Real Madrid president Florentino Perez stirred up yet another controversy by suggesting that there is a bias in La Liga in favour of champions Barcelona.
Real Madrid have won just one out out of seven league titles since the return of Florentino Perez to the helm in 2009. The pressure at the club from the fans grows every year as they become increasingly frustrated with the persistent domestic domination of Barcelona. However, with that being said, this season the anger and disappointment of the fans has been lessened considerably with the Champions League triumph against their bitter city rivals. Fans will seek comfort in the fact that while their team has struggled to improve domestically, they have managed to reassert their dominance in Europe.
After Real Madrid won their final 12 La Liga games and still finished a point behind Barcelona, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez hinted at bias towards the Catalans, terming recent seasons as “not normal”. Perez is quoted by ESPN FC as saying, “It is not normal to lose with 91 points, 94 points, 92 points. Nobody ever got such points before. What is happening in La Liga deserves a special analysis.”
La Liga breakup in the future?
Perez was also questioned by reporters regarding the rising concern in Europe that some of the biggest clubs will form a breakaway league from the UEFA Champions League — a ‘Super League’ — if UEFA do not provide the clubs with more revenue and control of their respective leagues. The Real Madrid president replied by confirming that his club have asked UEFA to revise the format of the current Champions League as it has now become ‘tired’.
With Perez voicing a clear dissatisfaction with the current way the Spanish federation is conducting La Liga, it will be interesting to see what the reaction of their counterparts from Barcelona — who might feel compelled to defend their style of play and recent success — might be. In addition to that, with a chance of yet another Catalunya referendum in the near future, Barcelona could find themselves out of La Liga for geopolitical reasons.
