The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, assured during the 'EFE Sport Business Days' forum this Thursday that the advance of vaccination in Spain allows them to be “more optimistic” and they believe that the season will start with “70% on average of public in the stadiums ”.
Tebas stressed that the economic consequences of the health crisis will be noticed in the signings this summer, in which “prices are going to have to go down” and in which “Spanish clubs come out in a good position” for being in the League ” that it will have the least losses and be the one that has financed the losses the best ”.
Question (Q): There was talk of 1,000 million euros of mismatch this season due to the pandemic. What is the bottom line of this, hopefully, last season with COVID-19?
Answer (R): That balance was from the entire COVID era. In football sometimes we make things more complicated than they are. Knowing that the transfers of players will not take place until June 30, the numbers would be that we have lost 2,000 million income, we have been able to recover, as a result of the measures of the clubs to save expenses and reduce salary, some 1,000 million; so the net losses are 1,000 million euros.
Q: What ratios does LaLiga handle regarding the return of the public to stadiums?
A: Here you always have to depend on the health authorities and the evolution of the pandemic. What is clear is that, on the table, it is not the same as we found at the beginning of last season or last Christmas. There is a significant percentage of the vaccinated population. In the month of August that we are going to begin, there will be, according to the President of the Government, a 70% vaccination of the population; it seems that the rhythm goes to that. We base our plans on that and we are going to be more optimistic. We believe that we will walk on average 70% of the public in the stadiums next season ”.
Q: Besides dedicating yourself to management, you are a very football fan. The star theme of the season has been VAR and hands, sometimes even more than goals or football itself. How is the new season presented in this sense?
A: The turn hand depending on the team also had more repercussion (laughs). I said it once, I did not know what was hand and what was not. I believe that Velasco Carballo will have taken note of this circumstance and I know that they are trying to make the VAR referees less, more specialized to unify the criteria. But let's not forget that this is a decision of the arbitration team. We can give our opinion and show the unease of many clubs in plays that have been harmed. If it is true that a unifying criterion is needed, to deny it would be to deny the evidence.
Q: At the beginning you told me that you watch the European Championship when you can. Are you surprised that with the return of the public Spain has received whistles?
A: There is also a very critical environment with Morata, in the media. If there is, I'm not surprised what might happen. As Luis Enrique said, there was also applause. We know what football is like, it is a roller coaster; If he scores two goals in the next game and one on the heel, everyone will score. I am going to put an example. Nadal has reached the semi-finals of Roland Garros, where he has been eliminated by the number one in the world and there is already talk about what Nadal's future will be … (laughs) I don't pay much attention to him either.
Q: Presence of players in the European Championship: 119 (Premier League), 88 (Bundesliga), 71 (Italy) and 41 (LaLiga). What do these data tell you?
A: Whoever writes that does not study it. 24 teams out of 55 that UEFA has go to the European Championship. And if we start to add San Marino, Cyprus, Albania … and we are taking away teams that are something of soccer power. When it comes to England, Wales plays apart and they count as foreigners playing in the Premier League, like Scotland, Ireland… You also have to count on the fact that the Premier has a lot of tradition in the Scandinavian world and has many Swedish players playing. If we saw the Copa América, the data would be different, there would be many players from the League. If it were a World Cup, these data would be different.
Q: Speaking of signings for this summer. What can our clubs do?
A: The value has to be contracted. If the clubs want to obtain liquidity, the players will have to lower the prices they have been asking for. For example, Haaland could be worth 180 million in a normal market and now there is no one, or perhaps an exception, who is going to pay that money. Everything has to contract and there the Spanish teams come out in a good position. We are the League that will have the least net losses, that has better financed these losses. In Italy it has been financed with player debts and taxes and that puts a lot of pressure. The Premier has published that it has lost only 1 billion euros in 2019. We do not exceed 1,000 million. If the market contracts, our situation is much better than the rest of the Leagues, even a little better than the Germans.
Q: The anti-piracy unit has been a business model for the present and for the future and is a fundamental pillar in LaLiga. Is there still so much piracy?
A: Yes, the pirate is always taking new forms, new technologies; but our system detects everything. When new ones come out, we study them to attack them technologically or with legislative measures, as we recently believe we are going to achieve in the European Union. Today I can say that piracy is less than it was four or five years ago in Spain, but it will never be zero. The important thing is that there has been a change in mentality and those of us who have to invest and protect our products are the owners.
– Q: Will there be a game in Miami this year?
– A: I don't know, I think it will depend on the courts, and then if they do not agree with us, it will depend on changing the way of thinking of the people who are in the Federation. If the courts do not give us the reason, we will wait for the people who are in the Federation to change their minds, and if they do not we will wait for the people who are in the Federation to change.