Javier Tebas: “The football industry generates 1.4 of GDP in Spain, we have a tremendous responsibility”

MADRID, 1 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, stressed on Thursday the “tremendous responsibility” that he has at the helm of his organization for the economic impact of the football industry on the economy in Spain and that it forces its managers not to make “bad decisions”. while he praised the agency’s capacity in digitalization and technology issues and warned about the need to understand the irruption of OTTs.

“There is a tremendous responsibility because the football industry generates 1.40 percent of GDP and the clubs have a turnover of 4,500 million, which is the responsibility of LaLiga and if you make bad decisions you endanger that,” Tebas said during his participation. at the VI CEAPI Ibero-American Business Congress in Madrid.

The leader stressed that the club employers generate “160,000 jobs” and that it is “the most important net export sector in the country” because they manufacture matches every weekend to reach all countries “without ships or trains.” just uploading a signal to the satellites. “That costs us 40 million a year and what we generate is more than 1,500 net,” he explained, clarifying that “the majority” goes to “the workers and the state coffers.”

“Any decision you make can endanger this sector and it is our responsibility that this industry continues to maintain jobs and that it continues to be ethical,” continued Tebas, who clarified that in LaLiga “not everything is general for Real Madrid and the FC Barcelona, ​​which is 32 percent” and who stressed that if the industry continues to grow they can launch “many Corporate Social Responsibility actions or help other sports”.

The president of LaLiga, who reiterated once again that a Super League “would do a lot of damage to this sports industry”, pointed out that the organization “manages the greatest asset of the clubs, which are audiovisual rights” and praised the implementation of the control economy that allows them “to do many things because if not the money always goes to the same pocket that is the world of players”.

On the other hand, Tebas also spoke of the importance of technology and digitization, essential to “be able to develop your sector”, and matters in which they have been working since 2014 when they had their agreement with ‘Microsoft’ and strengthened with their alliance with ‘ Globant’, a company that has seen that they were “leading in this matter”.

“If you are not in these issues, you are left behind. Our level of digitization and technology exceeds that of the American leagues, they say so. We have creativity, knowledge and we know what we need, and we have been applying Artificial Intelligence for four years with Issues such as schedules If the sports industry, which is the one that handles the most clients and users in the world along with banking and insurance, does not take this step, it will be left behind because you must impact yours with what they like and generate experiences,” he said.

“YOUNG PEOPLE WATCH FOOTBALL, BUT IN ANOTHER WAY”

Finally, the president of LaLiga referred to future challenges, which he also sees as “opportunities at the same time”. In this sense, he believes that “the fundamental problem of the sports industry is to understand the disruption of the audiovisual world with the emergence of OTTs”, something that the world of cinema did “very well” when ‘Neflix’ appeared in 2015. or ‘HBO’.

“We are suffering with platforms like ‘DAZN’ or ‘Eleven’ and if those of us who manage audiovisual rights do not understand it, we could have a significant drop and this could lead to the financial ruin of the clubs,” he warned.

For this reason, he asks “to know how to understand the segmentation” in the fans. “The president of Real Madrid says that young people give up watching football, but young people see it in a different way. The important thing is when they are economically independent and pay to watch it. And then there is the issue of those who are not natives digital, people over 55 years old, that’s where they’re abandoning watching football the most. Now, all the controls put a button for ‘Netflix’ or ‘Amazon Prime’ and there is none that says ‘Football’, but it you’ll see,” he said.