La Liga strike averted after Spanish High Court ruling

Great news for La Liga fans, the Spanish High Court has provisionally suspended the planned player’s strike in La Liga that was set to begin tomorrow at midnight, which means that league action will return on Sunday.

The strike was initially called by both the Spanish Federation and the players union as they disagreed with the government’s proposed new law regarding the collective bargaining for TV rights, and had placed the remaining two rounds of league fixtures and the Copa del Rey final in jeopardy.

However, the Royal Federation of Spanish Football (RFEF) has officially announced that the competitions will be “held in accordance with the calendar that has been set.”

The National Court made its ruling on the condition that the LFP deposits a bond of five million euros before 15:00 local time today.

Meanwhile, the Sports Council, the Spanish Football Player’s Association (AFE) and the LFP will continue working towards an agreement.

Just over two weeks ago, new legislation was passed that would have brought Spanish football in line with how the Premier league and Serie A are marketed, and would have corrected existing imbalances in earnings, which allowed Real Madrid and Barcelona to claim a disproportionate amount of television income in La Liga.

The legislation meant there would be an auction for television broadcasting rights, with La Liga standing to make billions of dollars that would be distributed fairly among Spanish clubs.

But the players’ union protested the new TV rights law and threatened to go on strike indefinitely beginning on May 16 because they felt the new ruling was made without their interests being taken into account.

Then, the LFP, which represents 42 clubs from the top two divisions in Spain, filed a petition to the courts to have the strike declared illegal.

The players’ union and LFP were summoned to make a court appearance before today’s ruling ultimately came down preventing the season-ending strike.