Spanish clubs hit out at 'two-team' league
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Shanghai Daily, August 31, 2011
Real Madrid and Barcelona opened the season with crushing victories that signaled the top two's seven-year monopoly of the Spanish league will remain unchanged.
Three-time defending champion Barcelona routed Villarreal 5-0 on Monday, a day after Madrid won 6-0 at Zaragoza. Villarreal, playing in the Champions League, was considered one of few legitimate contenders with Valencia capable of dislodging the top two.
"If they want only two games per season then let them have two games but this is not good for football," Villarreal president Fernando Roig said, referring to the always anticipated clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid. "I give it three or four years but either this changes or we will kill Spanish football."
No other team since Valencia in 2004 has won the league, and while Villarreal and Sevilla have challenged since, there has been no change at the top.
Since 2009, Real has spent approximately 350 million euros (US$500 million) while Barcelona has tallied over 200 million euros.
"There's a difference between what some are spending and what others are and from that you can start to deduct the reasons," Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido said.
"In terms of economic might, they are generating a great difference in revenue compared to the rest of the teams who can only try and do the best possible and fight for everything they can."
Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido was even more stern against a league that considers itself a rival of England's Premier League as the world's best.
"Our league isn't the biggest joke in Europe but in the world," Del Nido said on Tuesday.
"It's a third-world league where the two top clubs suck in the television money that the rest of us help bring in. We're doing harm to the prestige of the Spanish league."
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