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Following industrial action Spanish law has changed. Dermot Corrigan hopes the result is more responsible action from clubs
A most welcome wind of change may just be blowing through Spanish football, sparked by a players’ strike before the first round of fixtures. Twenty Primera División and La Segunda matches were postponed in August after the Spanish players’ union (AFE) head José Luis Rubiales led his players out in a dispute over €58 million (£50m) in unpaid wages. This is due to 200 first and second division footballers at seven different clubs.
Dermot Corrigan looks at how foreigners bearing gifts are being viewed with increasing suspicion by struggling clubs in La Liga
The fantastically wealthy foreign club owner was until recently unknown in Spain, where clubs have generally either been member-owned, dominated by local businessmen or, most commonly, a mixture of both. Then, last June, Qatar’s Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani bought Málaga, promised to sign at least five new players immediately, announced plans for a new 65,000-seat stadium and predicted Champions League glory within a few seasons.
Dermot Corrigan reviews a highly eventful La Liga campaign, in which Real Betis, managed by an Irishman, defied the odds
The long-term significance
La Liga was formed in 1929, and Real Betis' win this season was the first time one of the initially dominant "big three" of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao did not take the title. The leading clubs all featured players who had starred for Spain in the preceding summer’s World Cup finals. A skilful Spanish team were out-muscled in a quarter-final replay by the more physical Italians, who went on to win the competition watched by Benito Mussolini. Domestic Spanish football was also to suffer from the effects of fascism during the 1930s, with La Liga suspended once civil war broke out in July 1936. During the war separate leagues were organised in the Fascist and Republican controlled areas, before La Liga returned in 1939-40.
Once upon a time Chivas were just a Mexican club. Now they are part of an international branding exercise involving football, cola and dietry supplements, reports Martin del Palacio Langer
Football fans in Mexico were suspicious of Jorge Vergara when he announced his intention to buy the country’s most popular club, Chivas of Guadalajara, in 2002. Not least because his nutrition company, Omnilife, had sponsored Chivas’ arch-rivals Atlas the season before. When Vergara became interested, Chivas, whose large following stems from their policy of fielding only Mexicans, were in crisis. They were owned, like Barcelona, by their members, but for eight years had been run by a separate entity, the Promotora Deportiva Guadalajara, which initially injected large amounts of money but ran out of funds.