No Resolution in Sight over Liga Television Monies Row as Strike Action Nears
From the moment it was announced in a blaze of publicity that a new law had been passed to ensure a fairer distribution of La Liga media money, you felt it was too good to be true.
Despite assurances that, from 2016, clubs would bargain collectively rather than individually when cutting up the television cake and put an end to the heinous inequality that permitted two clubs to receive between them around one third (€280 million) of the total, you got the feeling this was far from being the end of the matter.
Very, very far from it, in fact. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, who knew more than most about defending his corner; not only is this not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but probably just the end of the beginning.
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While the league waxed lyrical about the dawning of a new era for Spanish football, to say their colleagues at the Spanish FA were somewhat miffed at having the Spanish legislature tell them how to run their business does not even begin to describe their chagrin.
Now, in the blue corner, we have the government and the league (LFP), while in the red corner is the footballers' union (AFE) and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). This is going to run and run. Let battle commence.
Head of the RFEF is Angel Maria Villar, who my editor at Diario AS, Alfredo Relano, has said on more than one occasion is often the architect of some controversial actions and reactions, which Alfredo has mischievously labelled "Villaratos."
Well, as Villaratos go, the decision to call an indefinite strike from May 16, the 37th weekend of La Liga fixtures, is the whopping, humongous humdinger; the mother of them all.
If the strike goes ahead, then the chances are just about all the major outcomes of the 2014-15 league season will not be decided until June.
Barcelona are due to play Atletico Madrid then, and many feel the result of that match could decide the winner of this year’s title.
The fate of who gets relegated and who wins promotion—either directly or via the play-offs—will also be left unresolved for a while, and this could also, in the worst-case scenario, be the first time the Spanish Cup final has not been played since 1937 and 1938. Back then, it was because of the civil war.
But it cuts even deeper than that, with 600,000 players and 30,000 matches and 17 regional federations affected by the strike call, which affects all competitions.
To say Villar and LFP boss Javier Tebas dislike each other—this report by Dermot Corrigan of ESPN.com discusses one of a number of their disputes—doesn’t remotely begin to describe their mutual animosity. The idea of the two of them sitting down together to reach a solution to the crisis beggars belief.
Think Laurel and Hardy taking it in turns to inflict damage on each other and constantly upping the ante and you kind of get the idea.
As unlikely a scenario as that might be however, the fact is that this 'civil war' has got to end, and pronto, because if FIFA - at present focused on elections - should decide that both the governnment and the league have acted unlawfully then it is not beyond the realms of possibility they could punish them by excluding them from competitions like the upcoming European Championship.
The strike was called in the wake of a meeting on Wednesday, after which the RFEF accused the Spanish Government of a "lack of respect," according to Reuters.com, primarily because it felt it had not been adequately consulted on the new media rights legislation.
They also claim the new law will rob them of some of their power and they bemoan the allocation of monies emanating from soccer to other sports and activities that have nothing to do with the game itself.
The amount of money guaranteed for the footballers' union (0.5 percent) is to be shared with women’s football and second division B.
AS has reported the players' union's English counterpart receives 1.5 percent (h/t Corrigan). There are, of course, some cynics out there who claim that for some footballers who feel they have been "persecuted" by the revenue for perceived tax "irregularities," this is payback time.
The Federation statement concludes: “At the same time, and yet again, we re-iterate the offer of dialogue to the Spanish government" (via BBC News). Note no mention of the LFP.
Swiftly and predictably, the LFP issued a statement in response to the strike call threatening immediate legal action to protect its members.
In a prepared statement, Tebas also claimed the strike call was invalid and called an extraordinary general meeting for May 11. The statement also re-iterated the importance of the law passed by government.
The irony of the situation will not be lost on a bemused footballing world watching in consternation from the sidelines as this tragicomedy unfolds.
On the very day Barcelona, and particularly Lionel Messi, showed us just how the beautiful game should be played, the country’s administrators demonstrated that, forget running a sport, here was a governing body that could not run a bath.
