After becoming a permanent visitor in the advanced roles of the UEFA Champions League, Atletico Madrid will suffer a severe blow to its budget, in case the remainder of the Spanish League season is canceled, due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus.

A controversial decision by the Spanish Federation, last Wednesday, to give the top four in the current La Liga ranking cards to participate in the Champions League next season, in the event of canceling the rest of the season's competitions, so Atletico Madrid and Getafe were the most affected ... and to a lesser extent Valencia.

While it was logical for the two giants: Barcelona (58 points) and Real Madrid (56) to reserve their cards as usual towards the first continental competition, the conflict was on fire for the third and fourth qualifications for the Champions League between Seville (47) and Real Sociedad (46), Getafe (46) and Atletico Madrid (56), 11 stages before the end of the league.

A move that surprised the League, even before it was decided to cancel the season, considering that the Spanish Federation does not have the powers to make such a decision without the approval of the organizer of the Spanish professional championship. Whereas, the president of the association, Javier Tipas, previously warned that clubs could lose up to one billion euros (1.08 billion US dollars) if the season was not completed.

According to Al-Ittihad, the fifth and sixth places, in addition to one of the finalists of the King's Cup competition, will participate in the European League.

As the Spanish Federation explained, in a statement after a meeting of its delegated committee in charge of managing professional championships: "We allow the extraordinary extension of the maximum dates, to end the current season and start the next season, until after June 30."

Atletico paid the price for its slow start in the season and its many draws (12), so Argentine coach Diego Simeone's team fell to sixth place.

The capital team won the European League title in: 2010, 2012 and 2018, and reached the Champions League final in 2014 and 2016, when it lost to its arch-rival Real.

Atletico Madrid's participation in the Champions League represents 15% of its budget, which exceeds 500 million euros, according to the Spanish newspaper "AS". In the current season, he has earned 77.2 million euros so far, and his share may exceed 100 million euros, if he continues the path towards the title, while adding his share of the TV transmission.

On the other hand, those numbers will collapse if they are thrown into the European League (Europa League). When he won his title for the last time in 2018, his share amounted to 16.1 million euros, a number that is very far from the attractive Champions League prizes.

If he is forced to compete in the equivalent continental championship, Colchoneros will need to sell one of his stars to balance his numbers.