Serie A: Breaking Away

So after years of seeing their competitive balance against English clubs wither away, Serie A clubs have decided to follow the English model and create a new "Italian Premier League." All this stems from a long-brewing disagreement between the big clubs in Italy and lower league clubs over profit sharing arrangements. The big clubs say their hands were tied and they couldn't afford to continue bankrolling the lower league clubs. An interesting development I should say and one that I'm sure one of my colleagues will cover thoroughly on the Italian side of things, but I'm sure the next question is with financial markets being what they are, what about Spain. Will they follow suit? Will we see a Spanish Premier League?

Doubtful. At first glance it seems like the obvious choice. Their cross-Apennines rivals are doing it then why not continue the trend? It's not as easy as it sounds. The television deals are convoluted enough in Italy, what with the northern clubs adverse to sharing revenue with the southern clubs, and both of them adverse to sharing profits with Serie B clubs and on down the line, but in Spain the division is not a bloc of powerful industrialist powers against regional southern clubs. Spain is Real Madrid and Barcelona. The rest have had to settle for a share of the rest of the pie. If however, the consequences of the financial meltdown start affecting more clubs in Spain and there is a push for a more equitable profit sharing arrangement, then maybe you'll see the big two cave in and agree to a more English style league management system.

More power to Italy, I wish the FIGC well as they have come under a great deal of criticism both domestically and internationally from their handling of the Calciopoli scandal, to the issues of violence, racism and the overall effectiveness of the Italian stadium infrastructure. They have seen a once proud league fall third behind their nearest rivals, watching the continued dominance of English football on the world's stage, and of course they are going to be jealous, it is doubtful that this measure would have happened if they didn't feel embarrassed by their poor performance in this season's Champions League.

Spain on the other hand, is blithely marching along thinking that the status quo is an acceptable sporting union in the globalized world of professional football.