Spanish Soccer Is Being Canceled, Here's Why

I heard all soccer in Spain is being suspended on May 16th. Is this true?

Yes. The Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF) has decided to suspend soccer, at every level—from youth divisions through La Liga—through the end of the season.

But Barcelona is only 2 points above Real Madrid in the title race…

Yeah, well, it looks like whatever happens this weekend—when Barca plays Sociedad and Real plays Valencia—will be decisive. As it stands, the last two rounds of league play won't be played. Also, the Cup final.

What the hell?

What we have here is a good old fashioned power struggle. The government, working closely with the League of Professional Football (LFP), which oversees the top two divisions in Spain, drafted a law that would reform how television contracts are paid out in Spanish soccer. The RFEF is mad because it feels it wasn't consulted, and maybe also because its 4.55 percent cut is smaller than it would like. So, after making its hurt known, announcing it felt "ignored" and "disrespected," the RFEF decided to just blow everything up.

Um, but isn't the distribution of money in Spanish soccer in serious need of reform?

Yes, it is! Barcelona and Real Madrid negotiate their own television contracts and, as a result, get about 50 percent of all of the TV revenue. When this started years ago, the two mega clubs rubbed their hands together, counted their money, and armed themselves for battle. But over the years it became clear to everybody, including some folks at Barca and Real, that this revenue distribution doesn't exactly lend itself to a healthy professional system. The proposed law would make things more equitable, by mandating the clubs negotiate contracts collectively.

So why is the RFEF standing in the way of positive change?

Well, it's a little more complicated than that. For one thing the players are actually on the RFEF's side.

WHAT?!

Well, sort of. Like the RFEF, the players' union feels slighted, because it also wasn't consulted during the law's drafting. But there's more to it. The union isn't opposed to redistributing the wealth so much as how that redistribution would look under the proposed law. The players' union thinks the law would not give teams in the second division enough money. Smaller teams in Spain haven't been on solid financial ground in a really, really long time. It's unfortunately not uncommon for teams to almost go bust, or go bust, and/or just not pay players for a while. The proposed law calls for a 90/10 split in revenue between the first and second divisions. The players' union wants the second division to get a bigger cut, something like the roughly 20 percent second divisions in Germany and England get.

The Union was actually threatening a strike on the last two rounds of league play anyway, and the RFEF doubled down on that by suspending the whole thing.

The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend.

Correct. What's at stake is really the financial health of Spanish soccer. Weirdly, you could view both the LFP and the RFEF's actions as a way to defend the interests of Spain's big clubs. Maybe the RFEF is ultimately interested in redistributing the television money, but its actions here, at least, prolong the status quo. And when it comes to the LFP, critics worry the law is reform in name only. The 90/10 split still gives a larger than reasonable slice of cash to the top clubs, and it might be even worse than that: there have been some suggestions that proposed reform might actually be just as lopsided toward Barca and Real as what we have now, because much of the 90 percent cut will get distributed on a sliding scale, based on league results.

The players, on the other hand, know careers are short. They also bounce between leagues more often than fans probably realize, and they appear to be holding out for a more reasonable deal for everyone.

Isn't suspending the league extreme?

Certainly. But the RFEF feels like its power is being diminished, and it's emboldened by the players' position. It's likewise emboldened by FIFA, which is an invisible party to the showdown in Spain.

Ugh. FIFA…

FIFA opposes "government interference" in soccer. Sports and politics, you see, should remain separate. To ensure that politicians don't meddle in sports, FIFA is prepared to take action against what it sees as government interference. It has already threatened Spain, and could theoretically ban the Spanish national team from international competition, if the Spanish government doesn't butt out. So the RFEF is holding FIFA's water here a little bit.

It would be remiss of me not to point out just what a one-way street FIFA's stance on government interference is. FIFA has no qualms about interfering in how sovereign nations govern themselves, as is clear every time countries preparing to host the World Cup pass laws that favor FIFA. Whether it was the beer dispute in Brazil or the FIFA courts in South Africa, FIFA isn't afraid to flex some political muscle.

It happens in more subtle ways, too. FIFA's threat to suspend the Spanish team inadvertently gives guys like RFEF President Angel Maria Villar—who is good buddies with FIFA President Sepp Blatter and used to work for FIFA—a lot of political sway in a country where soccer is part of the cultural fabric. Some in Spain have already called Villar's personal motivations into question.

Villar is apparently not only upset at the proposed television law but also at the so called "entrepreneur law," which he claims has negative consequences for amateur soccer. This is why all of Spanish soccer is suspended rather than just the professional divisions. Maybe he's right. Maybe this entrepreneur law really is terrible. But the political capital FIFA gives Villar on such matters, even if it's inadvertent, adds an interesting wrinkle to the whole kerfuffle. FIFA could wind up influencing Spanish politics in a way that goes beyond a little dispute over television revenue.

So what's going to happen?

Well, the LFP has scheduled a massive pow wow with all the pro clubs on Monday. Perhaps they will soften their position. It's hard to see La Liga actually being canceled. But who really knows? It certainly looks like it will be postponed at least until the league, the RFEF, and the players can all have their say in the government's proposed legislation. How quickly that happens will determine how quickly we find out who wins La Liga and the Spanish Cup, and, ultimately, whether Spain succeeds in fixing its broken soccer structure.