Thaindian News

Madrid, Sep 7 (IANS) Spanish football club Sevilla President Jose Maria del Nido has said he is meeting every club president in the Primera Liga, with the exception of those of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, in an attempt to end the domination of the big-two.

Del Nido has been a vociferous critic of the share of money from television rights, which sees Barcelona and Real Madrid receive around 140 million euros per season — over 100 million euros more than any other club in the Spanish league.

This difference in earnings has seen the ‘big two’ become increasingly dominant in recent seasons. Two years ago Barcelona were Champions with a 27-point advantage over third-placed Valencia, while Real Madrid were second with a 25-point lead over Valencia, while last season the difference was 25 and 21 points ahead of Valencia, who again finished in third place.

This season kicked off with Real Madrid winning 6-0 away to Zaragoza, while Barcelona romped home 5-0 against Villarreal, who had finished in fourth place last season.

Those results served to heighten fears that the big two will again totally dominate Spanish football this season and prompted Del Nido into action.

The Sevilla President has called a meeting of the presidents of all clubs in the Primera Liga to try and find a fairer distribution of money, thus leading to a more competitive tournament.

“This is a revolution from the grassroots, it is something like the French Revolution… and we will have to see how the King ends up,” said Del Nido on Spanish radio Tuesday.

Spanish television rights are negotiated on a club-by-club basis, in contrast to the English Premier League where the clubs negotiate collectively and all the teams receive a more even distribution of the earnings.

“This is an unstoppable movement, Spain is the only powerful football nation in Europe that shares out television rights in this way,” said Del Nido, who accused Barcelona and Real Madrid of trying to reduce the impact of the meeting to which they are not invited.

“They are calling the club Presidents and telling them to boycott the meeting,” he said.