News

Gary Lineker’s The Rest is Football is claiming the title of first podcast to secure a clip rights deal with a major European soccer league after tying with Spain’s La Liga. At the same time, La Liga has confirmed Disney+’s UK and Ireland service has secured rights to the competition for the next three years.

The podcast deal, which Lineker’s Goalhanger Films struck with La Liga, is also for three years, and will see the launch of a video-first podcast titled The Rest is Football: Laliga, which former BBC Sports presenter Lineker will host alongside Alex Aljoe. It will be available of YouTube and Spotify in the UK and Ireland, featuring clips from every la Liga game along with expert analysis and discussion.

In the UK, interest in La Liga is spiking with the inclusion of players such as Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold at Real...

A soccer ball inside a stadium.

Police in Argentina have raided the homes and offices of several individuals linked to a massive streaming piracy operation that rebroadcast La Liga soccer games without authorization.

The coordinated action involved five simultaneous raids and multiple arrest warrants executed throughout several Argentinian provinces, including Chubut, Mendoza, and Río Negro. Argentina’s Federal Police and regional law enforcement units carried out the enforcement with support from digital platforms Mercado Libre and Mercado Pago.

One of the targeted organizations was Uv Mundo Digital, an Internet service provider that police accuse of marketing and selling devices that connected to Magis TV, an illegal streaming service. Among other things, police collected a trove of evidence that ranged from IP address logs to bank records and e-mails, according to Argentinian law enforcement authorities.

Javier Tebas, the President of La Liga, praised the collaboration between the league, law enforcement and the anti-piracy organization Alianza.

As the value of sports rights grows, the battle over piracy will intensify, and it’s one war the broadcasting world has to win.

That was the sentiment yesterday at the Img-RedBird Summit during a number of panels with top figures from the world of entertainment and sports yesterday.

In a morning session at the Soho Farmhouse event in the UK, Javier Tebas, President of Spain’s top division La Liga, said the main challenge for soccer is “piracy and audio visual fraud.”

“It’s been going on for years, but for last three seasons, the growth in piracy is incredible,” he added. “I spend 70% working day fighting against audiovisual fraud. If, hypothetically, we got rid of 90% of piracy there’d be sufficient money for everyone.”

Tebas warned that sports federations, who sell rights to their events and tournaments to broadcasters and streamers have not taken the issue “as seriously as it should be.

MIPCOM Keynote Speaker

Gerhard Zeiler, president of international at Warner Bros. Discovery, will give the opening keynote at the 39th edition of TV market Mipcom, which runs Oct. 16-19 in Cannes.

Zeiler is expected to share insight into Wbd’s transformation post-merger as well as lay out the company’s worldwide content and streaming strategy.

Zeiler’s responsibilities for Wbd span strategic oversight of brands and joint responsibility for direct-to-consumer activity (including streaming service Max) across more than 220 markets. He is also responsible for local theatrical production, acquisitions, and country and region-specific networks and businesses in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

Zeiler said: “Our industry is facing heightened disruption and undergoing a process of transformation. These are times of change but it’s also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to architect the media ecosystem for the next generation. I’m looking forward to speaking at Mipcom about...

Baghdad, June 5 (Ians) The Iraqi Football Association (Ifa) solidified a partnership with the Spanish National Professional Football League (La Liga), marking a significant step forward for the nation’s football with the launch of a professional league in Iraq.

The contracts, signed under the auspices of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, were inked by Ifa president Adnan Dirjal and Javier Tebas, president of La Liga. The ceremony took place at the prime minister’s headquarters in the central Baghdad Green Zone, reports Xinhua.

In a statement, al-Sudani’s media office reported the prime minister commending the efforts of the Iraqi Football Association in the development of the nation’s football. Al-Sudani stressed the necessity for continued professionalism in all aspects of Iraqi sports, not solely football.

Tebas expressed appreciation for the collaboration with the Iraqi Football Association, emphasizing that considerable efforts were invested to ensure the success of the project.

Madrid, April 19 (Ians) Spain’s referees have defended themselves from criticism of their performances this season with a strongly worded communique in which they have accused the Spanish football league (La Liga) of attempting to undermine their work.

Although they officiate in La Liga, referees in Spain are controlled by the Spanish Football Federation (Rfef) and relations between Rfef president Luis Rubiales and La Liga boss Javier Tebas are at an all-time low, with continued accusations between them, reports Xinhua.

This season has seen referees placed under greater scrutiny than ever, with criticism of many decisions and questions about reviews (or failure to review decisions) by the Var.

It was rumored that a meeting of referees in Madrid on Tuesday could even see Spain’s referees call a strike and bring the season to a halt; in the end, the referees limited themselves to a communique in which they criticized La Liga.

Madrid, March 8 (Ians) Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish football league La Liga has denied that the competition is in a financial crisis.

Tebas was responding to a story published in the El Espanol newspaper, which reports that La Liga’s TV deal with the ‘Dazn’ platform and a contract with the Cvc investment fund, which has given money to most of the clubs in the tournament for a share of their money from the sale of audiovisual rights, were on the verge of falling apart.

The article reports that Dazn is not getting the return it had hoped for from its investment in TV rights, while Cvc was having doubts over the viability of its agreement (part of which includes money from the sale of rights) and that the agreements were subsequently in “serious danger of not being maintained.”

Tebas responded to the story with a tweet describing...

Madrid (Spain), Feb 22 (Ians) The controversy over money paid to a former referee by Fc Barcelona continues to increase in Spain in a case that is quickly becoming known as “Barcagate.”

“Barcagate” came to light last week when it was revealed that Fc Barcelona had paid around 7 million euros to a consultancy owned by Jose Maria Negreira, a former referee and also the former vice-president of the referees technical committee.

This money was supposedly paid for reports on referees and youth team players at other clubs, but former Barca coach Ernesto Valverde (now at Athletic Club Bilbao) on Saturday told the press he had never seen any reports during his two and a half years at the club, while Jorge Patasso, the assistant to Tata Martino in the 2013-14 season, said they never saw any reports either.

An attempt by the 42 La Liga clubs in first and second divisions to...

Mumbai, Dec 6 (Ians) After the end of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup, and with half of the teams already eliminated from the event, Spain’s La Liga remains the league that brings the second-most international players to the event in Qatar.

With nearly 60 players of different nationalities, who will play in the Round of 16, La Liga is only behind the Premier League, and ahead of the other three major European leagues — Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

The Spanish top flight thus accounts for 22.3 of the players in the European Top 5 for the Last-16 round, who come from 15 different La Liga clubs, the La Liga informed in a release on Tuesday.

It is worth noting that, despite being in second place, La Liga is the league that has lost the fewest players since the start of the World Cup, with -28.9 of the original volume of players.

The...

Rio de Janeiro, March 16 (Ians) A group led by Spain’s La Liga has proposed the creation of a new league in Brazil that would operate independently of the national football confederation. La Liga president Javier Tebas presented the plan to representatives of clubs in the top two divisions during a three-hour meeting in Sao […]...

Documentary

Comcast-owned pay TV service Sky U.K. has released the first trailer for “Super Greed: The Fight for Football.” Produced by Fulwell 73, the 90-minute film charts the rise and rapid fall of the European Super League. In Apr. 2021, owners and executives of the 12 most powerful clubs in world soccer attempted to launch a new competition that would secure their club’s financial future for the next 23 years. The Super League created a fury of opposition from the entire soccer world and collapsed in just 48 hours. “Super Greed: The Fight for Football” tells the inside story of the league through the eyes of those who helped bring it down.

Contributors include president of UEFA, Aleksander Čeferin; president of La Liga, Javier Tebas; chairman of Crystal Palace Fc, Steve Parish; MP for Liverpool, West Derby, Ian Byrne; soccer writer, Nicky Bandini; Arsenal Supporters’ Trust spokesperson, Tim Payton; and Chelsea Supporters’ Trust member,...

Madrid, March 22 (Ians) Laliga and the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar (Rna) have signed a framework collaboration agreement to share experience and knowledge and mutually reinforce the reputation of both the brands nationally and internationally.

The alliance, which covers the next three years, will see these organisations offering two-way support and launching a series of joint projects and initiatives, said a statement on Monday.

"Since we opened the Academy in 2016, we've grown consistently both nationally and internationally, and believe that this collaboration with Laliga will be of great value to us. For some time now, our teams have been working together on some of the very exciting projects which I hope will come to fruition soon. I'm sure that this partnership between the two brands will be very positive," said Nadal in the statement.

Laliga president Javier Tebas said: "Our alliance with the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar represents another...

Madrid — The beautiful game has just got dirtier. Produced by The Mediapro Studio and Directv Latin America, Season 1 of soccer crime thriller “Side Games” (“Todo por el juego”) proved a big swing for the Latin American pay TV/Svod player, the most watched show on its bow on its premium pay TV service OnDirectv and Svod offer Directtv Play.

Announcing this August its carriage of new Ott service Directv Go, the only DirecTV Latin American Original mentioned by Southern American pay TV service Roku was “Side Games.”

Released in Latin America on Oct. 21 and in Spain on Movistar+ from Sunday Nov. 3, Season 2’s trawl through the sewers of the soccer business looks to raise the stakes, broadens the canvas and proves even darker.

Calparsoro has said that he always imagined “Side Games” as a four season series, though each season can be seen on its own. After sale to parts of Latin America,...

In today’s roundup, “T-Pain’s School of Business” sets an August 6 premiere on Fuse, and Own greenlights a new talks series.

Executive News

Matt Brodlie is leaving his role as director of original film at Netflix to join the Disney+ content marketing team as senior vice president of international content development. In his new role, Brodlie will lead international content development for Disney+, and will develop the content strategy for all non-us markets.

Dates

Season 2 of “T-Pain’s School of Business” will premiere August 6 on Fuse. The new season of the unscripted original, which follows T-Pain as he showcases young entrepreneurs and startups, will see the rapper eat the first robot-made hamburger at Creator Burger and meet the founders of companies such as Xos Trucks, LogicInk, and Black Santa.

Initiatives

TV Land’s series “Younger” has partnered with The United States of Women to share a PSA in support...

Spain’s top Soccer league, La Liga, has unveiled a new Ott service, LALIGASportsTV. The service provides audiences with free coverage of major and minor Spanish sports content streamed directly to their personal devices. It looks set to be the first such service offered by a major European league, and of singular scope and objectives.

LALIGASportsTV is designed and maintained by La Liga, but with the intention of promoting all Spanish sports, and specifically to promote and develop distribution of audiovisual content for lower-profile federations which typically go uncovered by mainstream media.

The new service is offered up under the LALIGASports project, an initiative created to offer Spanish sports federations an opportunity for greater promotion and exposure. Through the project, La Liga will also offer assistance in understanding viewer habits and developing commercialization strategies.

Pending local rights restrictions, fans in and outside of Spain will now have access to the...