Gerard Pique has warned Real Madrid and Barcelona that they will lose their status as fan-owned clubs if they want to continue competing with the Premier League elite, save for a radical change in regulations.
Speaking at the Business Sport Forum, Pique explained that he saw changes down the line for the top level of football, and pointed to the Superleague as the first attempts at that. He was asked about the American models of elite sports, where there are salary caps for teams, and all teams are allowed to select from a pool of talented youngsters.
“I like it better, it’s more attractive to watch than the European one. But then you take it to the economic level and you realise that it is structured better for franchises. At the European level it is all in the hands of the players. Barca and Madrid will not be able to compete in the long run, this is obvious.”
“In the United States, the money is distributed equally among the 30 franchises, they will structure it in a way in which the franchises are highly protected. And if they see that the business is not well structured, they go on strike and earn a little more of the pie. What’s happening in Europe? Each League is regulated differently. LaLiga has a very strict Fair Play and other leagues have another system. And then in Europe you have to compete against those teams,” he told Marca.
“As there is no regulation regarding Fair Play, you are exposed to those clubs paying more through other means, and we are going to end up with Barca and Madrid not being able to compete. We are on a path so that in five years, Barca and Madrid will not be able to compete in Europe. Either it is regulated, or we are not competing with the same rules. And this is regulated in the United States.”
Pique commented that it was on UEFA and FIFA to step up efforts to regulate the clubs owned by billionaires and sovereign wealth funds if they wanted the Clasico duo involved at the top.
“If you didn’t have a European competition to compete in and you only played the national competition, it wouldn’t matter. The moment you make the leap and all the clubs are not regulated by the same rules, that is when that imbalance occurs. Why are Barca and Madrid competing? Because they are getting into debt. They will be forced to become private companies, Madrid will take longer because they are in a better place. Unless there is a Super League or there is a European Financial Fair Play.”
Certainly Florentino Perez has been advocating for the Superleague for some time, and against what he calls a monopoly being run by UEFA. The European governing body has only loosely tried to check spending for elite level clubs with their financial rules, but increasingly are making concessions to the major clubs in order to keep them on side. This will be seen most dramatically next season, when four more games are added to the Champions League group stage. On the flipside, both Carlo Ancelotti and Dani Carvajal have advocated for union action against the increasing fixture congestion, no doubt demanded by the biggest clubs.
