Scare for Bayern last night.

"They've been making moves to remedy this over the last couple of years"

ie become well-run.
Well, La Liga / CL success should fill the coffers a little bit.

I still wouldn't go as far as saying they are well run, they just have a brilliant manager.

We'll see how well run they are when he leaves. Agree about the success part filling the coffers. Especially if they can sustain CL qualification - which has been one of their biggest problems over the years.

Hopefully Simeone stays there and can continue challenging the big two. I fear it will fall apart when he leaves and they'll be back to where they were before he came in - unless they can find another similarly brilliant manager.

Sorting the finances will help lessen (but not totally prevent) players being asset-stripped from them. On pitch success equally so.

We shall see.

Yes that's true.

They're moving to a bigger stadium in 2016 as well, so that could see increased revenues. However, I'm not sure how they've structured financing that new stadium so I don't know how much it will effect them financially.

If it has a short term damaging effect, a la Arsenal, then Bilbao could potentially overtake them as Spain's third club if they cannot keep their manager and players - Valencia also could if their prospective takeover goes through.

This is the sad thing about Spanish football, Madrid and Barca are the only constants as they are so much bigger and richer than everyone.

"This is the sad thing about Spanish football, Madrid and Barca are the only constants as they are so much bigger and richer than everyone."

The disparity in TV revenue was shocking (see the Deloitte report) .
If the PL operated like that, there would be near riots.

Yeah it's ridiculous. I remember the new president of the LFP making claims that he was going to do something about it but as of yet I've not heard of any moves to try and change it.

"I remember the new president of the LFP making claims that he was going to do something about it but as of yet I've not heard of any moves to try and change it."

Madrid and Barca get 4 times more than they do.
To put this in perspective, Spurs got 60% of the broadcasting revenue that Man Utd (the Empire and thus the biggest English TV draw) earned.

Just reducing that to twice as much would mean a whole new ball game for Atletico in La Liga.

Yeah I completely agree.

Has the CL draw for the semis been made yet?

Atletico had to sell off their best players because of their unmanageable debt, largely inherited from the Gil era - they even went into administration a few years ago - but the fact is his sons are still the majority shareholders.

Even after their first EL success a few years ago, the fans were still outraged at the owners and calling for them to sell their share of the club.

A lot of things have fallen into place for them, but as successful as Simeone's been, I do think the style of football and the character he instills into the team is the sort that has a sell-by date. I'd be very surprised if he's still around in a couple of years' time and the club are still performing at their current level.

I have every respect for what they're achieving, but I still much prefer Klopp in terms of combining both an attractive and sustainable model of football.

As for Bayern, the impression I get is that this year Pep's been seeking to do just about enough to ensure results rather than put on a show for the fans. I can understand why, because the level of expectation was ridiculously high coming in on the back of a treble. It would've been extremely risky to try and completely change their playing style around and still blitz everyone in sight. It's very much been a results-driven season for them.

That said, if he does succeed in winning everything or at least come close, I would hope to see them playing with a lot more flair next season.