Javier Tebas, LaLiga President, 1st Speaker on WFS Live Powered by R9 (Source: World Football Summit) WFS Live - The coronavirus pan...
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| Javier Tebas, LaLiga President, 1st Speaker on WFS Live Powered by R9 (Source: World Football Summit) |
WFS Live - The coronavirus
pandemic has completely shaken up the football industry, with some leagues
having to be cancelled and with others only returning without fans. LaLiga falls into the latter category, having returned
on June 11th to complete the final 11 rounds of the campaign behind closed
doors.
There have been significant financial losses
for those involved in Spanish football, but LaLiga president Javier Tebas does not believe that
there will be serious long-term effects from Covid-19, assuming a vaccine can
be found and distributed. Speaking on the opening day of WFS Live Powered by Ronaldo,
Tebas mapped out a timeline for football’s gradual return to complete
normality.
“I think it will depend on the autonomous
communities,” he said when asked when we should expect fans back in Spanish
stadiums by interviewer Alfredo Matilla of Diario AS.
“We’ll see if it happens at the end of this season or at the start of next
season. It’ll be something awkward and in percentages. I think 30% of the stadium’s capacity is the maximum that there
will be. And it’ll be awkward because there will be a need to have
people entering early and they’ll need to be told where to sit and at what hour
they can go.”
Despite the inconveniences that will come with
the matchday experience in times of Covid-19, Tebas still expects
supporters will want to go. He said: “It will be more uncomfortable to go to
matches. But, I think that many fans will go at this 30%
level to see their team, even with this awkwardness. Until we have a
vaccine that allows us to all go together without any problems.”
Once a vaccine is ready, Tebas is
convinced that football can completely return to normal without lingering
aftereffects from the crisis. On that, he told the WFS Live audience: “I think that football will return to what football was.
Once we find a vaccine, maybe then it’ll take another year. But, it will go
back to what it was, with fans in the stadiums, with the stadiums full, with
the passion for football, with the same audiovisual broadcasts. The economic
values will once again be where they were. It won’t change a lot. It’ll change
what we’re doing right now, but we’ll return to what we were before and I have
no doubt about that. There won’t be an economic shrinking within three
years. I’m convinced that within three seasons, or
maybe a little less in my opinion, that we’ll be back in the kind of situation
that we had been in.”
Despite his optimism for the long-term health
of the football industry, Tebas does believe the 2020 summer transfer
window will be quite different to those of previous years. The LaLiga president
stated: “There will be some transfers, but those which each club can manage
economically. But, big signings paid in money, we’re not going to see
that. One of 100 million euros is impossible. And those above 50 million
euros, we’ll be able to count on the fingers of your hands and mine.”
Tebas spoke on the opening day of WFS Live, which is
running from Monday July 6th to Friday July 10th. It is still possible to buy a
ticket here, with all
net proceeds to be donated to Fundação Fenômenos and
the Common Goal Covid-19
Response Fund.
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| Javier Tebas, LaLiga President, 1st Speaker on WFS Live Powered by R9 (Source: World Football Summit) |
A SELECTION OF TEBAS’ QUOTES
FROM HIS WFS LIVE PANEL
On how LaLiga’s audiovisual rights are worth
the same as before to broadcasters:
“I believe that the audiovisual value won’t be
affected immediately. Everyone is saying there’s a
need to reduce the fees and what is being earned, but in my opinion the
audiovisual and entertainment sector is one of those that has come out
reinforced from this crisis. If we look at Netflix or HBO, these
companies have seen their subscriber numbers go up a lot. What can be affected
is the money that consumers have, but in general I don’t see there being a
major effect that can then affect us.”
On the potential damage had the season been
cancelled like in France:
“Only up to June 30th of the 2019/20 season, it
would have to been something over 1,000 million euros or 1,100 million euros in
losses, also counting what teams would have lost in the Champions League and
everything. By no longer bringing in revenues, it would have generated a
problem in terms of losses because we’re not a sector where the profit margins
are very large.”
On the need for economic control measures to
be maintained or perhaps made stricter:
“In Europe there has been an important debate
that we’ve been involved in about UEFA’s economic control, where some big clubs
wanted things to be laxer. We and the Bundesliga insisted that it can’t become
laxer. Quite the opposite. There’s still a need to be more
rigorous so that there isn’t a major difference between the revenues you bring
in, which have gone down because of COVID, and the spending, especially that on
wages and others you have in the club.”
On coronavirus’ effect on the European Super
League project:
“What this league has shown us, especially
for UEFA, is that strong
national leagues together can organize the calendar. Together we’ve tried to
ensure the audiovisual rights don’t lose value. We’ve realized that together we
can do things a lot better. That UEFA and the big clubs should not go on their
own. I think that has weakened the Super League project quite a lot
because many clubs have realized that it was very important to maintain their
national market and to save it during this situation.”
On whether he’d prefer Xavi or Neymar to
return to Barcelona:
“For Messi to stay at Barcelona.”
(Author: World Football Summit)
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