Spanish Football: How to make the other teams competitive? Issues Discussed!

Since Valencia won the La Liga title back in 2003/04 Season under the leadership of Rafa Benitez only two teams have won the title; those being Real Madrid (3) and Barcelona (5). The duo of Real and Barca have won a combined 54 La Liga titles out of 81contested. Even the Italian or German leagues do not have that kind of two-legged dominance. 

People have started to notice it a lot more now considering the global audience has increased massively but if you go through history these two clubs have been dominant throughout, so dominant that Real Madrid have only finished 21 times out of the top three of La Liga while Barcelona have finished 58 times in the top three, needless to say both have never been relegated since the league's inception back in 1929. 

The issue is how to bridge the gap between these two giant powerhouses and the rest of the league teams because if this trend goes the league would be deprived of crucial TV ratings and other teams would find it very difficult to be successful as time goes on. 

Financial Fair Play Rules

The latest step taken by UEFA is the FFP rules but the debate is still out on who these FFP rules are actually favoring, will they make the leagues more competitive or will they increase the gap between the already rich clubs and the not so rich clubs? Excessive spending has been a problem but not for the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid considering their financial empire. A stadium of over 95k capacity for both clubs and majority of the world following them they seriously need no real cash input from any external party. Their club sales, TV revenue and dominance in the league helps them massively in terms of finance, and beckons the question; How can a Athletico Bilbao or a Valencia or a Sevilla or a Real Sociedad compete in terms of finance with these clubs?

Clubs like PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City and very recently AS Monaco have taken the owner's cash input methodology to gain mainstream fame and top quality players, but let us be honest without the cash influx how would these clubs have managed to sign Zlatan in the case of PSG, Aguero in the case of City, and Falcao in the case of AS Monaco? Does FFP help them or any other club in acquiring these players? Will FFP help this cause? Its very easy to comprehend I guess, you spend what you earn, if you are already taking out maximum revenue of a league that means you are already earning more than 18 other sides, which automatically gives you the edge so how can Sevilla, Valencia etc compete in terms of finance here without external help?

Player Desire

Player desire is another big aspect but dont we know who players want to play when they are young, do they wish to play for Real Zaragoza or Villareal or do they want to play for Barca or Real? Who can reject an offer if it comes their way from a club like Barca or Real and state: "I want to stay at Real Zaragoza"; one out of a thousand might say YES but the rest will move without a shadow of a doubt. So what exactly needs to be done here? A lot of players from the teams have actually moved on to join Barcelona B, Real Madrid Castilla or their main teams. That definitely does not help the other clubs at all.

Current Transfer Trend

To illustrate this point look at the number of departures from La Liga(excluding players departing from Barca and Real Madrid): Llorente, Isco, Soldado, Cissokho, Negredo, Navas, Illaramendi, Iago Aspas and Radamel Falcoa. All these players were the best their respective clubs had to offer but all chose different pastures leaving their respective clubs massively short on quality, furthermore, with the clubs suffering from huge debt they are not even able to re-invest that money to sign quality players of their own. Major signings from these clubs include the names: Gameiro, Villa, and Suso and Marin on loan. Does these names bolster the 18 clubs in the league? Does the competitiveness increases in the league? These are huge issues that are surrounding the Spanish league and if not addressed by the officials and the European governing bodies this issue may cause a lot of damage to the league.