Well done to Crystal Palace. Their very first season in Europe and they win the Conference League (after being screwed out of a place in the Europe League by UEFA). This marks only their second ever major trophy, after winning last seasons FA Cup. So it’s long overdue. A fitting farewell for outgoing manager Oliver Glasner.
While it’s great for Palace, the English clubs will always be in a league of their own in both the Europe League and the Conference League. Palace brought a 50 million £ striker from the bench. Rayo Vallecano has never made a signing for more than 10 million €.
The issue is not the English league here, the issue has always been the likes of Real and Barca hoovering up all the money in their local league.
Both Real and Barca have some of the most valuable players in the world and both significantly out earn and out spend on wages all English clubs.
If they were forced to spread the money more evenly in their league then we wouldnt have this big a gap.
You can correctly argue that we dont have anything like equity but the income difference in £ is lower. Bottom of Prem is like £200m, top is like £850m. La Liga its more like €1.2bn vs 100m.
Rayo Vallecano earn what, 10% of what Real or Barca manage.
I believe these are both significant issues. While income distribution is unsustainable in Spain, the Spanish league (and the German, Italian and French leagues as well) just generates so much less money overall than the English league. The Premier League has TV deals worth more than £ 10 bn per season. Meanwhile La Liga is somewhere around 3 bn € with the Bundesliga even lower. The Spanish superclubs can only sustain their level by sucking the rest of the league dry, which in turn makes the league less interesting overall. Even if revenue sharing exactly like in England were to be instituted, that would hardly improve the chances of the Spanish minnows in Europe in my opinion.
Why do they generate less money? I would maintain because of how the top team sucks the entire life out of the league. Taking a hit now and sharing the money more fairly would mean a more competitive league, which in turn would drive interest in the league as a whole, which increases TV income.
I also dispute that TV income from the national league alone is the problem here, the top teams have incredible percentages of revenue from non TV sources, like half in some cases. Add on an unfairly weighted champions league income due to “past success”, and a reasonable chance of progression to semis for all four clubs, its just a never ending chain of income.
I am after proper redistribution of it all, much how the solidarity payments were meant to work.
I agree that more equal income distribution leads to a more interesting league that in turn could generate more income. However, there are more reasons for the Premier League’s dominance. English is the world’s de facto lingua franca and that makes it so much easier to market the league abroad. It also has a large amount of recognised teams with long histories. Finally it’s very open to investors.
The top clubs in Spain, Germany and Italy are now in a catch-22. They can’t afford to let any potential income slip in order to maintain some level of parity with the English clubs. Meanwhile their domestic leagues are withering away.
While I personally like the Bundesliga for its (mostly) firm stance on fan ownership, I understand that a one horse race for the title is boring.
I fear there is no real and realistic way to change the situation for the better any time soon…
I think the truth is somewhere in between. The amount of money in the English game via TV rights etc is insane when compared to most leagues. But yes, at least the PL is structured to be a little more competitive/ better for mid-table clubs than the other big European leagues (despite the efforts of Man City’s owners trying to change that to their advantage).
The problem is that extra money allows for a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio from the top five richest clubs to the poorer clubs in the English league. Plus, there are five at the top, then two very close, this alone allows for more competition and prevents the money being centralised in one or two teams as in Spain, Germany and France.
Oh, and none of the top five English clubs are not in the top four richest in the world, by a significant margin, like 300m Ish to Real from Liverpool who had a banner year for income by winning the league and were the richest English club last season.
The three European leagues I mention are frankly an absolute joke when it comes to financial fairness, the margin can be as high as 10 to 1, and it shows in their results.
We are far closer to equity than other leagues, this is why they struggle, the pie might be smaller for them but they are getting a fuck less pie to begin with.
Don’t get me started on the blatant ladder pulling that is PSR and its replacement.
UP THE PALACE! This is poetic really since they were denied Europa this season due to stupid John Textor.
I thought for sure Woody Johnson buying into the ownership would be a curse, I’m glad to have been wrong. I guess when his 14 year old isn’t making roster decisions it makes for a better team. (Yank football drama in case I’m confusing anyone).
Its the only reason we managed to win the Europa, knew we would get an all English quarter or semi final and I know that Unai still hasnt worked out how to beat you.
Amazing run. Highlight of palace fandom. Hopefully not the last for a long time.
