25 July 2015

The Premier League Is The Best League In The World But We Will Fight To Keep The Best Players In Spain - Bartomeu


The English game now has even more money following the new £5.136billion television rights agreement. Barca's president insists that they will fight back by keeping the best players in the orld in Spain despite agreeing that the Premier League is the best league in the world.

That deal does not kick in until next season, but Manchester City have spent £49m on Raheem Sterling, Manchester United have spent nearly £80m and are ready to spend big on the likes of Thomas Muller or Gareth Bale if either player becomes available.

Spanish clubs have traditionally been the biggest spenders, Real Madrid paid over £80m for Cristiano Ronaldo and Bale recently, while Barcelona splashed out £75m to lure Luis Suarez from Liverpool last summer.


And Bartomeu is not scared the Spanish sides will start losing out on the best stars because of the Premier League's new TV deal.

"We are going to fight this," Bartomeu said on the eve of Barca's friendly against United in Santa Clara.

"It's true that the Premier League right now is the best league competition in the world, not only in a sporting way but in terms of income, too.

"The new television rights contract with the Premier League is something that the rest of the leagues, including La Liga, have to follow.

"But we want to have the best players in our league. Barcelona and Real Madrid, we are the biggest clubs in La Liga but also other clubs like Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla or Athletic Bilbao - they are doing a nice job and I am sure that they are going to try to have big talent too.

"Barcelona's income this year has increased to more than 600million euros, which is a record. No other club in the world has as big an income as Barcelona.

"We work hard, we know that the competition is getting closer so we have to get as much income as possible so we can try to have the best players and we want them to be paid at the level they are."

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