By David Gold
August 14 – Following a threat by 13 La Liga teams to delay the start of the season, the Spanish league has called a meeting of all first and second tier teams to take place today.
It is the second year in a row that the Spanish league season starts in disarray after a strike last season over unpaid player wages delayed the start of the 2011-2012 campaign.
This year the dispute is over television rights, with the thorny issue of a collective television deal at the heart of the debate.
The majority of La Liga teams want a collective model similar to England, France, Italy and Germany, rather than the current individual broadcast deals clubs negotiate.
That model means that Barcelona and Real Madrid (both pictured below) take over half of La Liga’s cumulative broadcast revenue.
By contrast, under the current system the team finishing third in La Liga may not even take as much as sides being relegated from England’s Premier League in domestic television revenue.
Last week a row erupted between broadcasters Canal+ and Mediapro, which caused concern among the Spanish clubs.
They demanded that unpaid debts and any legal action against them be dropped, and asked for “television operators to establish a stable framework to ensure the fair distribution of broadcasting rights for all clubs in the Primera Division.”
The new league campaign is due to get underway this weekend.
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