I agree. It would be one thing if it was remotely close, or maybe even if V/K were considered a team with better long term prospects. But S/D are objectively, unquestionably, the stronger team right now and likely to remain so for at least a couple of years. And the possibility that the Spanish fed doesn’t think they’re “Spanish” enough doesn’t make a lot of sense as an explanation, because then why fund them at all?
Probably true, but it sounds like the criteria were also communicated later in the season when it was too late for S/D to pick up a couple of challengers. And why on earth would the Spanish fed create a last-minute criteria that disadvantages their objectively stronger team?
It’s just bizarre. If nothing else, it feels like an unnecessary waste of the funding they’ve given S/D.