Spanish football federation told to modify Copa del Rey tender

Spain’s competition regulator, the CNMC, has urged the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to rethink its tender process for the final of this year’s Copa del Rey club competition.

The RFEF opened the tender for domestic rights to the match last week. The final, between Barcelona and Valencia, will take place at Seville’s Estadio Benito Villamarín on May 25.

The RFEF set a deadline of May 6 for bids to be submitted for the audiovisual rights to the match but the tender has now been placed under consideration by the CNMC, which has found that the proposal by the RFEF does not fully comply with regulations in article 4.4 of Royal Decree Law 5/2015.

The regulator has therefore called on the RFEF to modify the process in relation to the following: obligations for open broadcasts; the differentiation in evaluating high-definition and standard-definition offers; the existence of audiovisual contents offered by the RFEF that are not covered by the Decree Law; and the reservation of rights not covered by the regulations.