4. Scotland in the sun: How La Liga’s problems are more than just skin deep

Comparison with other leagues

La Liga is occasionally referred to as ‘Scotland in the sun’. This is a reference to the dominance enjoyed north of the border by Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic. The Scottish league is widely recognised as bordering on the ridiculous as the Glaswegian giants play each other several times a season to decide who wins the major trophies, while the matches against Dundee United and Arbroath are treated merely as shooting practice for the nation’s top two. The league is bereft of money and even Rangers and Celtic are a long way off making the latter stages of the Champions League.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are enjoying a similar level of success over their domestic rivals. In the 2009/10 season Sevilla, who finished 4^th, were closer to the relegation places than they were to winning the league.

In the same year in England, Tottenham Hotspur finished fourth and were 16 points from the top whilst their Spanish equivalents were 36 points from the summit. To illustrate the point still further, Spurs reached the last eight of the Champions League in 2011, whilst Sevilla went out at the before the group stage even began. Spain’s top two may be strong in Europe but the rest of La Liga’s Champions League contingent are nowhere. Valencia, Spain’s other Champions League representative, limped out at the first knockout stage at the hands of Schalke.

Real Madrid enjoyed their most successful La Liga season ever, in terms of points haul, in 2009/10 and yet still finished second thanks to Barcelona achieving the same feat. No statistic highlights the gap between Barca/Real and the rest more than this. Barcelona and Madrid, under Jose Mourinho, achieved similar levels of success last season.

There was another European League, however, where the 4^th placed team were closer to relegation than the top – the Scottish Premier League.

The German league is in stark contrast to their Spanish and Scottish counterparts. The competition is far greater, epitomised by having four different league winners in the last seven years, compared to La Liga’s two.

Bundesliga correspondent, and co-founder of German fanzine Der Toedliche Pass, Claus Melchior, reasoned: “More clubs than in other leagues benefitted from the occasional foray into the Champions League. It has been the case for a long time now that no club has been able to establish itself permanently as a major force besides Bayern. Moenchengladbach were big in the late sixties through the seventies, then Hamburg had some dominant years, then Werder Bremen were Bayern's major opponent, from the mid-nineties on it was Dortmund, then Bremen again, and so on. But in every decade there's also been a “freak” champion that came more or less out of the blue, most recently Wolfsburg.”

In the 82 years since La Liga’s began there have been just nine different winners, averaging an inaugural winner every 9.11 years.

In England, during the 123 years of domestic competition, there have been 23 teams that have won the domestic league title. An average of once every 5.35 years a new name is inscribed onto the trophy.

Germany has a newly crowned winner of the Bundesliga once every 3.86 years and in France it is every 4.03 years.

Even in Italy they have a more had more league champions than in Spain, 16 in all. Averaging a new winner every 7.06 years.

So there’s no denying this is an historical problem in Spain but it is the modern day margins that are of most concern.