‘Cash-burning machines’: Bundesliga chief slams Spanish clubs

Former Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said he had signed the Catalan club up to the Super League when he resigned in October [Albert Gea/Reuters]
Former Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said he had signed the Catalan club up to the Super League when he resigned in October [Albert Gea/Reuters]

The head of the German football league Bundesliga has hit out at Spain’s big clubs for being “cash-burning machines” whose interest in a breakaway European Super League is driven by their business failures.

Christian Seifert, chief executive of the German Football League (DFL), said the push for a breakaway was coming from Spain and some of the continent’s “super clubs” although he did not name the clubs.

Former Barcelona club president Josep Maria Bartomeu said he had signed the Catalan club up to the Super League when he resigned in October.

“The brutal truth is that a few of these so-called super clubs are, in fact, poorly managed cash-burning machines that were not able, in a decade of incredible growth, to come close to a somehow sustainable business model,” Seifert told the Financial Times’ Business of Football summit on Wednesday.

“If I was an investor, I’d ask if they are the right partners,” he added, suggesting that the money reportedly on offer to clubs to join such a breakaway is unlikely to resolve the club’s financial problems.

“In the end, they will burn this money like that they burned in the last few years. They should think about developing a sustainable business model and salary caps.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *