Real Madrid, Barcelona Will Have Television Revenues Limited By New Spanish Law

Real Madrid and Barcelona's TV revenues, which help make them the world’s richest football clubs, "will be limited under a new Spanish law," according to Alex Duff of BLOOMBERG. La Liga President Javier Tebas said in an email the teams, with combined annual sales of €1B ($1.36B), will not "be able to receive more than four times as much broadcast income as the smallest of the 20 clubs in Spain’s La Liga under the legislation." Tebas said that "Real and Barcelona currently earn about 6.5 times as much as the smallest team." A government official said that the league "has held talks with the government about amendments to the so-called Sports Law that are scheduled to be approved this year and take effect in 2015." Catherine Davies, who covers Spanish football rights for London-based consultancy Sportcal, said, "Real Madrid and Barcelona won’t be happy" if their TV income is frozen. The league "is working to placate them by increasing total broadcast sales." Davies said that the league aims to boost TV rights income to €1B from €752M ($1B) by '17 "by combating piracy, increasing sales abroad and pushing the government to remove a weekly match on free-to-air television" (BLOOMBERG, 2/10).