Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)TOP Spanish football teams are hoping to follow their English counterparts by encouraging foreign investment.
Sides from La Liga, Spain’s top division, have watched on enviously in recent years as international investors bought their Premier League rivals.
Manchester City and Chelsea are the two most famous examples of clubs whose fortunes have been transformed by massive foreign investment.
“We want to get to the position where potential international investors see the league as a place to do investment in the right way.”
Now, Spanish football chiefs have announced they intend to market themselves as worthy alternatives for potential big-money backers.
La Liga’s chief executive, Francisco Roca Perez, explained: “We want to get to the position where potential international investors see the league as a place to do investment in the right way.”
“I want to take steps forward in that direction.”
Roca Perez added that – with the exception of Real Madrid and Barcelona – several clubs in Spain were “living beyond their means”.
Spain’s big two are currently able to sell their TV rights individually for up to 150m euros a season.
Sevilla vice president, Jose Maria Cruz Andres, confirmed that most clubs in Spain “are in a bad financial position”.
He even added that some clubs in the second tier of Spanish football are currently running a wages to earnings ratio of 150 per cent.
