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WED 16 NOV 2022 | PRESIDENTS
Javier Tebas: “This is the period in history when young people are watching the most football”
Javier Tebas: “This is the period in history when young people are watching the most football”
  • The LaLiga president spoke at the Web Summit in Lisbon, where he highlighted the importance of “working with data” to understand the behaviour of young people and of not pushing erroneous discourses.
  • He also stated that the European Super League is building its arguments on fake news.

The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, has outlined several arguments against the European Super League, pointing out that “they are building their arguments based on fake news”. At the Web Summit in Lisbon, he also stressed the importance of working with and having the right data, and of properly understanding the behaviour of young people and their consumption habits, so as not to destroy football.

He stated: “The diagnosis that they [the Super League] have made is that young people don't watch football, so they say the solution must be to change the formats. And the problem is that this diagnosis is wrong. This is the period in history when young people are watching the most football, also on social media, on OTTs, everywhere..”

Asked for more detail on the Super League's arguments, he continued: “The Super League builds a discourse which is: ‘I want to create a competition with the 20 best clubs in the world’. The rest don’t exist, and they build the discourse based on fake news. The European format, with strong domestic leagues and an excellent Champions League, is successful and should not be changed.”

With regards to the Super League’s position in Europe, the plenary of the European Parliament has issued a report against competitions that don´t have a base in sporting merit. On this, Tebas commented: “Whatever happens, there is a political desire to legislate or create directives that prohibit the creation of supranational competition models that damage domestic competitions. The will of the European Parliament and the various governments of Europe is very clear. I believe that the Super League will never succeed.”

Understanding young people's behaviour

To avoid misleading discourses, Tebas believes that it is essential to properly know the behavioural patterns of young people at different ages and to know how to reach each age group and in each country. In this sense, economic independence also plays a relevant role. As the president stated: “A European Union report showed that, in Europe, the population who become independent at the youngest age are the Swedes, and those who do so at the oldest age are the Portuguese. It’s 19 years old for the Swedes and 34 years old for the Portuguese. On the other hand, for young Spaniards, it’s at 29. We need to be aware of behavioural patterns. Between the ages of 19 and 29, youngsters in Sweden and Spain aren’t dealing with the same amount of money.”

He went on to explain: “It’s very important to understand consumer behaviour, and the key is to be there when young people become financially independent and can pay to watch football. It’s not about making new competitions or more interesting matches, because there are already plenty of them. The important thing is to know what is happening with the different generations.”

Continuing, Tebas told the audience: “The key is not to change the format of the competitions. We have to understand consumer behaviour, because more football is being consumed than ever before. On TikTok, it’s football that is being consumed more than anything. We would be bad directors if we didn’t know how to transfer those people from TikTok to payment.”

Making the second screens active and more informative

The LaLiga president also recognised the importance of “CEOs of clubs and companies being digital CEOs” to ensure the future success of football. He elaborated. “It doesn't depend on age, it depends on the interest you give it. I consider myself a digital CEO and I am 60 years old. Why? Because I study, because I watch and because I don’t want to say anything idiotic like claiming young people can’t consume 90 minutes with the running clock.”

A report by Nielsen for FIFA has concluded that 80% of those who are watching football are at the same time checking what is happening on social media. On that, Tebas said: “It's not that they want matches to last fewer minutes. They want those second screens, with social media, to work, to be more active and to have more information. But, not fewer minutes.”

The LaLiga president continued: “People now claim that live football isn’t being watched, yet that's not true either. Those who are most likely to watch pirated football streams are young people, and they watch football live when they pirate it. We don't like them pirating, but they are watching football. Young people watch it and they want to pay less, which is normal, and the important thing is to lay the groundwork so that when they are older then they can pay for it.”

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