Football has become business, postulates Ernesto Valverde
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Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde has admitted that the only reason the Spanish Super Cup is played in Saudi Arabia is because of the money that is on offer. The La Liga giants face Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals of the Super Cup with the winner set to play Real Madrid in the final.
The competition has been adapted from this season to include four teams instead of the usual two teams and has also been shifted to the New Year of every season. It was normally played just before the start of the season between the winners of the league and the Copa Del Rey winners. But this season things have changed and the event this season has been hosted in Saudi Arabia.
That has come under immense criticism because of Saudi Arabia’s issues with human rights over the years and Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde went on to admit that everything has only been changed because of the money on offer. He also added that football has become a business and there was no need to change the format because the old format was perfectly fine.
"The bottom line is football has become a business and as a business it looks for income. That's the reason we are all here. It's a completely different format to what we're used to. It was always the first title and the opener of the season and to me that seemed fine. It's been changed and let's see, it will be judged once it has happened. It's interesting, with four good teams, but from a sporting point of view, I'm not sure," Valverde said reported BBC.
