Spanish football suspended: Is the season really over?

Spanish football suspended: Is the season really over?
By Andy West Spanish football writer
Spanish football will be suspended from 16 May because of a dispute over TV rights.
The Spanish football federation and the government are at odds over the way TV money is distributed.
The suspension - which will affect more than 600,000 players and 30,000 matches - comes as Barcelona lead La Liga rivals Real Madrid by two points, with only three games left to play.
The Spanish government has approved a new law on collective bargaining for TV rights, although this has yet to be passed.
The National Professional Football League (LFP) - the body responsible for Spain's top two leagues - supports the law and has begun legal action to try and block the suspension.
Currently, Barcelona and Real Madrid are allowed to negotiate their own TV deals, which means they claim nearly half the total amount of TV money.
In a statement, the Spanish federation stressed that they remain open to dialogue with the government, who have yet to respond.
Spanish football writer Andy West looks at how the long-running dispute has reached this point - and what happens next.
Why has this happened?


While lower league players also voiced their support, Javi Selvas, of CD Castellon said: "Modest footballers need you, AFE, because you are fighting for our rights."
Javi Casares, of Hercules said: "We have to all fight together. The AFE are the ones showing face for us." While Fran Melli of Madridejos added: "We are all fighting together for our rights - minimum salaries and equality of treatment in football."

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Barcelona striker Lionel Messi has scored 40 goals in 35 La Liga games this season
Is this for real - or just posturing?
It is very real.
It is also not an action that the RFEF has taken lightly, because even the showcase occasion of their own competition - the Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, scheduled for Saturday, 30 May - is now under threat.
Another danger, and an explicit threat in the RFEF's action, is that governmental interference in football's administration is prohibited by the game's global body, FIFA.
The RFEF is suggesting that the Spanish government is doing just that, which could, in a worst case scenario, see Spain banned from international competitions.
And the prospect of FIFA's involvement is made more likely by the fact that the RFEF's president, Angel Maria Villar, also happens to be a FIFA vice-president and a long-time ally of Sepp Blatter.
There are sure to be plenty of behind-closed-doors discussions between and amongst the four parties - league, federation, government and players - in the next few days.
The LFP have already called an extraordinary meeting of all clubs next Monday to discuss the crisis, but what really needs to happen is for everyone involved to sit around the same table together. And as yet, there's no sign of that happening.
Ernesto Valverde, coach of Athletic Bilbao (Copa del Rey finalists) said: "The threat is there. We don't know whether it's a measure to exert pressure or if it could be something more serious."
What's the reaction in Spain?
At the Nou Camp on Wednesday night I asked a senior journalist at a Barcelona-based newspaper whether he thought the league would really be suspended, and his initial reaction was to scoff and laugh: "No! Of course not!"
But then he reflected for a couple of seconds, a worried look spread across his face and he added hesitantly: "Well, actually…maybe. I don't know."
That sums up how the situation is too volatile to be predicted with any confidence. But fans, naturally, are outraged by the prospect of an exciting title race, which is currently set to go down to the final day, being disrupted by a political power struggle.
Villar is being cast as the villain and has little public support, but LFP chief Javier Tebas is also unpopular with fans - ironically enough, largely because he has allowed television companies to stage games at anti-social times.
The timing of the announcement - just before Barcelona took the field to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final - means that it sneaked somewhat under the radar in terms of the national media.
But once their dissection of Lionel Messi's latest heroics is over, it's more than likely that the blame will be squarely laid at the door of the power struggle between Villar and Tebas.
Will the season really be left incomplete?


Key remaining fixtures
Sunday 17 May: Atletico Madrid v Barcelona; Espanyol v Real Madrid
Saturday 23 May: Barcelona v Deportivo; Real Madrid v Getafe
Saturday 30 May: Copa del Rey final - Athletic Bilbao v Barcelona
Ending the season without champions is pretty much unthinkable and the matter will surely be resolved in due course - there is too much money at stake, for starters, for that not to happen.
And as the most directly affected clubs are Real Madrid and Barcelona, who carry enormous emotional, cultural and political sway throughout Spain, it's unlikely they would allow the situation to remain unresolved.
If there is any disruption, it is more likely that fixtures will be delayed rather than completely abandoned.
The weekend of May 16/17 is under genuine threat, but beyond that there is still plenty of time to fit in two more midweek rounds of fixtures, if necessary, before the end of the European season on Saturday, 6 June, when the Champions League final takes place.
The league has to be finished before that date because it is immediately followed by the South American national team tournament, the Copa America in Chile, which will feature leading La Liga stars such as Messi, Neymar and James Rodriguez.
But Spanish administrators can be stubborn and inflexible, prone to hiding behind legal jargon to protect their positions - as demonstrated recently by the Spanish government's refusal to even discuss Catalan demands for independence because it would be anti-constitutional.
So although the fuss will probably be cleared up in good enough time to finish the season, nothing can be taken for granted.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32619740

 

#competitive

 

Didn't Nigeria get banned for the government getting involved recently?

fifa should stand by that but as its a big nation I doubt they will follow suit with Spain and ban them from European competition.

 

Wasn't that to do with the national team rather than domestic football?

 

True, but it's still getting involved. says they aren't allowed to get involved in football admin be it international or domestic

 

If you don't have collective bargaining you're effectively just a Sunday league that doesn't only play on Sundays

 

in the end their government passed a national law and thier league has to comply with national laws

the league is over in spain once the atletico barca game is over. that one will decide it.

the copa is a totally different comp

this is actually all about 2 big clubs wanting all the cash and forcing this crap.

 

Government intervention should be allowed and this law is what gives FIFA so much power. We have the most clueless football leaders in African football and when the government tries to intervene FIFA jumps in quickly to defend them as this is a voter rich continent for Blatter.

We have the equivalent of the English FA(FKF) in Kenya selling TV rights to a company while the body tasked to run the league KPL has a deal currently running with another company. The FKF deal is of a much lower value but they went on to form a parallel league of very dodgy teams. I always laugh when I see the English media whine because they think they were stitched up by FIFA. We have it pretty rough here in Africa.