All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
ECONOMY

Spaniards seek profitability in deposits abroad: they exceed 3% in Italy and France

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Despite the latest pause made by the European Central Bank (ECB) in raising rates, the profitability offered by European banks on deposits continues to distance itself from the Spanish ones.. In fact, they are one point higher in profitability in comparable countries such as France and Italy.

Time deposits in our country exceeded the barrier of 100,000 million euros in September, for the first time in three years. This implies that the appetite to seek profitability for savings without assuming risk (since deposits guarantee the return of the money invested) continues to be the main option for national investors.. According to the VIII Savings Barometer of the Inverco Observatory, nine out of ten savers channel their money in this way, and the majority are considering resorting to these products in the future taking into account that the trend is for their profitability to increase and adjusts towards the European average.

According to data from the end of September, the average return on a deposit in Spain is 2.33% and rises slightly to 2.35% for the few deposits that offer a maturity of between one and two years.. In the euro zone this same average is 3.08%, and is driven by a neighboring economy, such as France.. The French bank remunerates, on average, deposits with 3.6%, this is about 130 basis points above the Spanish one.. In Italy, the financial sector reaches 3.54% on average, while in Germany it is 3.22%. Holland, the country with the most money in bank accounts of Spanish residents, also surpasses our country, with about 2.9% on average in its term savings products.

In Spain, in the last year, families have increased their money in time deposits by almost 40,000 million, somewhat less than the amount they have withdrawn from their bank accounts, since another part has been used either to repay mortgages or to transferred to investment funds, much more profitable than deposits. To date there is no real commercial offer from the country's large banks, those that control 80%-90% of the market.. Only CaixaBank launched a deposit paid at 1% for twelve months with the option of adding another 1% by contracting other products. And yet it is below the national average promoted by small actors.

great fortunes

Given the situation of uncertainty caused by the amnesty and the agreements between the PSOE, ERC and Junts in recent days, the largest private banks in Spain consulted by this newspaper assure that, for the moment, “customers are calm” and, Above all, “they have not detected requests to move the money out of Spain”. There are few exceptions that speak of a certain “nervousness” in clients from outside Catalonia, as is the case of Madrid, who would be evaluating options..

Neither do the largest fund managers in the country. One of them assures that “political noise is always there” in recent times, and it still does not affect their business. “We have been in legal uncertainty for years and the market has already discounted it,” says another financial source.

HEALTH

"I have never seen a lymphoma disappear in a refractory patient like CAR-T therapy does"

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Oncohematologist Miguel Ángel Perales affirms that CAR-T therapy has transformed his daily work with patients: “I have never seen a lymphoma disappear in a refractory patient as CAR-T therapy achieves”. He remembers a specific case, a young man who had already received several lines of treatment and had a tumor “the size of a peach” in his neck; 28 days after the infusion, the improvement was obvious, “it was impressive”. He also expresses concern for patients who cannot access therapy. He could say it just as clearly in any of the five languages he speaks: he learned our language from his Spanish father; Raised in Belgium, where he obtained his degree in Medicine at the Free University of Brussels, he speaks French, Dutch and German.. The rest of his career has been developed in the United States, where he serves as director of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Program at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

He notes his reservations about certain aspects of the current regulatory system that may hinder innovation in this type of treatment.. “I don't have the solution,” he says, “but we have to point out the problem to address it.”. It is, in fact, one of his initiatives as president of the American Society of Transplantation and Cell Therapy (Astct).

According to your experience with CAR-T cells, what are they contributing to the treatment of hematological cancer? The situation here, in the United States, is different from that of Spain, at least in regards to what we can use. At our center we have been administering CAR-T therapy since it was approved in 2017, although we had already participated in trials before, so our experience goes back about ten years.. In the US we use it very frequently in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children and, more recently, with a new approval, in adults.. In diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), it is approved as a second line of treatment for patients who relapse early (first 12 months) or in those refractory to the first line.. Also in those who relapse and cannot receive an autologous transplant, which was previously the standard approach. In addition, CAR-T therapy is indicated in mantle cell and follicular lymphoma.. In multiple myeloma, it is indicated on different lines. In Europe, after the approval of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), each country has a different rate of incorporation, so this may be the case of Spain, where the CAR-T for mantle lymphoma, which we have been administering to many patients for three years, still does not have financing. The same thing happens in the LBDCG in the second line, which has not yet arrived in Spain. In my practice I do allogeneic transplant and cellular immunotherapy, and 90% of lymphoma patients who receive CAR-T cells are in second line therapy. It is very difficult to tell a patient that they are going to receive a treatment knowing that there is another that provides more survival. So the superiority is clear…And not only in the clinic. We did a study on the cost-efficiency of axi-cel [axicabtagene ciloleucelen] in second line for DLBCL. We compare with the data of patients who received the following lines, up to seven or eight in some cases, and we found that more than 55% of patients in the control group end up receiving CAR-T therapy. So the difference is 'CAR-T now or later'; but if you receive it later, the overall survival decreases and you need to administer other treatments. In short, putting CAR-T before is more economical. Our study was supported by a company, but another independent group of researchers from the City of Hope carried out similar work with results very similar to ours, which they published in Blood. We now want to repeat the study with updated survival data.
What survival is estimated for DLBCL in second line? In trials it is around 50%. The patient has received fewer treatments and, since CAR-T cells are made from autologous lymphocytes, they are expected to be in better condition than cells that have already seen 20 lines of treatment. In fact, somewhat more efficiency and survival are observed in the second line. But for me it is insufficient, I would like to be closer to 100%. There is still much to be done. Among these necessary advances is the determination of prognostic factors: How to identify early who will need a CAR-T? There is a lot of current discussion about this.. On the one hand, there are biological risk factors such as having a double hit, but there is also the role that PET imaging plays after chemotherapy cycles.. Lately, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is gaining strength as a prognostic factor, and some studies suggest that it may be better than PET.. The problem with ctDNA is that there is no consensus on how it is best measured, and although it is included in trials, the FDA does not consider it a valid test to grant approval. Another aspect of improvement is the development of allogeneic CAR-T Are they close to the clinic? There are many studies, I would say too many, focused on CD19; The advantage is that this target can be applied in various diseases. CARs that use NK cells have so far not been very successful. Some have been built with banks of NK cells derived from induced pluripotency cells [iPSCs], obtained by genetic reprogramming of the skin.. Biologically it is a very interesting process, but the clinical results have not been very promising.. Other CAR-NK products from MD Anderson have also been studied, which published a small series of patients treated in NEJM, but there has been no follow-up or more information. What about allogeneic CARs with T lymphocytes? There are several companies interested in their development ; some use the TALEN editing system and others, CRISPR. I am a doctor, what matters to me is the clinical result. The technology in the laboratory can be spectacular, but at the end of the day I want to see the result in my patient. And what do the studies suggest? With allogeneic CAR-T therapy, preliminary results are being seen in lymphoma that seem promising, and progress is being made in multiple myeloma compared to BCMA, although also with preliminary data at the moment. Everything indicates that in reality obtaining allogeneic CAR-T therapy will impact logistics, by shortening the times to obtain the product: in the US, axi-cel is ready for lymphoma in about two and a half weeks (17 days), other products take even longer. If they were allogeneic cells, we would not have to wait so long, apart from the fact that, as I mentioned, the cells used would not have suffered from the previous therapies.. But for allogeneic CAR-T therapy to be approved, it must demonstrate in trials that it is better than autologous therapy or, at least similar, because it has the advantage of logistics.. The problem is that autologous CAR-Ts are approved in the second line in lymphoma, so it is very difficult to find patients who receive them in the third or subsequent line.. The FDA has told companies that are developing new CAR-Ts, allogeneic or not, that they must carry out studies in the third line or more, similar to the pivotal ones (Zuma, Juliet or Transform). But there are no longer patients who fit into these types of studies.. It is a regulatory problem that could be seen as an impediment to innovation. If the efficiency were at 80-90% we wouldn't even consider it, we would invest in something else, but since we are at 50%, we know that there is room for improvement. And for this it is necessary to have a biologically better CAR-T and overcome regulatory obstacles. As president of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, is this an issue that concerns you? It is among my initiatives. We are holding working discussions with the different agents involved, including the agency [FDA], to see how to overcome this issue. What is your proposal? I don't have the solution, it is a complex issue. As I see it, regulatory impediments to innovation will cause companies to stop innovating.. They invest a lot of money in developing products, and if they later see that they do not reach the market there will be a time when they will stop doing it.
On the other hand, I also wanted to mention that work is being done on autologous CAR-T to shorten production time. To the point that if they manage to shorten it to a week, the allogeneic modality would lose one of its great advantages. And another interesting model is that of academic CAR-T, something very specific to Spain, which I have had the opportunity to follow closely, since for the ARI 0001 trial at the Clínic I was on the data safety supervision committee [DSMB, for its acronym in English], an independent group of experts in charge of monitoring the safety of the study and protecting the patient. In the US, this model is less developed, probably for economic reasons and because of our health system, which is very different from the Spanish public system. You have previously commented that more than the biological process, at the end of the day you care about the patients, the clinical result.. What have these treatments contributed to the quality of life of patients? There are studies in phase III trials where it is observed that the recovery of quality of life is faster with CAR-T cells than with autologous transplant. It has been published, for both Zuma and Transform, that the majority of patients, regardless of acute toxicity (cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity, the management of which is much better today than in 2017), recover very quickly. They are better in the long term. Furthermore, it is expected that CAR-T therapy will reach new indications: the results in lupus, for example, are very interesting, with the advantage that CAR-T can be a one-time treatment, rather than a chronic one.. It is also important to bring it to more people. We have talked about the US and Europe, but the truth is that the majority of the world's population does not have access. In South America, for example, they start now. Access will be more or less complicated in our countries, but in many others there is nothing.

HEALTH

Volcanic eruption increasingly likely with 1,000 new earthquakes in Iceland

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The Icelandic Meteorological Office today reported around a thousand new earthquakes since last midnight near the town of Gindavík, in the southwest of the island, and although the tremors did not exceed a magnitude of 3, the danger of a volcanic eruption in the coming days is increasing.

“Since the morning of November 11, seismic activity in the magma intrusion has remained fairly constant. Since midnight on November 12, around a thousand earthquakes have been recorded within the limits of the dam, all of them with a magnitude of less than 3.0”, according to the statement updated at 12:30 GMT today.

To know more
Europe. Iceland declares an emergency situation after several earthquakes and warns of a possible volcanic eruption
  • Editorial: EFE Berlin

Iceland declares an emergency situation after several earthquakes and warns of a possible volcanic eruption

Environment. Etna volcano spews lava and ash into the sky over Sicily
  • Editorial: EUROPA PRESS Madrid

Etna volcano spews lava and ash into the sky over Sicily

A volcanic dam are intrusions of volcanic material, in a liquid state, that solidifies in a slow process.

It specifies that “the greatest seismic activity occurred from the center of the corridor towards the north and south, under Grindavík”, in the southwest of this island in the North Atlantic, and that “most earthquakes take place at a depth of between three and five kilometers at the bottom of the magma intrusion.”

“GPS measurements from the last 24 hours show that the deformation associated with the magma tunnel that formed on Friday, November 10 has slowed down,” which “suggests that the magma is moving closer to the surface,” it adds.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office, the University of Iceland and the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management concluded in a meeting on Saturday, based on the latest measurements of seismicity and ground deformation in the Grindavík region and the latest geophysical models and risk assessments, that the ongoing intrusion represents a serious volcanic hazard.

According to geophysical models, the intrusion is estimated to be spreading slowly upwards and the magma is believed to be 800 meters below the surface.

“The exact location of a possible eruption site is unknown, but the 15-kilometer length and orientation of the dam offer a good indication of possible sources,” the statement added.

The Icelandic authorities declared an emergency situation on Friday after a series of earthquakes near Gindavík and warned of a possible volcanic eruption, ordering a preventive evacuation of this city 50 kilometers from the capital, Reykjavík.

SPAIN

Carles Puigdemont demands that the Generalitat provide an "urgent" escort by the Mossos d'Esquadra in the face of "the increased level of danger and risk"

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The head of Carles Puigdemont's office has called on the Generalitat to assign an escort service from the Mossos d'Esquadra, “immediately” and “as a matter of urgency”, to the former Catalan president after having detected “an increase in level of danger and risk to his person for a few weeks now.

In a letter addressed to the Department of the Interior, Josep Lluís Alay recalls that, since July 2018, his office has asked the Government “to fulfill this responsibility without success” and “with silence as a response.”. In addition, he details that in January 2022 he also wrote a letter to the general director of the regional police with the same result..

Condemns Buch and Escola

Precisely, two months ago, former counselor Miquel Buch was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and 20 years of disqualification for committing a crime of prevarication and another of embezzlement by hiring a Mossos sergeant as an advisor on security systems. from the Department of the Interior to later be assigned to Belgium, where he developed “protection and security functions” for Puigdemont for more than half a year..

The Barcelona Court also sentenced Lluís Escolà, the police officer who collaborated with the leader of Junts per Catalunya in his escape, to four years in prison and 19 years of disqualification and whom Buch would end up appointing as advisor in July 2018, already with Quim Torra as president of the Generalitat after lifting article 155 of the Constitution by which Catalan autonomy was intervened in October 2017.

Both Buch and Escolà would be exonerated from their sentences thanks to the amnesty agreed by the PSOE with Esquerra Republicana and JxCat and whose bill the socialists have registered alone this afternoon in the Congress of Deputies. Alay could also benefit from the measure of grace in the three judicial processes that affect him: the Voloh case, the Tsunami Democràtic case and an accusation of alleged embezzlement for having used public funds on a trip, in 2018, as an observer of the independence referendum. of New Caledonia (overseas community of the French Republic).

SPAIN

The European front against the amnesty is encouraged by Borrell while the Commission finalizes a statement

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The European Commission is already aware of the legal text on the amnesty and its intention is to provide a legal and political assessment as soon as possible.. He is fully aware of the urgency, the importance, the pressure. When the text is officially sent, the legal services will make an in-depth assessment and an equally official position is expected, from the Commission and not from one of its commissioners in a personal capacity, as was the letter from Belgian Didier Reynders last week.. The first impression, not definitive at all and after an informal reading of the document by some of those responsible for the issue, is that the wording “is what it should be”, after the constant exchanges and warnings of the previous weeks. Brussels had set two non-negotiable conditions, and both seem to be reflected: that there be no type of mechanism to supervise sentences for the so-called lawfare and that the amnesty does not cover the misuse of community funds.. And Article 2.e, on exclusions, expressly reflects “crimes that affect the financial interests of the European Union.”

A relief for the Government that was soon blurred by the mouth of an ally. After weeks, months, of biting his tongue, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, spoke this Monday about the PSOE pact with Junts and ERC. “I know the political agreements reached with two pro-independence parties and certainly those agreements cause me some concern or quite a few concerns,” he stated, without wanting to go into a more in-depth assessment.. “This is a difficult problem about which at the time, not now, I will express myself,” added the veteran socialist leader, head of the PSOE list in the last European elections and who for years, as minister or not, fought with the independence movement. Borrell does not support, especially the revision in the pacts of the entire narrative of the process, which he suffered in the first person. But he does not want to boycott the investiture. “It is evident that I cannot mix my role with personal considerations regarding a problem of Spanish domestic policy,” he concluded his argument from Brussels, which does not help to diffuse the controversy.

AMNESTY
Q&A. Who benefits? What margin do the judges have? When does it come into force?
  • Editor: MANUEL MARRACO Madrid

Who benefits? What margin do the judges have? When does it come into effect?

Effects. The law frees independence leaders from returning five million
  • Editor: CARLOS SEGOVIA Madrid

The law frees independence leaders from returning five million

The silence until now does not mean that the institutions will or can take a stand. It is a fundamental issue for an important Member State, there are hundreds of thousands of people on the streets and hundreds of emails from citizens and letters from interest groups, judicial associations or political parties arrive at their offices every day.. But if the legal ruling maintains the first impression, any political position taken will be less forceful than what the protesters who now fill the streets expect.

Amnesty, lawfare, government agreements and investiture are a national problem, and their solution is a national issue. The EU, understood here as its institutions rather than its member states, sets legal limits, some clear red lines, puts constant pressure in private and sometimes in public, but its margin of action is limited. Those who expect the Union to intervene to stop the agreement between the PSOE and Junts, the Amnesty Law and indirectly the formation of a new Government are very likely to be disappointed.. Those who assume that there will be no comment or criticism from Brussels, as if it were a homogeneous, technocratic, neutral supranational entity, are going to be equally disappointed.

Everything that is happening these days in our country is closely followed from the community capital, to begin with because the director general of Legal Affairs of the Commission, and the director general of Justice (the two highest positions in the administration of the house , only behind the general secretary) are Spanish. The Politico Playbook, the reference newsletter with which tens of thousands of officials, politicians, diplomats, lobbyists and journalists from across the continent start every day, also started this Monday with the political agreement, the amnesty, lawfare and the massive demonstrations on Sunday throughout Spain. And with a much more critical spirit than that seen in the positions of other international media, such as the Financial Times recently.

But in addition, political groups are determined to turn Brussels into a battlefield once again.. The leader of the European People's Party, Manfred Weber, has requested that in the plenary session that the European Parliament will hold next week there be a monographic debate on the issue. «When all the associations of the judiciary, the representatives of the companies and the unions raise the alarm, we should take this very seriously. We have seen this before in Poland and we hope that the European Commission will immediately clarify that, for example, the provisions on lawfare are totally unacceptable,” says Weber.

That there is a debate in plenary is not relevant in itself, it has no legal impact, it is not binding. There will only be a few dozen deputies, almost all of them Spanish, attacking each other. What matters is the pressure. In the PP and Ciudadanos they believe that only Europe, the Commission specifically, can stop this. The powers of the institutions are limited and, as the text presented today says, there are precedents in the EU, references in the European Order framework directive or rulings from the CJEU and Strasbourg on the subject.. If the law does not affect community funds and does not imply any type of powers for the legislature to review judicial sentences, its scope for action, at least at the legal level, is limited.. But not non-existent. And above all they have enormous political weight.

In Spain there is a deep complex entrenched in the depths of our broad Europeanism. The EU has always been an aspiration, a reference, but also the limits, the (superior) authority that came to amend the plan, to prevent excesses.. Hence the letter that this Monday the two parties also sent a dossier to Charles Michel, Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell, several European Commissioners and to the 26 EU partner states, as well as to the leadership of their groups in Parliament. European, “on the legal and political implications of the amnesty law agreed between Pedro Sánchez and his pro-independence partners, together with a letter in which they request that all European institutions closely follow this initiative and safeguard the fundamental principles of the Union”. There will be more and trips are not ruled out to focus on those who have the capacity, at least politically, to make the digestion of this law much more difficult.

The European Commission, like in this case the Parliament or the European Council, are not neutral, purely technical entities.. Formed at their highest level by politicians, who were ministers or prime ministers. party people. That they are due to their community functions, but that they stretch their capabilities to the maximum to benefit their country, their political family and their co-religionists.. Among the European commissioners there are popular or liberal. There are representatives of governments such as Hungary or Poland, not at all sympathetic to socialism, who believe that there is a double standard. There are some, well-versed in Spain, critical of the amnesty and the independence movement.. Therefore, reactions, criticisms, other letters, interventions in the media are to be expected.

The opposition in our country knows that its only, or at least its best asset, is to apply pressure, as much as possible and at all levels.. Make noise, mobilize, make silence impossible. It is easier in the European Parliament, but not only. There are people in the streets, all the Thursday associations, the CGPJ, prosecutors, all kinds of professional associations, the employers, denouncing what is happening in Spain. And what is at stake is the rule of law, one of the most important and delicate issues at the community level, the main issue for example in the face of enlargement to new members.

It is very difficult to permanently face this clamor, and the institutions and their leaders know that Spanish public opinion is very sensitive to the word of “Brussels” and its ability to influence or pressure. That a few words are usually enough to provoke a reaction or an earthquake. And that at a political level it is also very complicated to clash head-on or ignore the messages, the warnings or the slaps simply saying that they come from “right-wing commissioners”, as the PSOE did last week with the letter sent by Commissioner Reynders, head of Justice, asking for information about the amnesty. Hence, all the conditions and incentives are in place to Europeanize the issue as much as possible, exactly as Puigdemont did when choosing the Belgian capital as a destination for his escape.

SPORTS

Roig Arena, a historic start and the quiet revolution of Valencia Basket: "We dream big"

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There is a spirit of renewal in Valencia, an air of ambitious growth that is not only reflected in the excellent results at the start of the season, the 11 victories for two defeats that only a stomach virus that seriously affected the squad stopped last week with setbacks. in Badalona and Milan. Not far from La Fonteta (and the impressive L'Alqueria) the Roig Arena is emerging, which will be “the best pavilion in Europe”, a basketball temple that in a few months will be the pillar of a club that looks beyond. This Tuesday, on the eighth day of the Euroleague, Real Madrid's streak will be challenged with Alex Mumbrú at the controls, seven new faces on the field and a rejuvenation in the offices in the figures of Enric Carbonell, general director, and Luis Arbalejo, sports director.

Last season, Valencia Basket finished eighth in the ACB, but with its worst win-loss balance ever.. A toll for an exultant Euroleague at times, which, however, did not take him anywhere. A learning too. “Valencia needed a change at the squad level and in its club structure,” Arbalejo, who upon his arrival had to go hand in hand with Mumbrú due to the traumatic departure of one of the absolute protagonists of the recent past, explains to EL MUNDO. none like Bojan Dubljevic.

The objective was to build a squad with muscle and experience to face the two competitions with guarantees.. And set the challenges: “To face the Cup and the ACB playoffs as seeds and be alive in the Euroleague, where there are only two budgets lower than ours, until the end. And, from there, see if we can aspire to something more. “We dream big”. However, losing at home on the first day did not seem to be the best of omens.

“Equal to the prop man and the star”

“I am very fond of that defeat at home against Girona. The management that was done at all levels, coaching staff, club and locker room for the following streak was fantastic…”. Of the next 12 games, they only lost one, against Efes, equaling their best historical start in the Euroleague. “Now there is a peak with Madrid, Barça, Baskonia and Panathinaikos, we 'only' have two casualties, Hermansson and Jared Harper, but it will not be easy,” says the sports director who arrived from Alicante of LEB ORO (he was also a scout for the Jazz of the NBA) in his first experience in the highest continental competition after a brilliant career in which he climbed all the steps of basketball and with a philosophy based on “emotional intelligence”.

“I believe a lot in people. In which human beings are above positions or salaries. I have done it in every step, from the training categories to EBA, LEB and ACB or being an NBA scout.. Behind a coach, a player or a physical trainer there is a person. And you have to treat the kit player the same as the star of the team.. I've always done that. It's my seal,” summarizes Arbalejo, who was also Zaragoza's youth academy director for six years.

Chris Jones and Semi Ojeleye. ACB PHOTO

His summer, hand in hand with Mumbrú and Carbonell (the general director arrived in 2022), was intense in the Valencia offices. “Dubljevic has been the greatest player who has passed through Valencia Basket, but he had been there for 11 seasons and we considered that we had to go to more physical profiles, with more blocking ability, more aggressive on the rebound. Other important players also come out in that philosophy (Prepelic, Van Rossom, Jasiel Rivero…). The seven (Brandon Davies, Semi Ojeleye, Nathan Reuvers, Kassius Robertson, Damien Inglis, Boubacar Touré and Stefan Jovic) who arrive are in that profile. To make a squad that is tougher, longer and more capable of enduring 80 games,” he analyzes, focusing on three pillars: Chris Jones and the signings of Brandon Davies and Ojeleye, “complex operations, almost all of Europe wanted them.”

Despite the initial good feelings, the club's sights go further. “I am one of those who thinks that for big things to happen you have to think big. It's been 25 years since the last Cup and almost 10 years since the League. We dream of winning a title in the short and medium term,” challenges Arbalejo, who highlights two key objectives: “Always be a leading team in ACB and we would love to have a license in the Euroleague so as not to be on the edge and to give us that peace of mind in the medium long term, which conditions the template”. For that, the transformation. And an argument as powerful as the Roig Arena, whose inauguration is scheduled for the end of 2024.

SPORTS

Barça, Madrid and the 24 million euros in the women's Champions League compared to 2,000 in the men's Champions League

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1,400,000 million euros. That will be the most a team can win this season in the Women's Champions League. The main phase of the competition begins this afternoon with Barcelona as the great favorite to retain the title won a few months ago against Wolfsburg in Eindhoven. The strange format of the tournament has also left him without some important rivals.. Only the champions of Spain, England, Germany and France go directly to the group stage, so during these weeks we have seen how important clubs such as Wolfsburg itself or Arsenal, semi-finalist of the last edition, have been left out in the rounds. previous.

Of the total budget of 24 million that UEFA has designated for the competition's prizes, the champion will get a maximum of 5.8% of the pot. The group stage, made up of 16 teams, has Barcelona and Madrid as Spanish representatives, without Levante, which was also eliminated in the matches at the beginning of the season.. The Blaugrana, with the Ballon d'Or winner Aitana Bonmatí, with Alexia Putellas and with the best squad in Europe, are the rival to beat.

The white team, for its part, arrives after a summer in which it has moved little, signing the Danish forward. The evolution of the young Linda Caicedo, 18, will mark part of her season. The Colombian was one of the sensations of the last World Cup and is one of the most promising players on the planet. In addition, Alberto Toril has footballers who have been vital in the World Cup won by Spain, such as Olga Carmona or Tere Abelleira. The whites, yes, start one step below Barça, Lyon, City or Chelsea.

The awards

But let's talk about money. UEFA has decided to maintain the economic distribution of last season in both the men's and women's Champions League.. If in the first it manages a prize budget of more than 2,000 million, in the second the figure remains at 24. If in the men's tournament the winner takes home 23 million just for winning the final, in the women's the achievement of triumphing in the decisive match barely gives 350,000 euros, to which we must add the income received from winning matches in the previous rounds.. The 16 teams that participate in the group stage receive 400,000 euros and there are bonuses of 50,000 for a victory and 17,000 for a draw. Reaching the quarterfinals means a prize of 160,000 euros, reaching the semifinals 180,000, being runner-up 200,000 and winning 350,000.

To give you an idea, any team in the men's Champions League receives 15.6 million just for participating in the group stage.. It is the forceful logic of the market. This past summer, Movistar paid 960 million to maintain the audiovisual rights of the men's competition in Spain, while DAZN bought in 2021 the rights to the women's Champions League throughout Europe until 2025 for about 8 million a year, according to Bloomberg.

The YouTube push

The audiences, although timid, have not stopped growing. The agreement between DAZN and YouTube, which during the last two seasons has shown the 61 matches each year openly through its platform, has benefited the exposure of the competition, which in the last year accumulated more than 50 million viewers, 14 more than in 2021-2022. But of course, not everything is about image, income is also needed.

That is why now the tournament faces an important step forward. DAZN has decided to start offering matches through its payment platform to “accelerate the increase in value of women's football”, as explained Verónica Diquatrro, executive director of the company.. A large part of its future will depend on how the public reacts, and pays, to watch the Women's Champions League.

The explosion of the World Cup

In Spain, the last Champions League final between Barça and Wolfsburg attracted 736,000 viewers on Spanish Television, a 7.3% audience share, while women's football experienced another explosion in the World Cup, with 5,599,000 pending viewers and 65.7% share. A figure as spectacular as it is unreal for the day-to-day life of the sport, which continues to maintain a very timid number of fans in the stands every weekend.. The growth, with specific peaks, is slow but constant at all levels, both in awards, sponsorships and agreements, such as the last one signed by professional soccer players in Spain that raises their minimum salary to 21,000 euros.. An important change that reflects the trend of recent years.

And the women's Champions League, for example, has had its own sponsors since 2018 and began to sell its audiovisual rights centrally since 2021, precisely with that agreement with DAZN.. Before, except for the final, each team tried to sell them as best they could and the sponsorships depended on the crumbs of the men's tournament.. Now those 24 million come from net income, from ticket sales, from UEFA's own investment (10 million of the 3,500 estimated budget) and from the item added from the men's Champions League solidarity fund.

Now, to play the group stage: Barça against Eintracht, Rosengard and Benfica and Madrid against Chelsea, Hacken and Paris FC.

SPORTS

Zverev's serve defeats Alcaraz in his debut at the ATP Finals

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A year ago, Carlos Alcaraz expressly went to Turin to collect the cup that accredited him as number 1 in the world in 2022. He was unable to compete in the tournament due to an abdominal injury.. This Monday, Novak Djokovic prefaced the Spaniard's debut at the ATP Finals in the ceremony that recognized him as the first tennis player of the season. There are eight courses and in which the Serbian has closed the year with the best number. The good news for Alcaraz is that this time he is fit to play in the most suggestive tournament after the four Grand Slam tournaments.. The bad news was that he lost his first Red Group match against Alexander Zverev. The German, protected by his service, won in two hours and 31 minutes. Alcaraz will need to beat Andrey Rublev this Wednesday, who lost against Daniil Medvedev 4-6 and 2-6, to keep his chances of being in the semifinals on Saturday alive.. [Narrative and statistics (6-7 [3], 6-3, 6-4)]

It took a balloon loaded with delicacy for the Spaniard to set the clock on time. He was making his debut in the masters tournament, against a two-time champion like Zverev, who had taken his serve in the fourth game and ruled the match with his own serve.. Next came a right drop shot, one of those that indicates its point of inspiration.

Alcaraz tied the game (3-3), and not only that: he then raised three other threats from the Hamburg player, whose jaw is fragile as soon as things are not going to be his way, which has a close relationship with how it works for him. the serve. He went with a second ace and with another at the intersection with which he escaped from Alcaraz's first two set balls. He would save a third, thanks to a volley outside the Murcian, but he would give little of himself in the tiebreaker.

Background

After the severe defeats suffered in this year's two matches against Alcaraz, in the round of 16 of the Madrid Masters and in the quarterfinals of the United States Open, Zverev had the opportunity to present greater opposition in one of his most favorable scenarios. , as is the indoor court, at the same time the least favorable for its rival.

He did so, aided by some concessions from the El Palmar player, who after letting a ball pass that could have taken him a shorter route at the beginning of the second set, gave up his serve next and this time paid the price of being led to a third with three aces on Zverev's final turn.

This Alcaraz from the last part of the year is a tennis player without the spark and the certainties that have led him to win six titles, including Wimbledon.. A single break in the third set ended up costing him the match, with fear involved due to a fall by his opponent that was reminiscent of the one suffered at Roland Garros 2021 against Nadal, which kept him away from the courts for more than six months.

Fortunately, everything turned out to be little.. Zverev recovered, saved with a new direct serve, for a total of 16, Alcaraz's attempt to equalize at five, and closed the match in a consistent way with what he had been doing: with another serve that his opponent could barely replicate.

INTERNATIONAL

David Cameron, seven years lived in limbo with the saddlebags of Brexit and austerity

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“Leaving politics has made me a better father and a better husband,” former Prime Minister David Cameron admitted to The Telegraph this summer, from his summer retreat with Samantha and their three children in Cornwall.. To his closest friends, however, he had acknowledged his intimate desires to one day return to politics.. The echo must have reached Sunak himself and his unspeakable dream ultimately became an unexpected birthday gift (he celebrated his 57th birthday last October 9).

Gone are these seven years spent peacefully in limbo, since that suspicious chant (“Do-do-dodooo”) with which he provided the soundtrack to his resignation in July 2016, after having resoundingly lost the EU referendum. (52% compared to 48%) and having paved the way to the most turbulent era in the recent history of the United Kingdom with four successive “premiers” (Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak).

Oblivious to the endless political crisis triggered by Brexit, Cameron dedicated himself like any other leader to living off the income of his years in power (2010-2016).. His discreet career as a lecturer was in fact catapulted at the start of 2023 with his “signing” for the New York University team in Abu Dhabi, where he was invited to give a series of lectures curiously titled: “Doing politics in the era of disruption”…

David Cameron has earned around 140,000 euros per speech in his second life as a lecturer, less than half of what Boris Johnson now charges, another who is not satisfied with early retirement and continues to wage war in the rear (now as a star presenter of GBNews and columnist for The Daily Mail).

Unlike Boris, Cameron tried not to make excessive noise after his departure, although his work in the shadows scandalously made headlines with the bankruptcy of the firm Greensill Capital, which he came to advise and for which he even interceded on its behalf. inclusion in Covid financial rescue programs (before then Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak).

The British Parliament even opened an investigation into Cameron's links with financier Lex Greensill. The House of Commons intelligence committee also examined his role in the launch of a multimillion-dollar China-United Kingdom investment fund, after having toasted with Xi Jinping with beer for “the new golden age” in relations with the giant. Asian.

All of Cameron's attempts to clean up his image and come out on top had so far fallen on deaf ears, including the publication of his voluminous 700-page memoir, “For the record.”. Critics criticized his book as an endless “exercise in self-congratulation”, with special emphasis on his arrival to power in 2010 and his years as a conservative “wonder kid”, and as a missed opportunity to reconcile with the British.

“Brexit depresses me,” he confessed on the occasion of the publication of “For the record”. “Every day I think about the referendum and losing, about the consequences and how different things could have been.. “I know there are many people who will never forgive me.”

In his book, Cameron threw the ball around and claimed that he had no choice but to call the referendum in the face of internal pressure from the Tories, convinced that “the issue was not going to disappear overnight.”. In any case, he accepted his “personal failure” for the fiasco of the permanence campaign and for not having known how to dismantle the “false narrative” of his eternal rival Boris Johnson.

His most recent public appearance was last June, in the official Covid investigation. Then too Cameron declined in his own way to take responsibility for his role during the era of austerity, when cuts began that left the National Health System (NHS) dangerously exposed.

No matter how hard he tries now, austerity and Brexit are the two saddlebags with which Cameron arrives at the Foreign Office, with the mission of reestablishing ties with old partners who will have to rub their eyes before they can extend their hand and say: ” Welcome back!”