The majority of the Congress of Deputies has tried to avoid a head-on clash with the Professional Football League, which threatened a strike if its demands were not accepted in the negotiation of the new Sports Law. The Culture Commission of the Chamber has approved this Tuesday a text that, without fully meeting the demands of the clubs’ employers on the sale of television rights, recognizes that these may be marketed jointly, as LaLiga defends and had been happening since 2015 The project, which must still pass through the plenary session of Congress and the Senate, also prohibits an active athlete from maintaining commercial relations with the federation of his specialty, as is the case of Gerard Piqué and his company Kosmos, which has done business with the Spanish Football Federation. The PSOE has also accepted an amendment from the PNV that opens the door for the Basque Country to have its own teams in certain disciplines, such as Basque pelota or surfing.
The attempt to Solomonically resolve the conflict with LaLiga has not fulfilled its aspirations, although sources from that body have welcomed it as an advance on the initial text, which had motivated the clubs’ threat to plant. The employers wanted the new law to shield their ability to jointly sell all their commercial assets and thus provide legal certainty to the agreement signed with the CVC investment fund by which the clubs receive 2,000 million euros in exchange for 8% of the profits for 50 years from the sale of television rights. This agreement is rejected by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao. The three clubs and the Spanish Football Federation have challenged it in court because they understand that it violates the Sports Law and that it exceeds the powers over the joint sale of certain assets.
The demands of LaLiga were collected in a series of amendments initially presented by the PP and later withdrawn, according to the employers’ association and other political groups, due to pressure from the Madridista president. Until the last minute, and under the threat of a club strike, the political forces have been negotiating an agreement, also in contact with the interested parties. Even after Tuesday’s debate in the Culture Commission of Congress, the session was interrupted for almost an hour and a half so that the groups could continue negotiating. The corridors have then become a bustle of deputies, negotiating among themselves and with constant telephone consultations. The final solution does not provide LaLiga with the armor that he intended, although at the same time it includes recognition of the ability to jointly sell broadcasting rights, which in practice means leaving the legal framework almost as it was.
The minority partner of the Government, United We Can, had already warned before the debate, through the mouth of its parliamentary spokesman, Pablo Echenique, that it would not vote in favor of any text that knew how to “submit the legislation to the will of Florentino Pérez”. Finally, at the last moment, the PSOE has negotiated an amendment with its partners, which is what has managed to satisfy, at least partially, 39 of the 42 clubs that supported the employer’s proposal. The text says that the “Spanish sports federations” must recognize LaLiga’s power to jointly market the broadcasting rights of professional football, as established by the Royal Decree approved by the Government of Mariano Rajoy in 2015. The proposal has been supported by all groups except Vox.
On the table there was another amendment that did fully satisfy the demands of the employers, since in this case it established as imperative the joint sale of television rights as a protection measure for smaller clubs. It was presented by Ciudadanos and Compromís, but in this case they have only garnered the support of Vox and Bildu. On the other hand, there has been another gesture by PSOE and PP to reduce the tension with the employers: both have agreed that the text maintain what in practice implies the LFP’s right to veto any regulatory change in its competitions proposed by the Spanish Football Federation.
The text will still take weeks to be definitively approved, after going through the plenary session of Congress and the Senate. Apart from the provision that will prevent Piqué’s company from managing the marketing of the Spanish Super Cup again, the last-minute novelty has been the pact between PSOE and PNV to allow regional teams to play international competitions when it comes to sports with special “historical or social roots”, provided that the respective federations and the Higher Sports Council (CSD) allow it. The PNV believes that this provision can be applied to Basque pelota and surfing, and has proclaimed that the agreement has a “historic scope” because it represents the “first step” to try to extend it to other disciplines.
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