Titans duel for La Liga

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho (left) listens to Cristiano Ronaldo during a training session at the club's training grounds in Valdebebas, outside Madrid, on Thursday. Mourinho's side starts its new season at home to Valencia on Sunday. Susana Vera / Reuters

With superstars and big budgets, Real and Barca are set for another two-horse race for the Spanish title

Records promise to tumble again in the 2012-13 La Liga season as world powerhouses Real Madrid and Barcelona resume their duel for supremacy, threatening to cast Spain's other 18 clubs even further adrift.

Jose Mourinho's Real had to smash league points and goal-scoring tallies to end arch-rival Barca's three-year hold on La Liga last May, driven to exceptional heights by their rivalry with one of the greatest club teams of all time.

Barca has a change of face at the helm for the new campaign with the untested Tito Vilanova having big shoes to fill as Pep Guardiola's replacement, but after four years as assistant he brings a strong thread of continuity with him.

"This duel of titans forces the clubs and the players to become better," Mourinho, whose side starts out at home to Valencia on Sunday, told Portuguese television this week.

"The two clubs are fighting for world football hegemony."

Spanish soccer is basking in glory after the national team completed an unprecedented treble by winning Euro 2012 in July, having also scooped the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008.

Real and Barca supplied 11 of the 13 players who featured in Spain's 4-0 rout of Italy in last month's final in Kiev and with Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina's Lionel Messi added to the equation, their firepower is increased further.

Goal-scoring duel

As with the club rivalry, the goal-scoring duel between Ronaldo and Messi appears to spur them to ever greater heights, and the Argentine World Player of the Year amassed 50 league goals last season, to better Ronaldo's previous record of 40.

Real is closing on Tottenham Hotspur's Croatian playmaker Luka Modric to strengthen its midfield, otherwise its relatively young squad has remained largely unchanged.

Barca, who hosts Real Sociedad on Sunday, has added explosive Spain fullback Jordi Alba to its ranks for 14 million ($17.3 million) euros, and is seeking another defensive reinforcement before the end of the month.

Vilanova will need to nurture ageing stalwarts Carles Puyol (34) and Xavi (32), while hoping David Villa has not lost any of his sharpness after recovering from a broken leg which kept him sidelined for a large part of last season.

The strength of Real and Barca, the world's two richest clubs by income according to Deloitte's annual survey, and the success of the Spanish international team, contrasts sharply with the parlous state of the rest of La Liga.

Last year, the players went on strike to delay the start of La Liga over unpaid wages and this season's competition was almost put back because of a dispute with broadcasters over television rights which is still unresolved.

TV revenues

One of the key income streams that allows Real and Barca to continue to pull away from the rest of their rivals is their snaring of about half of the 600 million euro ($737 million) pot earned from the league's TV revenues.

La Liga does not have a system of collective bargaining and income-sharing as happens in rival European leagues, and this along with the eurozone crisis affecting the Spanish economy, and some irresponsible management, has weakened almost all of Real and Barca's rivals.

A clutch of smaller sides have slipped into administration in recent years, while medium-sized clubs have been forced to tighten the purse strings and very little money has been spent on squad strengthening.

Valencia, who has finished third but more than 20 points adrift of second place the past three seasons, has sold Alba to Barcelona and starts the campaign weaker on paper and with a new coach in Mauricio Pellegrino.

Malaga, who finished fourth, has celebrated its first ever qualification for the Champions League by selling Spain's Santi Cazorla to Arsenal, with rumors swirling that its Qatari owners are also considering selling their interest in the club.

(China Daily 08/18/2012 page16)