The president of Spain’s La Liga has admitted he is considering proposals to form a breakaway competition to rival the Champions League because it represents a “greater opportunity to generate more revenue”.
In July, the Dalian Wanda Group – which is owned by China’s richest man Wang Jianlin – revealed it had begun discussions with clubs to create a new tournament which would rival the current competition run by Uefa.
Speaking to the Financial Times on Friday, Javier Tebas, who has been president of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional since 2013, admitted that while no agreement had been reached, Spain’s leading clubs could be attracted by the idea in the wake of new bumper TV deals for their counterparts in England and Germany.
“If [European club competition] is reorganised as Wanda has set out, there is a greater opportunity to generate more revenue from audiovisual broadcasting,” he said.
Last week, Uefa announced that Europe’s top four leagues will have four automatic places in the Champions League group stage from the 2018-19 season onwards – a move that was supported by clubs in Spain and Italy. However, Tebas was critical of the changes and said they had made it more likely they could support a breakaway because key issues such as the more even distribution of broadcasting funds have not been addressed.
“We’ve also become more interested in [Wanda’s] proposal since Uefa announced they will be reforming [the Champions League], without seriously consulting — in detail — their broader reform plans with the other national leagues,” he said.
“With our strategy, we will even overtake the Premier League in terms of international deals. Therefore, both Spanish and English football fans will be pleased, as they will both get the chance to watch their games across the world. So long as Uefa does not destroy our business.”
Wanda, which already owns a 20% stake in last year’s beaten Champions league finalists Atlético Madrid, paid $1.2bn last year for Infront Media, the Swiss company led by Philippe Blatter - the nephew of former Fifa president Sepp Blatter. The FT reports says they have been leading negotiations for a new tournament, with proposals including merging the Champions League and Europa League into one competition.
“The idea of unifying the two tournaments is not a bad one,” said Tebas. “But what is clear is we have to work something out with all the different national leagues and Uefa is not doing it.”
