Barcelona FC and Real Madrid Threaten to Leave La Liga for Newer Pastures

It is widely accepted that Barcelona and Real Madrid have a huge financial advantage over all other clubs in Spain.

The two happen to be the biggest clubs, not only in Spain, but in the world. For this reason, they earn so much more in TV revenue and corporate income that it makes the league a two-horse race year-on-year.

The problem for all of Spain is to find a way of making the league more competitive, especially since it now seems that both Barcelona and Real are threatening to move out of La Liga unless it becomes a sterner test.

BBC reporter Matt Slater has been tweeting today about the details of comments made by ex-Real Madrid Director Jorge Valdano and it is hugely interesting.

Revealing threat from ex-Real Madrid director Jorge Valdano: push 4 bigger share of TV cash & Spain's big two will leave La Liga..

...continue 2 lose 5-0 2 us & we'll leave 2 find better games in Europe.

In essence, what Real and Barcelona want is to continue to have a huge financial advantage over their league rivals. This financial advantage is even putting the existence of some Spanish clubs in doubt. However, at the same time, they also expect the other clubs to improve or else they will leave?

Crazy.

There has been a case for a fairer split of TV revenues in La Liga for many seasons. It seems to me, now that Financial Fair Play is part of the football landscape, surely it is the responsibility of UEFA to stamp out such unfair revenue distribution models.

I, for one, think that all leagues should distribute TV revenues using the Premier League model. After all, it has become the most-watched and wealthiest league as a result of keeping all clubs well-funded, has it not?

The threat made by Valdano to find better opposition is also a sign that Real and Barcelona are worried that being part of La Liga is bad for their brands. In fact, they know that the value of La Liga's overseas TV rights is a fraction of what the Premier League earns.

The reason is grounded in the quality of the product and both clubs know that to be the case.

Of course, they wont give away any of their huge TV revenues in order to make La Liga better or more competitive and therefore more sellable abroad, will they?

No.

Real and Barcelona are now threatening to leave their poor quality league behind, just as Rangers and Celtic have tried in Scotland.

The problem that they face is that nobody will want them.

The Premier League will never have them. It would need to be voted through by the existing members and, let's face it, turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

Wigan, Stoke, Everton, Sunderland, Spurs and all the others will say no.

If Real and Barcelona wanted to join the French, Dutch, Portuguese or German leagues then they will likely be sent packing. What's more, they would face exactly the same issues of quality in many of those leagues.

If the two biggest clubs in the world continue to threaten to find better football elsewhere, UEFA and FIFA may just step in and tell them that it will not be allowed.

It seems now that the footballing world should look at the dominance of Barcelona and Real Madrid as bad for football and force them via FFPR to be part of a fairer La Liga or be left outside of the European football tournaments.