ABSTRACT
Football (soccer) in Spain is the king of sports competitions. Its historical evolution has been parallel to the growth rate that, in general, the sports industry has followed in that country, although with much higher intensity. This chapter will analyse the success factors of the two historically more internationally competitive teams of the Spanish League ‘La Liga’ (Real Madrid and FC Barcelona), comparing its success evolution with the followed by the national football team (La Roja). The main results show a direct influence of both clubs on the performance and success of the Spanish team, being higher than the made by Barcelona in the last period. We entitled this phenomenon the Barça-effect. The approach followed in this work is based on considering the clubs, but also the national team, as business entities that pursue sports performance and economic sustainability. For this reason, we also have considered other aspects as the management of the clubs and the leadership of the national team that has influenced the evolution.
