Javier Tebas claims it will cost Spanish football half a billion to finish this season

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has claimed that it will cost Spanish football in the region of half a billion euros to finish this season.

Speaking with Marca, Tebas touched upon the importance of the industry behind LaLiga and the need for clubs to take responsibility and reduce their wage bills.

“There is a large industry behind LaLiga with many jobs that depend on it,” Tebas said.

“According to the latest reports, there are 180,000 jobs. Defending this industry is a social responsibility. We have to be an example, because that serves to grow and create more jobs. People need to understand that LaLiga has a lot of responsibility.

“We still have excess spending of about €500m as clubs can’t remove players with contracts – an effort has to be made to reduce salaries.

“Some clubs have to continue to try and reduce the wage bill. The most affected in Spain are Valencia, Barcelona and Real Madrid – they just can’t get rid of the superfluous players.

“To end the season, Spanish football will need to spend about €490m to pay the club expenses, but not to all clubs. We’ve detected 17, some of whom are short €100m and others €3m – but the club missing €3m might be in worse shape than the one missing €100m.

“We’re working to fix it. Valencia is no longer in the Champions League, for example, and they’ve been criticised for selling players but they have to, and Barcelona have to lower their wage bill to finish the season. They have no other option.”

Tebas, a former lawyer, was elected as LaLiga president in 2013. His expertise was in business, sports and bankruptcy law, and he came to power promising to clean up the Spanish game after match-fixing allegations and to reduce the cost of match tickets.

Born in Costa Rica, he studied law in Zaragoza and supports Real Madrid, although he maintains it doesn’t affect his neutrality as president. In December 2019, he was re-elected for a third term that will run until 2024.

 

Featured image courtesy of Goal.

Tags Barcelona Javier Tebas LaLiga Real Madrid Valencia
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