Spanish footballers protest against La Liga’s decision to move Villarreal-Barcelona to Miami and the scene is censored on TV. Here’s what’s happening around the choice to take local champions abroad
The first to stop were the players Oviedo and Espanyol. Motionless on the pitch for about twenty seconds after the referee’s starting whistle to reiterate to the whole world the opposition from the category to moving the La Liga abroad, in the case of the match between Villarreal and Barcelona scheduled in Miami on 21 December. The other side of the coin of Milan-Como which the Lega Serie A sent to Perth, Australia, 14 thousand kilometers from Milan despite the open opposition of professionals and fans.
The protest of the Oviedo and Espanyol players, however, was only seen by those who were in the stadium. THENothing was shown on television because those responsible for La Liga, the Spanish championship, censored everything by showing the public at home and in the rest of the world the image from above of the stadium. They can do this because the direction, as happens in the Italian Serie A, is centralized and therefore only what those in charge want are shown. Therefore the clubs and, in the Spanish case, the very powerful president Javier Tebas who also displeased Real Madrid by sending Villarreal-Barcelona to Miami.
The scene was repeated for all the other Spanish championship matches of the weekend. Always the same pattern: players on the pitch stopped for about twenty seconds, blacked out in the television production distributed to broadcasters and holders of all forms of rights. A real censorship which, however, had the opposite effect because in the social media era that scene was relaunched thousands, millions of times across platforms.
The clash is very tough between La Liga, the players and the other Spanish clubs who frown upon Barcelona going to make money in Miami, saving themselves the trip to one of the most difficult pitches, playing with the public in favor because this will almost certainly be in the capital of Florida. Since i blaugrana they fight for the title with the two Madrid teams, an advantage that distorts the competition.
The reality is that it is just an aperitif that the managers of Spanish football and also those of the Lega Serie A would like to make become a habit from next season. UEFA gave the green light, underlining that it was one (two) exceptions, but the project is to take the challenges of the championships around the world in search of money, contracts and visibility to counter the growth of the American leagues and the Premier League.
Like it or not, according to those in charge of football in Spain and Italy this is the future and there is no other way to counteract the slimming down of the cake of TV rights available to local tournaments, even high-level ones such as La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Almost no one likes the choice, but for now it’s in the past. Covered by censorship of the protests, at least on official channels.
