Real Madrid and Barcelona continue to dominate La Liga – what next for the rest?

Lionel Messi scored four as second placed Barcelona thrash third place Valencia 5-1

Barcelona’s thumping 5-1 victory over Valencia at the Camp Nou on Sunday night supported many people’s belief that La Liga is fast becoming a two-horse race. Fast becoming, or already is? Probably the latter. Comparisons have been made with the Scottish Premier League this season; not because of the quality of the football but because of the fact that only two teams are actually capable of winning it (Celtic and Rangers, of course, dominate in Scotland).

A betting man would probably look no further than Real Madrid this season for the title. Jose Mourinho’s men sit at the top on 61 points, ten clear of second-placed Barca and a whopping 21 points clear of third-placed Valencia. But while the gap between Madrid and Barca has surprised many this season, it’s the gap between the ‘big two’ and the rest that’s worrying for La Liga – something highlighted in Sunday night’s Messi-led rout of a Valencia side that was not so long ago competing for the title, and winning it.

After the match Unai Emery, the Valencia manager, admitted his side simply can’t compete for second place in La Liga, let alone the championship. While Emery declared that his side did perform below par, he also admitted that Pep Guardiola’s side “were far superior” and that his men were “at their mercy”. The most worrying thing was that it wasn’t entirely unexpected. While Arsenal were on the receiving end of an 8-2 humiliation at Manchester United this season and United got thumped 6-2 at home against title rivals Manchester City, those results were very much one-offs. For Valencia, third in La Liga and pretty much a cut above the sides below them in the table, you don’t expect much when they come up against Madrid and Barca, and a heavy defeat isn’t surprising.

Of course, it’s not just Valencia at the mercy of the ‘big two’. This season, for either of Madrid or Barca to draw, and drop points, is almost seen as a defeat in the race for the title. For those who inflict this ‘painful’ draw, it’s very much seen as a victory. It’s the way the Spanish league is going, and I can’t see it changing anytime soon. Money rules, and the majority of the clubs in La Liga simply don’t have any. While tales of debts will surround Madrid and Barca, they’re always going to have cash to spend – and bucket-loads of it. They can buy the biggest and best players in the world, as they always have done, and not bat an eye-lid. In contrast, Valencia, leading the chasing pack, have had to sell key players such as Juan Mata, David Silva and David Villa to keep their finances in check. They’ve had to postpone work on their new stadium, too.

It was thought that mega-bucks Malaga, the new cash-laden kids on the block, would offer a new threat at the top of the table but that hasn’t materialised just yet. They’re ninth and only two points off the Champions League places at present but their heavy summer spending – the most in La Liga, even above Madrid and Barca – hasn’t put them in the position that it perhaps should have. However, that could all change between now and the end of the season.

The dominance of Madrid and Barcelona isn’t anything new. Since the league started, Madrid lead the way in the titles won table with 31, while the Catalans are second with 21. Next up is Atletico Madrid with nine, Athletic Bilbao with eight and Valencia with six. That table almost mirrors the dominance of the big two this season. The all-time La Liga table also has Madrid first and Barca second. The last seven Liga titles have all gone to either the Santiago Bernabeu and the Camp Nou and there was a spell of eleven consecutive seasons between 1984 and 1995 when the duopoly snapped up the championship. Valencia had their day in the 2001-02 season and 2003-04 season, but those days now seem a lifetime away. Deportivo La Coruna, too, surprisingly snapped-up the title in 2000. Atletico Madrid took it to the other side of the Spanish capital in 1996.

There’s also the argument that you could stick the ‘big two’ in any league in the world and they’d still be the ‘big two’ at present, something that’s hard to argue against given the form of both sides not just domestically, but also in Europe. I’d wager a bet that teams in the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga and the Italian Serie A would enjoy competing a bit closer to them, however.

But just where will the next non-Madrid or Barca Liga winner come from – and when? With oil-rich new owners popping up around European football, probably there. The Spanish television rights system certainly isn’t going to help either, according to some of those clubs trying to close the gap. Unlike in England where television rights in the top-flight are distributed fairly, the system in Spain favours Madrid and Barca – the two big commercial pulls. A Sevilla-led consortium of 12 teams met in Seville earlier in the season to try and do something to change that system. Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido called the current TV rights deal “the unequal, unfair and outrageous system of distributing the financial rights from television”. A fairer change to that system may not act to give clubs other than Madrid and Barca a chance of winning La Liga, but it could certainly help close the current gap.

The duels between Madrid and Barca may be thrilling when they come around (and they are coming round more frequently, a discussion for another time), but La Liga would be better for teams like Valencia, Sevilla and Atletico amongst others competing as they used to at the top. Not thinking about drawing games with Madrid and Barca, but realistically being able to go toe-to-toe with them and beat them. I hope that situation returns to La Liga soon.

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