10/22/2020 18:00
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 10/22/2020 6:00 PM
Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish League, did not evade the question when asked whether a probable departure of Lionel Messi from Barcelona would be a detriment to the competition.
"
It would not be a drama.
Cristiano Ronaldo left, Neymar left and it is not a drama," replied the top leader of Spanish football in dialogue with the
AFP
agency
.
And he added: "Neymar went to PSG and I don't see that the French league has reached a higher international level. That is the reality. Those who think that the players are the ones who make the competitions or the mark of a competition, are wrong ".
In the middle of a conflict with Josep Maria Bartomeu and the Barcelona leadership, Messi tried to leave a few months ago, but decided to stay to avoid taking the club to court.
That Leo continues to wear the culé shirt does not mean that he does not continue to think about the possibility of fulfilling his contract -which expires in June 2021- and then signing with another team.
Surprisingly, Thebes seems not to care about the situation.
Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish Soccer League.
In contrast to what Tebas said, Messi is par excellence the visible face of Barsa and also of La Liga.
At the time, when the
bomb
of his possible departure
exploded
, the same competition issued a letter in which he expressed his position in favor of the Catalan club, noting that the link is until 2021 and that if he wants to finish it before he would have to pay the juicy 700 million euros of clause.
The reasons are sporting and also economic.
Although Tebas insisted: "
Messi will do what he has to do
, but I do think that the Messi-Barcelona trademark, which works so well, if Messi left Barcelona it would be very damaged.
I think Messi has to think very well what he does.
".
-Are you afraid that there may be another football break?
-There are no dates.
Stopping the competition would be difficult;
therefore it is necessary to work so that there is no stoppage.
-Do you have any forecast of when the public could be seen again in the stadiums?
-It is a decision that corresponds to the central government.
Until there is a vaccination - I see it difficult for us to see public in our stadiums.
In the short term it is not a priority;
the priority is that the competition continues and that it is not suspended.
-And now a Barcelona-Real Madrid without an audience ...
-Any game without an audience takes away a transcendental part of the game, but
the classic is the classic
.
It is the most important club match in the world.
It is a brand that has established itself as the Classic and attracts many people around it. "
Will Leo del Barsa's departure take place?
Thebes spoke about the economic present of the competition, taking into account this season of the coronavirus pandemic.
-What challenges does Spanish football face in the pandemic?
-The challenge, related to health, is economic.
The clubs do not enter by '
ticketing
' anything and that affects especially the big clubs.
We are one of the European leagues that has spent the least on incorporating players: last year it was 1,200 million euros (1,420 million dollars), this year just over 400 million (473 million dollars), but it is within the strategy plan .
-Do you have an estimate of what was lost last season and what could be lost in the current one?
-Last year it was around 600 million euros (710 million dollars) what our clubs lost and this season, if everything continued at the same level until its end, we would go to 1,000 million.
We hope that this can be recovered in January and February with the appearance of the vaccine or with some public attendance at the stadiums.
So we would talk about 600 million euros this season.
With information from AFP
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