'Money-Hungry' Real Madrid Want Everything Barcelona Have, Raps Liga Chief

Javier Tebas, the head of La Liga, has launched an astonishing attack on Real Madrid, branding the capital club as "money-hungry and power-hungry."

Tebas was speaking with AS (h/t Miles Chambers of Goal) about the change in regulations to La Liga's television rights from 2016-17, which will see a collective sale of the rights to broadcast the action. In the past, both Real Madrid and Barcelona have been able to negotiate separate deals from the rest of La Liga, which have naturally been of superior monetary value.

It’s a new ruling the La Liga chief revealed all of the clubs agree with apart from Los Blancos:

"

I talk again of a war in Spanish football because of all 42 clubs involved in the centralised distribution of broadcasting rights just one—Real Madrid—do not agree.

Why? Well you'd have to ask Real Madrid. If we knew the reasons why it signed a contract with [Spanish broadband and cable provider] Telefonica in May—an agreement which would qualify as strange to say the least—that would help us understand.

Madrid are a great club who believes itself to be a champion of transparency; but the truth is that they have other interests than the rest of La Liga. I think Madrid wants to keep control of its broadcasting rights.

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Tebas also claimed that Madrid’s intentions may have been prompted by greed and accused them, in the wake of the aforementioned agreement with Telefonica, of wanting everything Barcelona have:

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It's a mix of being money-hungry and power-hungry. It is not clear what they are up to. Their agreements with Telefonica and Microsoft are strange to me and I've told Madrid that.

I believe their agreement with Telefonica is because Barcelona signed one similar with the same company several months earlier and we know that Madrid must have whatever Barcelona have. I suspect this whole mess stems from that.

"

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The ability to negotiate unique television deals has been key to the development of a chasm in class between Real and Barcelona and the rest of the division. With that in mind, it’s of little surprise that Los Blancos, who have won just one league title in the past seven seasons, are keen on preserving the current duopoly.

New broadcast regulations will see Spanish football geared toward a Premier League-style of distributing rights, something Bleacher Report’s Rob Blanchette doesn’t think is necessarily a good thing:

But for the sake of La Liga, a competitive division is important. The new regulations set to be implemented, though still favouring the illustrious teams in the league, should help restore some sense of parity.

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Barcelona romped to the treble last season, securing the Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League titles while playing with a swagger. At this juncture, Real are a long way behind their eternal rivals, and the prospect of teams such as Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla now having added resources to potentially close the gap will be a concern.

But as is evident by Tebas’ claims, there are few involved in La Liga who would shun the chance to establish a more competitive division. That’d only serve to enrich the spectacle and the accompanying financial gains; it’s something that every side, Los Blancos included, would eventually reap the benefits of.