Javier Tebas: "It's been a hard road, but now Spanish football's financial restructuring is almost complete"

On Thursday evening Javier Tebas took part in the second session of the Sport and Society Forum organised by the University of Navarra. The president of LaLiga gave a presentation titled The Keys to Spanish Football's Management Model and Success to an audience made up of representatives from federations, clubs, organisations, journalists and local politicians.

The leader of Spanish football's organising body began his speech by reminding the audience of LaLiga's origins and its main goal. "Spanish football is at a crossroads between the Premier League and a potential European Super League, which would be a failure in social and broadcasting terms," he said, adding that "if in the next four years we fail to successfully navigate our way past this crossroads we won't achieve our aim of being the best league in the world."

Tebas refreshed the audience's memory of the fact that "Spanish football was heading for bankruptcy, bearing a huge, seemingly unpayable debt" and pointed out that the enforcement of a priori financial controls has benefited the league. "It's very important that Spanish football is transparent, and that everything is set out clearly. It's a complicated system, but it has managed to reduce the debt." He argued that these financial controls have yielded a "major revolution" allowing LaLiga to "be competitive on the European stage," before outlining how this model has helped in the fight against match-fixing.

During his speech the president highlighted the fact that clubs have reduced their debts with players. "In the 2011/12 season we had a shocking scenario on our hands, with more than 300 players owed money," he noted, explaining that "thanks to the financial controls in place, there will be no such debts in the coming season." Tebas asserted that "it's been a hard road, but now Spanish football's financial restructuring is almost complete."

Tebas went on to explain LaLiga's internationalisation project – "In order to be able to compete with the rest of our competitors on a global level, we need to be financially sound" – and added that "our plan is based on bridging the gap between us and our competitors to avoid running the risk of losing the league's talent, and therefore the value of the league." The president highlighted the work of Spanish football's management on this front: "They have managed to keep the league competitive with the rest of the clubs in Europe, reducing debts and putting the clubs on a sound financial footing. Now the league is competitive."

Another subject Tebas addressed was the latest case of alleged match-fixing, which concerns the Granada CF v UD Las Palmas game this past April. He explained that, "In these situations LaLiga will keep doing what it has done in the past: investigate. Since legal proceedings are already underway, we have entered an appearance at the courts in Granada with the intention of getting to the bottom of the matter."

To round off, the LaLiga president took the opportunity to "condemn the silence in dressing rooms with regards to match-fixing," which he put down to a "false sense of esprit de corps." Tebas added that, "Nowadays players speak up more, but they still won't take things to court. Throughout the season, LaLiga goes down into the dressing rooms of LaLiga teams and their youth sides to explain the consequences of manipulating the competition and how to report these practices." He also stressed the fact that LaLiga's integrity and security department is armed with a €3m budget to help combat such issues. "We monitor betting, we have an investigation group made up of gambling professionals and police officers. There are always risks and I'm particularly concerned by what goes on in Segunda Division B and Tercera Division [the third and fourth tiers]," he concluded.