La Liga president Javier Tebas has made shocking comments.
Spanish media outlet FC Barça published an interview with Tebas on Aug. 8 (ET)온라인바카라. When asked about the decline of La Liga since he took over as president, Mr. Tebas said, “The reason why La Liga’s UEFA ranking has dropped is because the league champion did not perform well in European competitions last season.” He was referring to Barcelona, who won La Liga last season. He was referring to Barcelona, who won La Liga last season.
Barcelona won La Liga last season, but it wasn’t enough. While they were happy to finish at the top of the league, beating their arch-rivals Real Madrid, they failed in the European competition. They didn’t make it out of the UCL group stage and headed to the UEFA Europa League (UEL). Barcelona met Manchester United in the round of 16 playoffs, where they lost on aggregate by a score of 3-4, ending their European journey.
Tebas has been president of La Liga since 2013. Tebas is no stranger to controversy. This isn’t the first time Tebas’ comments have come under fire. Vinicius Junior was also criticized for his shocking comments about racism.
In May, Vinicius was racially abused during a match against Valenciennes. After the game, Vinicius took to social media to say, “What the racists got was my exit. This is not soccer. This is La Liga. Racism is a normal behavior in La Liga. La Liga and the association think it’s normal and the opponent encourages it.”
The president of Tebas also spoke out on social media. “We tried to explain to you what La Liga is and what we can do to combat racism, but you didn’t show up for two appointments. You should know what you’re talking about before criticizing and insulting the league,” he said.
Aside from the off-the-cuff comments, the salary cap has been one of the most problematic issues since Tebas took over. The salary cap is a system designed to keep teams in the league at a similar level of spending. It sets an upper limit on the total amount of salary per team. With limited spending, La Liga teams are struggling to sign players.
In fact, La Liga spent the least amount of money out of Europe’s top five leagues during this summer’s transfer window. The English Premier League (EPL), Serie A, Ligue 1, and Bundesliga are the top five leagues in terms of spending this summer, according to soccer statistics outlet TransferMarkt. La Liga spent the least among Europe’s top five leagues.
La Liga is second in the UEFA rankings. The EPL is next. Second place may not seem like a very low ranking. But with Serie A and the Bundesliga becoming more competitive, you never know when the rankings will flip. It would be humiliating for La Liga to lose out to Serie A and the Bundesliga after the EPL.