Spanish Sports Redeemed Amid Covid 19 Crisis with 200 Million Euros Contribution by La Liga

Turning point for Spanish Sports

Thursday, 23rd April 2020

Spanish soccer seems to have attained a reprieve amid a long-standing dispute over how it should be run. The Spanish Football League’s organizing body La Liga issued a statement wherein they pledged 200 million euros ($217 million) over the next four years to give a boost to Spanish sports and lower league football.

The announcement came in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and concerns raised by football players from leading clubs about returning to work, Spain being one of the top nations in the world to have come into the grips of the pandemic with more than 200,000 people infected and 21,282 deaths.

La Liga’s statement further clarified that the contributions would consist of a total of 51 million euros (US $55.33 million) per year to the sports ministry as a result of the agreement. The funds will help create a corpus to “boost organized sport, Olympic and Paralympic sports and internationalization of sport”. This will include an emergency fund which will be set up by them in order to aid non-professional players and improve infrastructure. La Liga has also agreed to contribute 58.7 million euros to the Spanish Football Federation.

The agreement was the result of an eight-hour long meeting between La Liga's president Javier Tebas, RFEF chief Luis Rubiales and sports minister Irene Lozano.

This offer of financial help is over and above the 1 per cent of its revenue that La Liga has donated to the country’s ministry of sports since signing a collective broadcasting rights deal back in the year 2015. It has now been increased to 2.5 per cent along with the 2 per cent contribution it makes to the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a gaping hole in the Spanish sports scene. The interruption in football has caused unprecedented financial damages to many La Liga clubs as well as sports and non-professional clubs, leading to huge cuts in remuneration.

This settlement has been construed by many as an answer to not only the crisis brought about by the novel coronavirus pandemic but also in perpetuity.

Source: India Today