Court Rules Against LFP Strike, League Claim War Not Over

A Madrid court has ordered the Spanish Football League (LFP) to end its threatened strike, though the league has pledged to maintain its fight against government regulations.

Yesterday, March 30, the court ruled in favour of six breakaway clubs, who had argued against the LFP’s plans to strike during La Liga’s fixtures for April 2-3. The ruling has seen the League immediately issue kick-off times for this weekend’s set of games, while maintaining the war is not yet over.

A statement from the LFP read: “Despite the internal discrepancies at the heart of the LFP over the measures adopted at the assembly on February 11, all the clubs that make up the league continue to press their demands on the government. From this point on, a new route map will be established that will allow us to unblock the conversations in our search for solutions to the grievances suffered by professional football compared to other sectors of the Spanish economy.”

The dispute centres on broadcast regulations with Spanish clubs seeking to enhance their position ahead of negotiations for new media rights deals. The LFP has been in talks with the Spanish government with the aim of scrapping regulations which state one La Liga game per match day must be shown on free-to-air television.

However, La Liga soccer clubs Sevilla, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao, Espanyol, Real Zaragoza and Real Sociedad last week lodged a legal challenge to the mooted strike with the clubs arguing that the move was “disproportionate, inopportune, against the law, as well as against the interests of the clubs, the competition and the fans”.

Wednesday’s court ruling spells an end to the threat of a farcical conclusion to the 2010-11 La Liga season. Due to the packed fixture schedule the earliest available window for re-arranging the games had fallen on June 11-12, three weeks after the scheduled end of the season.

Speaking at a press conference, Villarreal vice-president Jose Manuel Llaneza expressed his delight at a “great day for football”, adding that a strike would have been a “disaster” for the Spanish game.