Its interesting what you are saying about the lack of popularity of the Bundesliga, but then how almost everywhere in the world tv channels are paying millions to broadcast it and then obviously people watch it in those countries otherwise they would never try to buy the rights in first place ?
I agree totally that it didn't look good. What I'm saying is that for Florentino to take such drastic action, it's probably not just because our guy didn't win. I think there has to be more. He did it despite knowing that our image would take a hit. That tells me the reason was probably deeper than what everyone thinks it is. Florentino is not stupid and has historically been right about a lot of things....
Because it fills the broadcast. You have to show Something. That's why sports rights are expensive. They are tied to zero production costs (the English feed of la Liga is produced in Spain, so you can basically buy something you can stream directly), and they fill the never ending need for content. Every time we discuss broadcast rights in Germany, the number goes down. The Championship (English second division) has actually become more popular than the Bundesliga and other leagues (Eredivisie) in several key markets. In the last negotiation round, this was actually brought up, that the Bundesliga is not competing with the Premier League anymore, they are competing with the second division and clubs like Wrexham. Oftentimes, taking a discount to have your football on another market is what's preferred. Example: Dazn is promoting the Saudi league, but they are actually broadcasting it FOR FREE. They paid for the rights but received an advertisement fee for it which totals at the same number.
And yet for all this "hate", Vinicius is a global superstar with multimillion deals in endorsements, has millions of followers across all social media platforms and is basically one of the top selling names on a Real Madrid kit which itself is a top selling football kit in general. Maybe instead of making up some scenario where everybody hates the club and it's players we look at the people across the world that support the club with their time and money. This is such a common trope in sports by the way. Bayern used to hang banners "your hate only makes us stronger", and yet theres a Bayern fanstore in Berlin that's actually super profitable. Wow, so much hate huh?
You can be both the most loved club and the most hated club at the same time. If there was an official poll for who's the German club with the most fans and another with who's the German club with the most fans rooting against them, Bayern would top both. Not all players/clubs are so polarizing. I've found Barcelona's messaging has always been more favorable for the neutrals to adapt. We are the big rich bullies and so long as we win fans love that, but fans also love rooting against us because of that. I'm not sure people will stop looking at Vini as a petty, arrogant troublemaker. As a club we have been very poor at controlling narratives, and us not showing up pretty much cemented this image of Vini. I feel these journalists will vote him down even more next year just out of spite because of our actions.
I think we can learn a thing or two about how they control the media narrative without coming out of it as us against the world.
There is the difference. For the most part, Madrid is mostly viewed as buying success. We reinforced that image with the Mbappé transfer. Barcelona's biggest contributions to the game are their academy players and coaches, something that the national team profited greatly of. So they basically contribute to the game overall, while we mostly contribute to our supporters and pretty much nobody else. I can handle that to be honest. Inventors are always more popular than investors.
How much of that success it’s just to a regional advantage. Yamal for example is from that region and therefore developed there. Is their academy really that good or does that Catalonia area simply produce better players?
"Shut up & dribble" energy from Rebecca Lowe. Wasn't Rodri suspended for chanting "Gibraltar is Spain"? But Vini should be disqualified for upcoming BDRs because he arranged a party. 1852382214958280956 is not a valid tweet id
Gavi for example visited both Madrid and Barca before he joined them. A lot of those talents are in smaller neighborhood clubs and go to bigger clubs via the annual tryouts or by impressing in tournaments.
Yeah, that makes sense. But what about La Liga then ? If you eliminate Real M and Barcelona other teams have almost no following outside the country, i doubt 70% of the games have regular viewers. I love spanish football, but recent years the quality and excitement of the league have fallen down in my opinion. So does that mean Premier League is the only big attraction league and others are level below considering world wide viewership ?
Well, for a matter of fact lot of people fell for their mes que un club shit during Messi + Pep's regime, about how they promote the beautiful game, how they cultivate players - while conveniently buying Henry, Villa, Zlatan, Neymar, Suarez yet was able to run with the story of victimhood and glorification, thats one thing we should learn from them, as @dooda pointed out neutrals favor Barca more than us as we are looked upon some evil institution where success is simply bought. Narratives are important.
Real Madrid could absolutely suck for the next 5 years and the club would still have millions of fans. The Yankees are 16 years without a world series and the Yankees logo is still one of the most valuable brand signs on the planet. It's arguably up there with the coca cola logo and the "apple" I can only laugh at this idea that everybody hates us. This is a huge money maker for UEFA. Both parties know it, it's all very manufactured.
Imagine how convinced Vini is that hes "fighting the system" now after not getting a BDO And the club feeding conspiratorial delusions by refusing to accept the results and protesting the legitimacy of the award... such antiestablishment, much wow! On another day I would have said its a dangerous precedent to make, since now anyone who doesn't like the outcome can just boycott the awards, but all of this is just a joke anyway. Who tf cares. Boycott it, create a parallel award, send Madrid ultras to glue themselves at the BDO venue... more fun all around. And about to become even more luducrious in the future. Exciting times ahead. And its not even just Madrid/Vinicius actions that show how much times have changed. Yes Vini is easy to dislike personally, but people voting back in the day didn't put nearly that much weight on personality. Now they vote with their emotions. We are witnessing a complete collapse of rational thought all around, and beyond this case and football. So lets just enjoy it lol. Anyway, for me the only thing that actually matters is Vinicius saying he will work even harder now. I'm still in awe after that Dortmund match. If he runs that much every game, we are practically unbeatable even with Carlo sleeping on the bench. It would be even more fun if he becomes even more of a bad boy just to torture BDO voters ahead of their decision
I was in awe at how he was outperformed by Rafinha just days later. As I said, the club deflected the Clasico fiasco so masterfully that people forget how pathetic everybody was in that game and we only talk about how "we the best"
He missed an insane chance that would have completely changed the course of the game, and one that he created through his own (amazing) skill. His finishing is much better than that so I'd ascribe it to bad luck. Again you know the whole team was bad, and you know why as well, but its really becoming a broken record. We will keep seeing it in the future, but if Vini can put the energy he had against Dortmund week in week out, it doesn't even matter if the team is bad. Unfortunately its probably physically impossible.
The whole team was bad vs Barca but against Dortmund, let's give the applause to Vinicius. Nah. The team wins and loses together and the team STANK vs Barca. Thankfully we have an impossibly soft schedule ahead of us before our players skip their national team to get Swedish "treatments" again, so the clubs communication trick worked wonders on the fanbase.
So your theory is the whole BDO shaeneningans was club's damage control for the clasico? Talk about solving a problem by creating a bigger one lol
It's exhausting to put yourself in the hole twice and have to play from behind. It's just not sustainable.