La Liga President Javier Tebas admitted that the competition was "damaged" by the loss of Argentine star Lionel Messi, but he blamed the Barcelona administration and attacked it strongly, stressing that it could have kept Messi.
The league struck a $3.2 billion deal with private equity and investment advisory firm Capital Partners (CVC), in which the company will take a 10% stake in the business for the league's championship.
In return, the remaining 90% will be allocated to support clubs suffering from financial crises at the level of the Premier League and the second division, at a time when the new Corona virus crisis ravaged Spanish football.
The two giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona, opposed the proposal, while the Spanish Football Federation stressed on Wednesday that it was "completely illegal".
Real Madrid and Barcelona believe that the deal will affect the audio-visual rights of all clubs over the next 50 years, at a time when the royal club threatens to take legal action against the Spanish League and its president Tebas for not being properly consulted in the matter.
However, the deal will go ahead as planned, after the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of it on Thursday, although Barcelona and Real were among the 4 clubs that opted to withdraw from the agreement.
Barcelona could have kept Messi
Speaking after the proposal was passed, Tebas confirmed that Barcelona would have kept Messi - who has now joined PSG on a free transfer - if they had made an agreement.
Tebas explained, "I don't know exactly what Barcelona is doing to reduce his salary bill, with Capital Partners' money he would have received about 40 million additional euros."
"He could have kept Messi, or something else, and Barcelona would have become more competitive," Tebas added. "We have been hurt by Messi's departure for sure, but there is no clause in any TV deal that makes us get less money without Messi, although that may hurt companies looking To add subscribers and fans to the biggest clubs.
"In La Liga, we always wanted to have the best players, but then Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar left and Messi left now."
"I would say it was probably very painful because the president of Barcelona has been saying for a whole month that everything is going well, and suddenly, one afternoon, the whole deal collapsed," the La Liga president noted.
"So it is a real shame to leave Messi, but we have worked hard to ensure that our value in broadcasting rights does not go down," he said.
"I am convinced that Barcelona fans in Spain will continue to watch their team, whether Messi plays with them or not," Tebas concluded.