because they can afford it.
“There is no problem with that.”
The league has several teams in financial distress
It has been reported top-flight clubs owe the government €670 million in taxes. However, Sanz said an economic control system has cut the total owed to the government to €300m to €350m.
“Things have improved a lot in the league,” he said. “This is very good news for us.”
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