Will there be an end to the duopoly in Spanish La Liga

The Spanish La Liga, reputed to be the most exciting league in the world will kick off today. The world’s two best footballers, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, ply their trade in the La Liga. If Gareth Bale makes his much publicised move to Real Madrid then along with Neymar, the two heir-apparents to the two aforementioned behemoths will also be playing in the La Liga. So with the talents present, the La Liga should be the most thriving league in the world. However sadly, it is not. La Liga is dominated by the two giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Such is their dominance that in 82 years of the La Liga, Real Madrid and Barcelona has won 32 and 22 titles respectively and since the 2004-05 season it has been only once that these two clubs have not finished in the 1-2 positions. 

What is the main reason why Madrid and Barca are so dominant the last few season? The answer is that Real and Barca benefit from individual television deals which give them around half of the total revenue generated by La Liga and help them to maintain squads whose second XIs could probably finish in the top half of the table. So while all the other clubs have to sell their best talents due to the financial crunch, these two teams have been able to strengthen their squads every year. Even this year the other big teams of the league lost their best players. Atletico Madrid lost their best player Radamel Falcao, Valencia lost their talisman Roberto Soldado and Seville lost both of their most influential players Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas and Malaga and Real Sociedad lost their best talents to Real Madrid.

So can anyone end this duopoly? Valencia finished 3rd for three consecutive seasons and last season Atletico Madrid ran close though ultimately they finished nine points behind Real and 24 behind Barcelona. This season also, with the massive outflow of talent from the rest of the teams, it is likely that the duopoly would not end soon. However there is hope for Atletico Madrid to mount a decent challenge for the title this season, since they now have stability. Even though they have lost their top scorer, they have bought Spain’s greatest goal scorer of all time David Villa. They broke their jinx against Real Madrid last season by beating their city rivals to claim the Copa Del Rey after winning the Europa Cup a season before. If any team in Spain can break the dominance of the twosome, it’s going to be Atletico Madrid. Expect them to mount a decent challenge for the title this season.