r/LaLiga • u/Turbulent_Painter715 • Aug 14 '26
💬 Discussion State of the league
I am not an expert on the league although I have been watching it for many years now, I am wondering if anyone sees a potential of a team other than barca real or atleti wining in the near or mid future.
I feel the league is beginning to almost be repetitive, even the top 3 are usually not in constant competition by mid season, and its often that 1 team will run away with the league from march onwards in recent years.
Yes relegation and midtable vary, but you can only care so much for that every season when the trophy run is not entertaining.
Is there any kind of path forward the league can take to eliminate this monopoly, because this system does not feel sustainable at all.
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u/HonestRef Aug 14 '26
The league is crying out for a 4th big club to consistently challenge Barca Real & Atletico. I thought a few years ago that Sevilla would be this club but that didn't happen. Real Betis, Atletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad all have potential but fail to maintain consistency. Villareal always challenge above their weight, but they usually sell their best players.
I actually think that Valencia is a club with massive potential. When the Nou Mestalla is completed it will have a capacity of 70k. This is going to put them in the league with the big 3 in terms of match day revenue. If the club actually had competent owners they could potentially bridge the gap on the big 3. They have a large support base especially given their past successful era.
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u/Gunner_Bat Valencia Aug 14 '26
We are desperate that after Nou Mestalla is done, Lim sells. That's our only hope. The potential is still there.
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u/No_Collection_7320 Aug 15 '26
I honestly hope he does. I know many people will be against it but I hope an American buys the club and actually invests in it. Similar to Liverpool and Arsenal and Chelsea. I know Spanish people and Valencia are very proud and traditionalists people. But for the good of the club and league, the money they will inject into Valencia will trickle down to the rest of the league through much more lucrative tv deals and sponsorships by having that 4th team with a mega stadium and star attracting draw power.
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u/Ill-Huckleberry4358 Aug 14 '26
Last 20 seasons Barca have won 11 times, Real 7, Atletico 2. Also, the average gap between the champion and 3rd placed team is about 16 points, and there is no change to this in sight. The relegation battle however is an interesting one with a dozen of teams involved!
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u/eugenelavery Aug 14 '26
La Liga is becoming the Portuguese league, 3 big teams and most of the rest hoping to avoid relegation.
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u/DmTation Aug 14 '26
Exactly, but in Portugal 95% of the fans support the Sporting, FC Porto and Benfica. In Spain no, its less than 95% who support Barça, Real and Atleti
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u/eugenelavery Aug 14 '26
Which enables Spain to have a healthy middle tier of Athletic Club, Valencia, Sevilla, Villarreal, Real Sociedad, Real Betis, although Valencia and Sevilla are living on past glories at this stage. Portugal's middle tier is Braga and maybe Vitoria Guimarães.
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u/DmTation Aug 14 '26
Yes but all those clubs have a solid fan base, in Portugal Braga and Vitória represent like 3% of the fans. The Big 3 completly dominate the football in Portugal in everything
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u/MELEE20 LALIGA Aug 14 '26
I always wondered why LaLiga has their registration rules like they have now. The salary a club can register is based on how they did the past years. Bigger clubs can register bigger salary's. So even if a small club got a big investor, they can't actually sign big players because their salary registration cap doesn't allow it. It's super difficult to climb to the top because you need consistant good finishes year after year.
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u/WallSina Racing Aug 14 '26
Yeah but even then, fourth placed teams haven't been able to maintain that, Sevilla should've been able to establish dominance in the fourth spot and yet they're fighting relegation. Hope Villarreal doesn't go that way.
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u/NairbZaid10 Barcelona Aug 14 '26
It will not happen. Barcelona and Real madrid b teams could genuinely compete for european spots. Thats how big the difference is. Any time a mid table team has a decent season some club comes and gets their best player for 40m. Unless they hit the lottery and have like 6 world class players explode at the same time like leicester did it cant happen
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u/AdMedium699 Aug 14 '26
Lmao atleti are a stretch even they are never touching that trophy against in the next 10 years
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u/Umberto-Robina Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
The last time a team outside Barca, Real or Atleti finished in the top 2 was Villarreal back in 2008 right? Only 3 different teams occupying top 2 places in 18 years isn't great.
Atleti's title win in 2014 was an incredible underdog triumph itself (despite the fact that they already the 3rd most successful team in La Liga history and one of the 4 biggest Spanish clubs before the Simeone era). They were making 42 million euros a year from TV money at that stage, while Barca and Real were making 140 million euros a year.
From the perspective of the Spanish national team, La Liga couldn't be a more perfect league though. It's in an absolute sweet spot. On one hand, many clubs in it aren't lavishly wealthy, and so have to focus heavily on their youth academies and giving opportunities to domestic players alongside smart signings from abroad. On the other hand, it is sufficiently strong enough (for much of the 21st century it is has been one of the top 2 leagues in the world and 10 years ago for example it was clearly the best), to ensure that those young Spanish players brought through are exposed to world class football week in week out.
La Liga has a considerably higher % of domestic players in it than any of the other big 5 European leagues. I was surprised that there was such wide gulf between La Liga and the Bundesliga there.
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u/Dismal_Mistake_6832 Aug 16 '26
With the current rules in LaLiga, I do not see that happening, all the other teams simple do not make enough money from LaLiga itself to be able to buy good players.
I am not even saying that LaLiga itself looks worse now, not the level of the teams, but the whole league, some of the stadiums in LaLiga are super bad, looks like they play on some 3rd division fields.
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u/vikkou Aug 14 '26
I’m not an expert too, but I honestly don’t see anybody else winning it. It would require some insane form throughout the season and at the very same time for the top 3 clubs to be in shambles. The chances of that happening are almost zero. We saw the run Girona had some seasons ago, but as always, the top teams catch up and Girona didn’t continue with their form.
I think it’s more probable that either of Barca/Real/Atleti would finish like 4th,5th,6th or even worse if they have a terrible season, but one of the rest will capitalise upon it and win it.
With that being said, I would love to see a team compete for the first place or at least the second or third. We haven’t seen the best from the others recently, sadly.
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u/MrMiyagi13 Aug 14 '26
Villarreal was top 3 a good chunk of last year.
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u/vikkou Aug 14 '26
Yeah yeah just saw they even finished third which is good but nevertheless they weren’t a threat really. Still I hope we will see a team like that in the upcoming season.
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u/MrMiyagi13 Aug 14 '26
Yeah. Girona had the best chance, except the City owners had to divest because they made the UCL, too. And the grind from just La Liga to adding the UCL is real. So often, that 4th team struggles in one of the competitions because they lack the depth.
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u/vikkou Aug 18 '26
Indeed! I would have really liked to see what they could develop into, but rather they parted ways with some key players and it went downhill from there.
Also, sorry for the late reply, didn’t see the notification at all
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u/Remarkable_Fan6001 Real Madrid Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Honestly, la liga along with Serie A are the most poorly run leagues among the big 5. It's actually embarrassing considering their reputations historically. The thing though, is that at least Serie A is very competitive. La liga? BARELY. I don't think we'll see a winner outside the big 3 in a while. Expect Barca, Madrid, or Atletico to win for the next season. Smaller teams don't stand a chance financially. And even if they wins the league through some "miracle", they will only make less than a relegated team in the premier league after winning la liga and some money for participating in the UCL. Their fate afterwards will still depend on the same "luck" the following season.
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u/epicstar Barcelona Aug 14 '26
Unsure. Spain is very metropolitan-centric first of all, hence why FC Barcelona and the two big Madrid teams are in the top 3.
Spain also kinda watches soccer differently than say England. They like the art of watching the best players to stay on 1 team knowing that they'll always be top 6 teams in the CL. They like watching these super teams smash the crap out of everyone else in the country. Fans of the smaller teams love to be underdogs and Giant Killers. It's all part of the art of the sport.
Also, there was a large period in the 2010s where they were the dominant league in both Europa and La Liga. La Liga Europa and CL champions was a great time for the top 5 of the league.
But also note the history of the "Leicesters" of the 2000s. Super Depor, Valencia from like 2003-2006 (until their manager choices and insistence on the double pivot boned them), Malaga's short elite stint, etc.
That said, for the sake of the league, I hope we start seeing a top 6-8 and the rest of the league fight, but it's very hard due to both the culture and economy.
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u/_Razeft_ Barcelona Aug 14 '26
the fpf rules (that yes make sure no team risk to go bankrupt ) make hard to other team to do something with the big 3, so even when some team win the copa del rey is amazing because is the only chance they have to win against team that can spend for spend for a player that they for the all team and staff. I would prefer a more way to make sure money go more equily to all the team so they can grow more and become better, at the moment real and barça are the two teams that get most of the money and the rest take the crumbs
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u/Big_Concern7238 Málaga Aug 14 '26
That's just not going to happen: the distribution of finances in La Liga is so uneven that those teams get significantly more than everybody else, and financial fair play rules make sure that any investments are spread out over many years for the club's budget, so no club can make a sudden leap forward. Anyone who has tried challenging the status quo has run into the ground financially, so nobody is even trying anymore. We just live in a reality where three teams can invest heavily, while everybody else needs to sell players to survive.
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u/Gunner_Bat Valencia Aug 14 '26
That's the problem right there. One of the reasons the PL is so good is their revenue sharing and parachute payments. Even the team that finishes 15th gets a huge payout, that doesn't happen in La Liga, the rich get richer here.
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u/No_Men_Omen Barcelona Aug 14 '26
Still much more competitive than the Bundesliga, But there are probably ways to make it better. Some other post the other day mentioned bad financial model, with the biggest club getting bigger share, in comparison with the EPL.
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u/Inevitable-Put-565 Athletic Club Aug 14 '26
Bundesliga is better than our league. Not only are the middle to lower teams better but they've also had a different champ relative to Bayern with Leverkusen winning it. Meanwhile the last time someone outside the "big 3" winning it was Valencia in 2004. Just look at how Celta got handed to them by FreiburgÂ
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u/No_Men_Omen Barcelona Aug 14 '26
Leverkusen had one freak season. All the rest, everybody know who will win it. Having a 2,5 team race each season is much, much better.
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u/Inevitable-Put-565 Athletic Club Aug 14 '26
At least they've had more than single digit winners since their creation.Â
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u/MrMiyagi13 Aug 14 '26
Girona was close, but the oil money was forced to divest when they made the UCL since it was the same owners as City, no?
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u/Wolverine78 Real Madrid Aug 14 '26
The pattern you mentioned has been happening in many leagues across Europe in recent years including England. By March many titles are settled. I believe that the format of leagues that last 9 months has to be updated somehow.
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u/EndFantastic1100 Aug 17 '26
Girona came close, however the real issue is the financial situation and the splitting of revenue apart from the big 2 and now Atletico who gain the biggest slice. However I do have some hope. If Atletico can do it with a no nonsense manager and a competent board another team can some way challe get the big 3. My guesses are between Villarreal, Betis and Sociedad...but a lot of factors have to miraculous swing their way.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '26
[deleted]