Spain's football league accused the sport's governors Thursday of holding the lucrative Liga to ransom by threatening to cancel the season's last matches in a high-stakes row over TV rights. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) threatened to indefinitely "suspend competitions of all categories starting from May 16" and urged the government to renegotiate a new broadcasting deal. Announcing that move late Wednesday, it complained the deal would unfairly distribute revenue from broadcast rights.
Government and league officials accused the RFEF and its head Angel Maria Villar of blackmailing them to try to squeeze more money out of the deal. "Angel Maria Villar is irresponsible and cheeky," the Spanish Professional Football League's president Javier Tebas told reporters. "He treats football like his own private estate."
Tebas said the league was appealing to the state Higher Sports Council and would take action over the potential economic damage. "The damage is terrible and substantial," he said. "All the way over in China people have expressed their concern about the consequences this could have for our sponsors." Sports minister Jose Ignacio Wert said TV deals generated 800 million euros in Spain in 2013-2014, compared to 1.8 billion euros in the Premier League in England.
The federation said in a statement it was fighting to protect the revenues of small football clubs. It complained it had not been properly consulted about the new deal. "If our proposals had been listened to, they would have yielded benefits and improvements for Spanish football," it said. The federation said it was unhappy over the reduction of revenue from betting streams and the redistribution of revenues under the deal.
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