La Liga needs a Nou direction

For both the Spanish and the Scottish leagues, it sometimes feels as if a coin gets tossed when the season kicks off. One side is red and blue for Barça and the other side is white for Real Madrid. It spins in the air for a while but there are only two possible outcomes. There is a different-coloured coin in Scotland. Green and white for Celtic, blue for Rangers.

When a team is accustomed to winning, the fans become entitled and spoiled by success. I know loads of Barça fans and they’re not truly happy unless they win the treble (the league, domestic cup and the Champions League). 

Some football fans in Scotland got a bit bored of the status quo and lack of competition and so, a while back, a plan was mooted to create a higher-standard competition with the best sides from other, smaller footballing nations such as Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia. It never took off.

The Spain v Scotland league comparison only goes so far though because – and again, only ever whisper this softly in a Glasgow bar, especially if “the Old Firm” Celtic-Rangers derby is on the telly – Scottish football is very low grade. Proof of this is the fact that both Glasgow sides are flops in European competitions. 

The standard is much higher in Spain. Barça and Real Madrid have won the Champions League multiple times. Atlético Madrid and Seville have also won the Europa League plenty of times. Villarreal won it in 2021.

Things are a lot more fluid and far more competitive these days in the Premier League, which makes it so much more enjoyable to watch. Manchester United fans were once as smug and entitled as Barça and Los Blancos fans. Yet these days they’re enduring mid-table mediocrity and I reckon relegation would do them good. It builds character. 

Former Barça coach Pep Guardiola has lost his winning touch at Manchester City too. Leicester City won the Premier League title a few years back… they just got relegated for the second time since that glorious season.

Even Barça’s relentless success is not enough for their president, Joan Laporta. He is a big fan of grand plans for the European Super League (ESL). The original plan would have removed the threat of relegation for founding teams. There would be no trapdoor.

Man U were one of the clubs who would have formed the ESL but, on current form, they would not deserve a place on sporting merit alone. They’d only get in due to size and reputation, past glory days and, of course, their bank balance.

The ESL could only have been born from the minds of those “fans” who watch the games high overhead from plush corporate boxes. It’s a marketing, TV and advertising executive’s wet dream.

You can see why Laporta loves this idea. Barcelona’s finances are a total mess, for season after season the club lived way beyond its means and spent vast amounts on players who just weren’t good enough. 

A European league would provide guaranteed revenues. But without that jeopardy of relegation, and if the key decider is your size and bank balance, then that’s not sport. It’s corporate, made-for-TV entertainment, the same as most sport in the US. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool would all have been in the ESL and yup, you guessed it: they all have American owners. 

The original plan quickly collapsed after a backlash from fans for this very reason. But the idea has not gone away – it will be back in some form. 

Meanwhile here in Spain, Barça have won La Liga 11 times in the last 20 seasons and Real Madrid have triumphed seven times. Atlético Madrid won it twice. As a “neutral” (well, to be honest, I can’t stand Real Madrid) it would be rather lovely to see Seville or Villarreal, Valencia or Athletic Club (Bilbao) win it. Or even a smaller club like Girona or Mallorca.

Any competition becomes predictable, corporate and a wee bit boring when it’s just the same two teams, over and over again. Because the thing football fans really need is hope. They need to dream. 

Adrian Addison is a journalist living in Barcelona