Is Spain’s La Liga In Decline?

Hassan Chamas

Real Madrid’s 2-1 away win over relegation-threatened Osasuna on Sunday has seen them clinch their second consecutive La Liga title, and the 31st in the club’s history. With three fixtures to go, including tonight’s Clasico - of little mathematical importance, yet huge in terms of pride- at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid have proven to be the best team in Spain this season. However, despite the thrills and the excitement that once made it stand out as the most entertaining league in Europe, has La Liga lost some of its status as one of Europe’s biggest leagues?

To label Real’s comeback as anything less than miraculous at the Reyno de Navarra against CA Osasuna would be a huge insult to the champions. Playing with ten men after having Fabio Cannavaro sent off at the very beginning of the second half, and 1-0 down in the 82nd minute, Real had to put their celebration champagne on ice and would have to wait for the title to be won another day.

However, resilience and good tactical changes by Bernd Schuster allowed them to equalize through a Gonzalo Higuain cross, which found Arjen Robben, who headed it into the net. A couple of minutes later, Higuain scored the second to win the match, and most importantly, the league title was heading to Madrid.

It is settled then: Real Madrid are Spain’s champions. No matter the claims, Real were the best side in the league this season, and are deserved champions. However, the argument that Real were the least worst team in Spain this season holds a tiny grain of truth. With its only true potential adversary, Barcelona, enduring a disappointing season, Real had no virtual competition, and stayed on top for most of the league campaign. Certainly, there have been the usual array of surprises like Villarreal and Racing Santander, but no one really thought that any team could topple Real.

But this decline in the quality of La Liga isn’t in any way the players or the coaches’ fault. Rather, it is due to the fact that the Primera Division is governed by a financial duopoly, one that doesn’t allow the smaller clubs any true chance of success.

Let’s take the example of the Premier League: With the many Glazers and Abramovichs investing in the top four teams of England, the Premier League generates a lot of competition. The most obvious argument is that the League title will be decided this season on the very last day.

Also, Serie A isn’t much different. Even though Inter Milan looks likely to be running away with another Scudetto title, other team presidents have the possibility of challenging for the title. I cannot imagine Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi letting Milan endure another horrific season like this one, and he will most certainly be making modifications in many areas of his team, something he already started to do by purchasing Arsenal’s young Frenchman Mathieu Flamini. AS Roma’s Roberto Sensi must probably be tired by now of always ending up second-best, and will make sure to dig deep inside his pockets in order to prepare for next season. As for Juventus, never count them out.

This brings us back to Spain. Truth be told, there isn’t a “big four” over here. It’s actually the constant eternal struggle of the big two. With Sevilla enduring a disappointing season, and Valencia being in crisis and having to sell some major star players over the summer, things aren’t looking good in term of competition for the Spanish Primera.

The best way to prove this idea is just to look at the semi- finals of the Champions League this season: Certainly, all of them were relative European powerhouses, but is it a coincidence that there were three from England and only one from Spain? Hardly. Suppose that Real Madrid, who are ahead of Barcelona by fourteen points in the domestic league, disputed the matches against Manchester United. I don’t think that it would have made any relative difference to the outcome, simply because United are playing in a more competitive league than Real Madrid, where the Red Devils are fighting week-in, week-out to retain the league crown, against a fierce competitor in the form of Chelsea, whom they will also meet in the final game of this season’s Champions League.

However, despite the superiority of the big four in England and Italy in contrast to Spain, they hold weak middle-table teams, whereas their Spanish counter-parts are clearly better. Proof of this idea is the dominance of Sevilla and other Spanish teams in the UEFA Cup a couple of seasons ago. With all due respect to Aston Villa, could you imagine them ever beating the Andalucians? Not in a million years.

In the end, with Valencia succumbing to fiscal problems, and del Nido’s Sevilla not producing any noticeable impovement, La Liga continues to be a two-man game, despite being one of the most – if not the most – entertaining league of the Big Three.

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