Suspension of Spanish football from 16th May?
Spanish football will be suspended from 16 May because of a dispute over TV rights. Barcelona is currently 4 points ahead of Real Madrid with two games to spare. The strike will affect 600,000 players and 30,000 matches in 17 regional federations. This could also mean the end of the current La Liga season as well as cancellation of the Copa Del Final which was scheduled to be played later this month.
As per the current situation only Barcelona and Real Madrid can negotiate their own TV rights where in they take away half of the revenue generated leaving lesser amounts for other clubs in their league. The strike is to end the current situation and sell TV rights like that in Premier League i.e. of the entire League as a whole.
With the possibility of an El Classico Champions League final, it is believed that neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid would be stopped from taking part in the second leg of the semi finals or the finals if they manage to proceed.
Andy West of the BBC explained that The suspension has been called by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the Spanish equivalent of the Football Association, as they are not happy about the new law governing television rights which has the support of the Spanish government as well as the support of the National Professional Football League (LFP), the body that runs the top two tiers of football in Spain.
Fifa bans governmental interference in football and RFEF claims the new law over TV rights is just that.
The LFP has announced that it is taking action against RFEF to stop the strike from happening altogether; The LFP has also called an extraordinary general meeting for Monday. It is believed that A week’s time should be enough to come to an agreement by both bodies.