Yesterday morning Javier Tebas held a conference in Seville where he touched on various current issues. With Alfredo Relaño as the moderator of the talk, all those attending witnessed how the president of LALIGA spoke openly about issues such as piracy.
Before going into these very interesting statements, we at Esto Es Atleti have been attending these types of events thanks to the growth we have experienced in recent months. That is why we would like to thank all readers, both regulars and casuals, from the bottom of our hearts. Having said that, let's begin.
"We lose around 670 million euros a year"
This was the response of the president of LALIGA to the question put to him by Alfredo Relaño about the impact that piracy has on Spanish football today. The entire WFS Stage was surprised by such a figure indicated by Javier Tebas.
He also explained that "in countries like Mexico, piracy reaches 70%, while in European countries like France it does not fall below 25%." He also addressed a problem that the complaining parties have in this regard: "We are not so sure about how to tackle the problem without knowing the main actors. The problem is not only the pirate. The problem lies throughout the entire path in which companies like Amazon and Cloud First intervene."
And the president goes on to point to more companies: "Other culprits are messaging companies like WhatsApp or Telegram or social networks. Currently, we have a very serious problem with "X", since Elon Musk arrived he has fired many people and there is practically no one left in piracy."
And, above all, he points to one company: " Google is the main culprit because Android has a 70% market share. From there, people download applications that provide illegal content." These are blunt and direct statements from the leading exponent of the national football competition.
"We play by different rules"
Javier Tebas also addressed the topic of Financial Fair Play, which is so famous and recurrent these days. He also explained that France and Italy play by rules of financial fair play that are clearly different from leagues such as the German or Spanish ones.
"Ligue 1 and Serie A generate losses of more than a billion euros a year, the Premier League is starting to improve after the introduction of the sanctioning body. UEFA, I think, is also doing well with regard to the new measures implemented for teams playing in European competitions."
Continuing the comparison with other leagues, the president highlighted a very important one in reference to reducing the gap with the Premier League and indirectly pointed at Atlético de Madrid. "If we remove the two biggest clubs in both leagues, the Premier League beats us by 500 million followers. If we cannot reduce the gap, we will never get close to the English league."
The Strike Seems Imminent
Both at the conference and in his address to the media after it, Javier Tebas reiterated one thing: "It's time to say enough." The strike is about to take place and there are many voices that have echoed the words spoken by Rodri in the press conference. Javier Tebas was supported by FC Barcelona full-back Jules Koundé.
According to the president of LALIGA: " We will soon see action between UEFA and FIFPro (International Federation of Professional Footballers' Associations). The arrival of the Club World Cup has been crucial in this regard." He also specified that the relationship between ECA (European Club Association) and the national leagues is "a love-hate one, but it could be better."