Seven of the 20 teams in the League have foreign owners. In total, 33% of the clubs are nourished by fortunes built in countries such as China, Singapore, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Brazil and Argentina. But these projects, unlike what happens in the Premier League, have not just found success in Spain. With eight days to go, four of these seven teams occupy the last positions of the League.
What began two decades ago with millionaires like Dmitri Piterman at Racing Santander or Al Thani at Málaga is something much more common today. Those histrionic and impulsive characters have given way to others, with exceptions, calmer. In general there are fewer promises, fewer star signings and more long-term work looking to lay solid foundations and, as a final goal, recover the investment. The multi-million dollar initial disbursements usually slow down over time and this greatly affects the results.
Right now the last four in the League are Elche, bottom team, Christian Bragarnik (Argentina), Chen Yansheng's Espanyol (China), Meriton's Valencia and Peter Lim (Singapore) and Turki Al-Sheikh's Almería (Arabia). Saudi). Ronaldo's Valladolid (Brazil) breathes thanks to their last two victories, but is still five points from relegation, while the other two entities with majority foreign capital, Robert Sarver's Mallorca (United States) and the City Football Group's Girona (Abu Dhabi), are living in the middle of the table this season.
There are many differences between all of them, but if the last four classified have been characterized by something, it is for being crushers of coaches. Peter Lim has consumed eleven coaches (with fourteen changes) in nine years at Valencia; Chen Yansheng, nine in another seven years at Espanyol; Turki Al-Sheikh, five in three seasons at Almería; and Christian Bragarnik, nine in three courses at Elche.
The most significant cases are those of two historical ones such as Espanyol and Valencia. In the case of the blue and whites, the promises of playing in the Champions League went to a historic decline a year after entering the Europa League. Legislative changes in China prevented Chen Yansheng from continuing to open the money tap and the club has suffered badly. Two seasons later, the lack of investment at the right time (Espanyol has spent 13 million in the winter market) and the sporting lurch have led the entity to an extreme situation.
In Valencia, Peter Lim has turned a regular in the Champions League into a selling club and has not reinvested the income neither in finishing the new stadium, half-built, nor in reinforcing the squad to return to Europe. In nine years, he has only managed to enter the Champions League on three occasions, and for the last three he has been hanging around the bottom of the table.
In the Second Division, another seven clubs have foreign owners (Granada, Albacete, Zaragoza, Oviedo, Sporting, Leganés and Málaga) and only the Nasrids and La Mancha have promotion options.
