• Legislation.The Government gains power in sport and brings the Viana pacts to the Royal Decree

Royal Decree 15/2020 has been a direct blow to the women's soccer clubs that make up the Iberdrola League . The urgent measures that have been legislated at the request of the Higher Sports Council to loosen the positions of the Spanish Federation and LaLiga in the way that it should return from professional football to the activity have supposed, in the opinion of the 3 clubs that make up the Association Española de Clubes Femeninos (ACFF), an "expropriation" of their television rights.

The AFCC launched a legal battle last summer to maintain control of one of its main sources of income, which the Federation chaired by Luis Rubiales, organizer of the Iberdrola League - a competition that is still considered amateur - claimed as its own to market them. together. Furthermore, given the Association's refusal, to which all the clubs except FC Barcelona, ​​Athletic and Tacón belong, he wanted to link them to registration in the competition and the licenses necessary to play European tournaments. Whoever did not transfer them could not participate in the Iberdrola League or play in Europe. However, the commercial courts agreed with the teams , which mostly sold their rights to Mediapro for nine million for three seasons.

Those rights that they fought are now going to be lost with this Royal Decree and in the midst of a pandemic that is hitting the soccer economy, both professional and amateur, and that some women's clubs consulted by El Mundo consider "a robbery . " And it is that article 8 of the new decree grants the Spanish Federation the power "in the commercialization and distribution of the audiovisual rights of the SM King's Cup , the Super Cup and the rest of competitions at the state level that it organizes , both male and female "without counting for it with the holders of those rights. One of these competitions is the Iberdrola League.

That has been understood by the clubs as the way that the Federation, protected by the Government, has found to return the blow it received last summer, when it did not even manage to reverse its agreement with Mediapro in exchange for guaranteeing them an income. 600,000 euros a year.

More victims

Women's clubs are not the only ones upset with this move by the Higher Sports Council, which guarantees a good pinch of the income from television rights that sport can generate.

The Royal Decree includes in its article 26 the creation of the Spain Global Sports Foundation , which would manage the audiovisual rights of those sports federations that do not have the capacity to do it themselves, but it is a voluntary decision, but "may only entrust said management to the foundation ".

This has meant that federations with professional or semi-professional competitions with organizations with representative capacity can no longer entrust the management of these rights to private companies such as Mediapro or Santa Monica, two of the most important in Spanish sport.

Sports jurists understand that this Royal Decree may be unconstitutional by depriving entities of any rights acquired without any consideration.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Women's Football

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