LaLiga boss: ‘The Club World Cup will help destroy the league ecosystem’

Javier Tebas was one of the high profile guests at the third edition of the Thinking Football Summit, organised by the Portuguese League in Porto.

President of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, was one of the high profile guests on the bill for the second day of the Thinking Football Summit which is being staged in the city of Porto (Portugal). The LaLiga boss is never one to shy away from speaking his mind and sat down with the event host Pedro Pinto to analyse a series of matters that concern the league executive.

Tebas was particularly scathing when the matter of the current packed football schedule was raised with a new expanded Champions League, the expanded World Cup on the horizon and the inaugural 32 team Club World Cup that FIFA have earmarked for next summer. “Before making decisions, we have to meet, agree and sit down to negotiate with those affected” stated Tebas.

“What is the Club World Cup about? The tournament is being held to raise more money. Some 2 billion dollars and 20% of that will go to the clubs, which will be the ones that participate. First, this will create a bigger economic difference in the national leagues between the biggest clubs and the rest and that will impact on competitiveness”.

“It also means that 200 footballers will play in the main tournaments, Champions League, World Cups, and European Cups. That added money will go to them and in Europe we have more than 50,000 professional players, those 200 will have more money to spend, at the expense of their health. What does that mean: Will they be able to buy four Ferraris instead of five or a bigger house? Is that what we want with football?

The Club World Cup, at the competition level, will take up another summer, which means that domestic calendars are constricted: playing during the week, playing in competitions... A football ecosystem, which has been a success for more or less the last 20 years, is destroyed by tournaments like this. For what? I repeat, to raise 10% more. 200 million dollars (180M€). Can’t we do other things to raise that money? For example, why don’t we fight more against piracy. Things are done without thinking,” concluded Tebas.