Torres and Fabregas lit up Spain’s Euro 2008 campaign
My friend John Carlin offers an interesting take on where the influx of foreign investment into the English Premiership leaves La Liga, the Spanish league long accustomed to being Europe’s finest. Not only are the cream of the world’s players increasingly likely to leave Spain (and Italy) for English clubs these days thanks to the billions pouring into the cofferes of Chelsea, Manchester City and a coterie of other clubs being snapped up as racehorses once would have been by the ultra-rich — Robinho’s move from Real Madrid to City may simply be the beginning; what with Kaka looking increasingly likely to join him there, or at Chelsea, and the likes of Jo and Elano already there, how long will it be before the bulk of the Brazilian national team are playing in England? Even more alarming, to some Spanish fans, will be the fact that the cream of the country’s coaches are increasingly being tempted to England, too: Rafa Benitez at Liverpool; Juande Ramos at Spurs; when West Ham and Newcastle sacked their coaches early in the new season, Spanish coaches were among the frontrunners for both positions. Only Valencia had more players in Spain’s victorious Euro 2008 squad than did Liverpool. Already, three of the most gifted members of that team — Fernando Torres, Cesc Fabregas and Xabi Alonso — are playing their club football in England; how long before David Villa, David Silvak, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Ramos join them?
As John puts it, the coming reality is one where “next to the Premier League, La Liga will dwindle to the level of, say, the Dutch League. Nice enough football, pretty to watch – and filled with clubs who have next to no chance of winning big European trophies, instead becoming feeder clubs for the English teams.”
Indeed, he points out, the swing of the pendulum of footie power to England may be best reflected by the fact that in Spain now, you can watch the English Premiership on TV, and you don’t even have to have cable; it’s on terrestrial TV!
I think John’s right, of course, but while the development may be traumatic for the fans of Real and Barca, I suspect for the rest — who often had to resign themselves to losing their best players to Real or Barca — making the switch to supporting a “Spanish” club in England won’t be that hard.
There is, after all, less and less that is particularly “English” about the football in the English Premier League. (Hell, even their national team is coached by a catenaccio artist from Italy). England is simply the address, and Spanish fans should take it as a compliment to their football that this huge influx of money that is creating what is essentially a league with a global audience is relying so heavily on Spanish talent and expertise.
That’s not how I see it winding up Tony. I don’t think that the Italian, Spanish and German clubs will go quietly into the wilderness. When they’re faced with an existence like that of Ajax, Porto, Celtic & Lyon they’ll revolt. They will not accept being overachievers in underachieving leagues and will force UEFA into a continental European league. At present only the little countries suffer, when the big boys do too the change will come. And change for the better! The games-a-bogey when the biggest and most respected clubs in the game are being outspent by Manchester City, Hest Ham & Hull.
I guess I can see the Champion’s league being greatly expanded from its present format. Maybe it’ll become the Saturday league, and the domestic leagues will become the midweek game…
Would the Premiership consider taking Raymond Domenech? Please!!!!!!!!
I agree entirely. People don’t even realize the full extent of the gap between the Premier League and the rest. Heck, the Championship (England’s second tier) is Europe’s 5th biggest league.
It’s also worth remembering 6 of the last 8 semi-finalilsts in the CL were English, and last year, English teams were completely triumphant–they were only knocked out by each other.
What is happening is that all the domestic leagues of the world including Italy, Germany and Spain (and the Championship) have become merely local affairs viewed by the local supporters of the teams. The only competition viewed by international fans is the Premier League. The Global audience wants to see the best players, and they’re in England, so everyone watches England, giving the English much more money to then go out and buy even better players. It’s what’s called “the superstar effect” in economics. The best attracts the best and gets better. The rest stagnates.
Sure, people will still watch the occasional Barca-Real or Milan-Inter game, but no one will watch regular league matches from Spain or Italy but Spaniards and Italians. Can you imagine anyone sitting and watching Getafe-Zaragoza? Or even Barca-Getafe? Man City-Spurs, or Blackburn-Porstmouth, on the other hand, are global events viewed by millions from Shanghai to Santiago.
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Nice of this Tony karon
Can you imagine anyone sitting and watching Getafe-Zaragoza? Or even Barca-Getafe? Man City-Spurs, or Blackburn-Porstmouth, on the other hand, are global events viewed by millions from Shanghai to Santiago.
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It’s also worth remembering 6 of the last 8 semi-finalilsts in the CL were English, and last year, English teams were completely triumphant–they were only knocked out by each other.
Can you imagine anyone sitting and watching Getafe-Zaragoza? Or even Barca-Getafe? Man City-Spurs, or Blackburn-Porstmouth, on the other hand, are global events viewed by millions from Shanghai to Santiago.
I think that everything posted was very reasonable.
But, what about this? suppose you added a little information?
I mean, I don’t want to tell you how to run your website, but what if you added a title that makes people want more? I mean Will the Last One Out of La Liga Please Turn Out the Lights? | Rootless Cosmopolitan – By Tony Karon is kinda plain. You ought to look at Yahoo’s front page and see how they write news titles to get viewers interested.
You might add a related video or a picture or two to
grab people excited about what you’ve written. Just my opinion, it might bring your posts a little bit more interesting.
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