Javier Tebas: "We will raise 600 million euros with the international sale of the audio-visual rights"

The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, participated this Thursday, July 2, in the Summer Courses of the Universidad Complutense in EL Escorial (Madrid), where he analyzed the function of the Spanish football management association as the regulatory organization and explained the latest novelties in the negotiation for the sale of audiovisual rights.

“By selling the rights internationally and in small countries we will raise 600 million euros.  The strategy we carried out from LaLiga has been correct because it allowed us to hit the market with all 38 clubs by way of an operation with Mediapro, and be more competitive”, he assured during his presentation ´Professional Football: In search of sustainability´ at the university forum promoted by the Asociacion de la Prensa Deportiva de Madrid (APDM) and the Department of Journalism of the Complutense.

In this aspect, Tebas reminded that the key to Spanish Football is to “increase income so to compete with the Premier League and avoid losing talent.  For this, we have to improve our  ... model of exploitation and eliminate piracy”. He reiterated that, “the highly criticised dispersion of schedules in LaLiga is key for exploiting these rights.”

The president commented that some of the international offers that LaLiga received  included China, Germany and even Albania but, at the same time, he assured that ”the audiovisual rights are not only going to be offered to one service, because  every country takes its own distinct strategic decisions.”

In his speech, Tebas also explained the main points to follow in order achieve the most brilliant management of both the clubs and the competition: “Spanish football is not sustainable if many of the problems are not dealt with, such as integrity, match-fixing and money control ". Regarding the teams’ debts, he also reminded that "in less than two years the debt in taxes has been reduced from € 700 million to €350 million ". 

When he was asked about the relationship with the Spanish Football Association (AFE) and the Spanish Royal Football Federation (RFEF), the president of LaLiga said that "there are negotiations with AFE because some of their claims might be assumed ". Regarding the 2015/2016 season calendar and the start of the competition, Tebas stated that “although the Federation prefers to begin on August 23rd, in LaLiga we want it to commence on the 16th to better exploit audio-visual rights ".