La Liga clubs meet for Spanish TV Reform

12 La Liga club presidents met in Seville last Thursday to discuss possible courses of action for TV rights and associated money distribution for Spanish football. The Presidents of Granada, Espanyol, Betis, At. Madrid, At. Bilbao, Osasuna, Zaragoza, Villarreal, Valencia, Santander, Malaga and Sevilla clubs met to discuss the change. La Liga tickets, Barcelona tickets and Real Madrid tickets can be purchased securely online. Jose Maria del Nido, the president of Sevilla, led the fight for a fairer sharing policy and used the meeting opportunity to attempt gaining commitment to the negotiations of a single contract that will deal with the distribution of cash. This would mean a radical reform of the agreement that was made in November, 2010 in which Real Madrid and Barcelona get the highest shares of TV revenue. The two clubs account for 35% of the shares, leaving other clubs at a disadvantage. Speaking out after the conference, del Nido commented that "Spanish football supporters will want to revoke this agreement because there are clear disadvantages. Our intention at this conference was to push for statutory modifications that would restructure the way the Spanish League operates."Jose del Nico is confident that the future of professional football in Spain lies in a stronger Spanish League and that it cannot exist without the selling of communal TV rights as one unit. Unlike most major football leagues that negotiate media deals as one organisations, the La Liga lets clubs negotiate contracts separately. This means that teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid that are popular worldwide get significantly more money when negotiating TV deals. The rest of the clubs suffer with reduced revenue, creating less opportunities to maintain quality squads. The objective is not to renegotiate or break deals that are currently on the table, rather to allow a fairer distribution of revenue for future deals, President del Nico insisted.