La Liga: No side will earn less than €40m next season - a step in the right direction

Last week saw La Liga continue to flex its muscles in Europe as an all-Madrid Champions League was booked as well as Sevilla, current Europa League holders, making it to their third consecutive final where they’ll face Liverpool. Three out of the four finalists are from Spain and the very real prospect of La Liga making it a clean sweep again exists. Liverpool, to their credit, became the first – and only – side to beat Spanish opposition when they deservedly beat Villarreal in the semi-finals.

In a week when the focus has firmly been on European competitions there was a very interesting and important piece of news that kind of got lost in the commotion: the first details of the new TV deal for La Liga sides. I assume the release of this news was to take advantage of the focus on Spanish football but it almost went under the radar with most still not knowing about it - until now, of course. A statement on Friday would’ve made a lot more sense in my opinion, but there you go.

La Liga president Javier Tebas told us next season’s campaign would get underway on the 21st August and finish on the 21st of May. These dates are subject to change but it’s a general outline we can work on for now. Organisation isn’t something you associate with football over here in Spain, as demonstrated by the fact we still don’t know the kick-off times for the final set of matches – yes, just next week.

Next season will also see the return of the Christmas break so they’ll be no official fixtures between the 23rd December and the 2rd January. They are simply reverting back to type after this year’s exception of the rule due to the high volume of international tournaments to be played in the summer. As an Englishman, I quite enjoy watching football over the festive period and thought it might have been lucrative enough to justify removing the winter break on a permanent basis, but no. The issue seems to be with the players here as opposed to the league itself.

Tebas also confirmed a raft of changes when it comes to the image of the game, the audio-visual aspect of the product. The previous deal, where each club dealt with these issues individually, has been replaced with a collective one to ensure the brand is presented to a higher standard. This refers to the state of the playing surface, how the stadium is seen on camera, various new camera angles as well as how the interviews are done pre and post match. It’s been a long time coming but still a very welcome change, one which was definitely needed.

At the same meeting each club was told individually what they’d receive from the new TV deal, with a further meeting being held on the 30th of June to confirm the final figure. According to MARCA, who spoke with various representatives of certain clubs, every side will see their income at least double from the previous deal. Once again, another huge step in the right direction.

Real Madrid and Barcelona will continue to earn €140m each but it’s below them where the major changes are being made. Atletico Madrid only earned €45m per season on the old deal but will now receive more than €100m for the upcoming campaign – putting them ahead of what European giants Bayern Munich and Juventus earn. Sevilla will bank over €60m and Eibar, who were the lowest paid club last year, will see a jump from €16m to €43m. “Next season will see no club earn less than €40m through TV rights,” Tebas proudly said, whilst also pointing out that he felt certain clubs – without mentioning names – hadn’t been run properly and for that reason were struggling at the top.

The more cynical amongst you will still point out that the main three sides in Spain will earn nearly double that of the fourth, fifth and sixth teams. No one is hailing this deal as the end point but it’s a great start in making the league stable again. A €100m difference between Real and Eibar is huge but better than the €124m one it was previously. It’s also huge for the clubs that usually finish midtable or struggle as they will now have the means to invest in their club as opposed to fish in the free transfer or loan market, plus offer better wages to keep players happy.

Next up on Tebas’ hit list is to ramp up the number of people who pay to watch La Liga in Spain. The current season was an improvement in terms of the pricing, with the football pack costing just €9.99 to watch all matches from La Liga, Champions League and Europa League, Copa del Rey and selected matches from Europe. Yet even with such a good deal England has three times as many subscribers than in Spain. The price will no doubt increase in the upcoming season but it needs to remain respectable if they want to increase subscriptions too.

A lot of the coverage here in Spain is presented in blatantly biased fashion which appeals the fan bases of those clubs but immediately turns everyone else away. There have been some improvements, noticeably from BeIN Sports, where focus has been on the main talking points and not just the main teams, but it needs to be presented as a global product and not a sit down with ex-pros to discuss the latest going-ons at Real Madrid and Barcelona.

This deal doesn’t represent an end to all of La Liga’s problems but it does indicate that it’s finally moving in the right direction.