Blatter trotted out a bunch of facts and statistics which, as is often the case with the Fifa president, don’t stand up under scrutiny. He said that most clubs in Spain belong to the fans, or socios. It turns out, after research by The Guardian, that the actual number is four out of forty from the top two divisions; hardly most then.
More disturbing are the figures on debt. The overall debt of clubs in the top three Spanish divisions is £5 billion, more than in England. Of that, Barcelona and Real Madrid between them are £1 billion in the red.
Added to that, 85% of clubs are behind on the payment of players’ wages and there are fears of a players’ strike. (see next Blog).
Of course, fans of Portsmouth will probably testify that the system in England is far from perfect but putting up the La Liga as the preferred model in taking yet another pot shot at the EPL shows just how poorly informed Blatter is.
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