With the footballing world recovering from the news that La Liga would be suspended, let’s take a look at the situation to understand the problems prevailing.
Currently, the clubs can negotiate their own TV contracts individually with the broadcasters and this is known as Rights of Arena agreement. Bigger clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona can sign big deals to increase their revenue and boost their finances just because of their stature in the footballing world. With more money they can attract better players which in turn increases their stature, resulting in a never ending cycle which the small clubs can’t break through. They have to settle for lesser money which in turn does not allow them to attract top players, hence creating a big divide between the clubs in La Liga and resulting in a lack of competition – something the La Liga has often been accused of.
As per new proposed deal, Spanish league TV revenue is split into following basis.
90% of TV revenue will go to the clubs in La Liga Primera Division and 10% will go to Secunda (Second) division. Out of 90%,
- 50% of the money will be divided equally among 20 clubs.
- 25% will be divided based on performance over last 5 seasons.
- 25% will be divided upon fame, popularity and social image of the clubs.
This deal will remove the imbalance in TV rights revenue received by the clubs in the current deal and helps smaller clubs to narrow the gap with the bigger clubs. This way the league would become more competitive, decrease the gap between clubs and increase audience, which in turn would lead to increased revenue.
The suspension is announced by the Spanish National Football Federation (RFEF), stating that they have not been consulted in framing the law and they are unhappy with the revenue split out between Primera and Segunda leagues of Spanish football(90%/10%). AFE provided their support for RFEF over the indefinite strike and mentioned that the new deal should benefit all the players involved in Primera and Segunda. They pointed out the split outs in Germany (79%/21%) and France (81%/19%) and expects a similar deal, which would help the clubs in Segunda division.
A meeting might be called to resolve all outstanding issues so that Spanish Football could resume at the quickest as possible.
Spain’s La Liga suspended
All Spanish football competitions will be suspended this weekend in a strike over television rights that could affect La Liga and the Copa del Rey final in the final weeks of the 2014-15 season.