The strangest league

This Saturday, while the first LaLiga matches are being played, Barcelona will host Nàstic at the Johan Cruyff stadium, without an audience, in a pre-season duel that will mean the debut of Ronald Koeman on the Barça bench.

This is how strange this tournament begins, marked by health protocol, with schedule changes until the last minute due to the conflict between LaLiga and the Federation, with Madrid, Barça, Atlético and Sevilla in the waiting room, with the doubt of which Messi will be seen and with the clubs more aware of the piggy bank than of the signings.

Security measures.

For once, League and Federation understood each other for the protocol that will affect the competition.

Among the new regulations, the obligation for each entity to present an alternative field outside its autonomous community.

Clubs may only postpone one game per season -two in Second-, not beyond matchday 30. For a match, a minimum of 13 footballers must attend, five of them from the first team if it is because of the covid.

The five changes will follow and teams will be able to reach the field with only 40 minutes notice.

Friday and Monday.

The last chapter in the internal conflict in Spanish football, which seemed settled after the days that were completed the previous season behind closed doors, has meant that the sole Competition judge decreed the prohibition, just 48 hours before the start, of the championship is played on Fridays and Mondays.

The tournament was going to be released with a Granada-Athletic, this Friday at 9:00 p.m., and LaLiga had to relocate it on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

The first day closed with Alavés-Betis, which was to be played at 9:00 p.m. and will now be played on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Nobody has taken into account the forecasts of the clubs involved, which must accept the change and resign themselves to the struggle.

LaLiga, which intends to play Friday and Monday, will return to the burden on its claims.

Messi case.

The burofax that Leo Messi sent on August 25 to FC Barcelona altered the biorhythms of Spanish football.

In the coldest way, the best player in the world announced his break with the club of his life after so many years of romance.

At a stroke, the value of the championship was devalued.

LaLiga, which lost two seasons ago to Cristiano Ronaldo and three to Neymar, was, a priori, without its most important asset.

The subsequent retraction of the footballer made his club and also the national football business sigh, but it leaves a trace of uncertainty.

Messi is already training again with his team (yesterday on the squad's free day), although it gives the feeling that he is sentimentally moving away from him.

In addition, the matter seems closed in false.

The consequences remain in the form of a probable motion of censure against President Bartomeu —this Thursday it was confirmed that the elections will be on March 20-21—, with a staff to be renewed and with the vices of so many years of coexistence.

The transition seems complicated in one of the giants of Europe.

The new normal is to know what will happen to Messi.

Delayed debuts.

LaLiga begins without the great express players in the running.

Neither Real Madrid, nor Barcelona, ​​nor Atlético, nor Sevilla will still play the first day of the championship because they finished the competition later than the other clubs.

Getafe and Madrid will act on the second tournament date, as they were eliminated in the Europa League in the round of 16 and in the Cham pions in the second round respectively.

Even in this matter, the season that begins at two speeds is atypical.

The European criterion also applies, both in First and Second, to the teams that fought in the promotion of promotion: Elche, Girona, Zaragoza and Almería.

Different fields.

Real Madrid has not played at the Santiago Bernabéu for half a year, and does not contemplate doing so until the corresponding bodies allow the holding of matches with the public.

Meanwhile, the works on the Paseo de la Castellana stadium will continue.

The team will play its home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano de Valdebebas stadium.

Levante, who played behind closed doors in La Nucía (Alicante), at the end of last season, plan to return to the Ciutat de València on October 25 against Celta.

Before, in the first six days he has scheduled four away games, one postponed against Atlético and the other against Madrid pending the venue.

Penniless.

LaLiga saves money with the new course.

After summers of waste, the pandemic has depressed the market.

The Spanish championship no longer occupies the head among those who spend the most on new acquisitions.

This summer it has dropped to fourth place, behind the English, Italian and French leagues.

The previous season, only in the British Isles they moved more money in transfers.

While the Premier has spent 825 million euros, Spanish clubs have invested 280 million, and 343 have entered, with a favorable balance of almost 63 million.

Nothing to do with the 1,330 million last summer in clubs.

In total, the Primera clubs have made 36 signings so far, almost half of the previous summer (68).

Barcelona has spent 91 million between Pjanic and Trincão (103 in total).

Sevilla paid Milan 24 for Suso and spent 13.5 on Óscar Rodríguez;

Getafe paid Barça 10 for Cucurella and no other signing surpassed that figure.

Real Madrid, curiously, has not signed.

The VAR.

Again the refereeing criteria change, a classic of each season, with or without a pandemic.

Clos Gómez, director of the VAR project, explained the changes this Thursday, especially in the actions in which a hand occurs.

The former referee pointed out that controls above the armpit will not be penalized, and that accidental hands in goal plays will only be punished if they occur immediately prior to the achievement of the goal.

If the referee doubts, he will have to go see him to the monitor.

In addition, penalties will not be repeated if the goalkeeper goes ahead but does not touch the ball and if he has not influenced the shooter.

Nor will the goalkeeper be cautioned for going ahead the first time.

According to Clos Gómez, in the "gray plays", the referee's decision on the field will be upheld.

From the room, they will only call you “if the decision is manifestly wrong”.

A decrease in revenue of € 4 billion

Chelsea have been the great, and almost unique, shaker of the European market with 223 million euros spent, the last 80 in Havertz.

It more than doubles the second in this list, Barcelona with 103, for Juventus's 87 and Inter's 86.5.

Precisely the Barça team assured this Thursday that European clubs will stop earning 4,000 million euros in the following two years because of the pandemic, and that already in the last campaign the income from television rights fell by 575 million.

According to FIFA, the value of transfers will drop between 20 and 30%.

This decrease in the coffers of the clubs already forced the previous year to budget readjustments and salary cuts in the workforce, and now translates into more sales than in hires, and in the increase of transfers and exchanges of footballers.

The major European leagues are already underway.

As in Spain, the presence of the public is currently banned in Germany, Italy and England, but not in France, where some matches of the first two days have already been played with a maximum of 5,000 spectators, although some clubs, such as Nice, They resigned on the first day to the presence of fans due to the danger of coronavirus in their region.