Miguel Cardenal, Spanish Secretary of State for Sport and president of the government’s sports council (CSD), has criticised the current impasse over the introduction of collective media-rights selling in domestic club football.
Spanish sports newspaper Diario AS reported on Sunday that the process is in serious danger and Cardenal took to Radio Nacional de España to highlight the rifts that exist between the different factions involved.
He said: “There is a problem of personal relationships. The CSD and RFEF (Spanish Football Federation) should collaborate on common plots. The CSD is closer to the general interest, but the LFP (Spanish Football League) and RFEF have their own interests. The collective sale of television rights is good. We need it in football and it will be resolved soon. It is a train that only arrives once.”
Speaking to Spanish news agency EFE, Cardenal added: “The measures that have been taken within football have caused considerable tension. I have not felt the support of the federation. It's a problem of personal relationships with (RFEF president) Angel Maria Villar.”
The LFP last month criticised Villar for not representing the interests of the clubs as the battle to introduce collective media-rights selling escalated. Following an extraordinary meeting of the LFP professional clubs, the organisation appeared to blame Villar for delays in implementing the so-called Royal Decree – the proposed government legislation that would enable media-rights income to be sold on a collective rather than club-by-club basis.
Following the meeting, LFP president Javier Tebas, who said that he had not spoken to Villar in a year and a half, said in a statement representing the clubs that the RFEF was not respecting an agreement that was reached on March 6 to work towards the centralisation of rights.