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8 months ago
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La Liga saw a tumultuous weekend on many fronts, most notably from the point of view of El Clasico.
The league’s title clash was drowned in controversy, with the referees seemingly favouring Real Madrid over Barcelona with their decisions through the 90 minutes.
Lamine Yamal’s disallowed goal, in particular, stirred serious controversy as the youngster’s effort was a perfectly legal goal.
Javier Tebas, the La Liga president, did not take long before he defended his league for the lack of optimal technology to aid referees in their decision-making.
Speaking to the media in a recent interview (h/t FCB World), the league president again addressed the lack of goal-line technology in La Liga and defended his position of avoiding its incorporation.
“This technique has been around in football for years, and if you look at history you will see that it made big mistakes. It is not a 100% perfect technique, otherwise we would have brought it to the Spanish League.”
“In addition, 3-4 cases of this type occur throughout the season and the cost is very high for the price,” he added.
Tebas then justified the other means of solving goal-line-related decisions and why they were superior to the missing technology.
“There are other solutions, such as adding other cameras. If this technology improves, we will bring it here. I have been here for ten years and many of these cases have been solved by VAR.”
Tebas commends Barcelona’s efforts to lower salary bill. (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)The La Liga president was then quizzed on Barcelona’s economic situation and how the club were trying to cope with the trying conditions to recover from their setback.
“The data indicates that the club has made a great effort to reduce its salary bill in general, and not just for the first team. They made a very significant reduction,” he said on the improvement.
He then went on to negate the argument that Barcelona were heavily in debt and clarified the club’s real situation.
“They don’t have a debt problem per se. it’s a problem of restructuring all of their revenue, restructuring the debt, but not the amount,” he said.
He then explained how, excluding the stadium renovation costs that must be covered separately, Barcelona were actually on a positive trend in terms of finances.
“If you exclude the stadium, which like the Bernabeu will be paid from the revenues they will receive, it is not a 1-1 debt, because they will receive almost €900 million next season against a debt of €600-700 million.”
“This is not worrying. They must continue on the line they are now following.”
“What was worrying was that their salary bill was very high compared to the level of revenue, and this had decreased by a significant amount within two years,” he clarified on where Barcelona’s financial problems actually were.
Despite insisting that the Blaugranas were on their way back up, Tebas insisted that big signings, at the moment, were still significantly out of the club’s reach.
“Yes [New contracts will be difficult], because they carry losses, and they must recover this gradually.”
“Of course today it’s not possible, but I think maybe in two years it might be possible,” he added when asked if Barcelona could make a Kylian Mbappe-esque signing in the near future.
Finally, Tebas rounded his interview by commenting on another polarising topic – that of hosting La Liga matches outside Spain occasionally.
“I don’t know. I think sooner than later,” he said when asked about the same, notably not denying its possibility.
When asked if it could be seen as early as next season, he added: “I don’t think so, I think it will be the next season. 2025-26 is a goal I set for myself.”
