Given today’s lack of news, I thought I’d pass along an article on La Liga, the Spanish soccer league. As the season reaches its midway point, the clear favorites are FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. That’s expected, of course, considering their sizable payrolls and glamorous rosters.

Per the Los Angeles Times:

As far as gambles go, it was Florentino Perez who rolled the dice the hardest.

What the 62-year-old Spanish businessman did last summer was to splash out more than $355 million to bring the likes of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo ($132 million), Brazil’s Kaka ($90 million), Spain’s Xabi Alonso ($48 million) and France’s Karim Benzema ($48 million) to Real Madrid.

What he wanted to do, he said, was “to create a spectacular project . . . to make Real Madrid the best club in the world once more.”

Halfway through the 2009-10 season, his “project” still has a long way to go. Like many top European teams that last summer gambled that a few expensive new players or a high-profile new coach would change their fortunes, Real has not seen things quite work out its way. Not yet, anyway.

So, with due deference to King Juan Carlos and family, the reign in Spain that is most closely watched as the new year approaches is that of FC Barcelona.

What follows is a glimpse at the two Spanish powers at the season’s midpoint. Fans of Sevilla, Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna, Mallorca and all other pretenders to the title need look no further.

In Spain, there are only two teams.

Sounds more enticing than anything offered by the MLS, doesn’t it? Both teams have plenty at stake this season and I’m excited to see how everything unravels.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

No. 1 Manchester United
Soccer
$1.8 billion
An annual powerhouse with a true global brand, Man-U fetched the highest price ever for a sports franchise when Malcolm Glazier forked over $1.45 billion for it in 2005.

No. 2 Dallas Cowboys
Football
$1.6 billion
Owner Jerry Jones smartly broke away from the NFL merchandising collaboration several years ago, leaving the Cowboys to run their own league-leading operation. A new state-of-the-art stadium awaits for 2009, with a Personal Seat License (PSL) plan that could bring in upwards of $700 million. The rough economy–a naming rights deal still hasn’t been done–may scale back expectations. But only so much.

No. 3 Washington Redskins
Football
$1.5 billion
Since taking over in 1999, owner Dan Snyder has had mixed results on the field. But he’s turned the Redskins into the NFL’s leading revenue machine through heavy marketing and by selling the naming rights to Jack Kent Cooke Stadium to FedEx. The stadium has sold out every game during its 12-year history.

No. 4 New England Patriots
Football
$1.32 billion
New England’s value has roughly tripled since 2000, following three Super Bowl titles and a 97-31 record over the past eight years. Seven-year-old Gillette Stadium includes 6,000 club seats and 87 luxury boxes.

No. 5 New York Yankees
Baseball
$1.3 billion
Baseball’s only billion dollar club benefits from its own cable network, huge market and storied history. No wonder the Yankees have made the only real noise around the league this winter, throwing more than $400 million at three premium free agents. The tight economy may have the team scrambling to sell the last few luxury boxes at the new Yankee Stadium for 2009, but expect the place to be a revenue machine over the long haul.

Given soccer’s popularity around the world, I’m a little surprised only one futbol team made the top 5. (Although Real Madrid and Arsenal were No. 6 and 7, respectively.)

I’m shocked at how much the Washington Redskins are worth, especially considering they’re sandwiched between the Cowboys and Patriots.