Sevilla leads TV revenue backlash

A majority of Primera and Segunda División sides on Tuesday signed a contract with the aim of altering the distribution of television revenues in the Spanish leagues from the outset of the 2015-16 season. Of the Primera teams, 13 signed the agreement, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, both of which currently enjoy the lion's share of television money. In Segunda, only Villarreal B, Celta, Betis and Girona failed to sign, with the latter three expected to do so by Friday.

The current agreement, whereby individual clubs negotiate their own deals, heavily favors Real Madrid and Barcelona, which share roughly half the 650 euro million total between them. The contract signed in Madrid this week will maintain the status quo and make any additional money gleaned by the signatory clubs available for distribution from a shared pot, so long as the cash generated by Liga clubs reaches800 million euros.

Real and Barcelona still stand to gain the most, with 34 percent of that fund destined for the Bernabéu and Camp Nou coffers. Atlético and Valencia would receive 11 percent each, with 45 percent of the total doled out equally to Primera's other 16 clubs. Segunda 's 22 teams would share out nine percent, and one percent, some 27 million euros, would be kept aside for parachute payments for clubs relegated from the top flight. The deal could be brought forward to 2014, when current contracts expire, if the target amount is reached by then.

Clearly, this arrangement is not to everybody's liking and a six-team Primera breakaway group - Sevilla, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao, Espanyol, Zaragoza and Real Sociedad - with José María del Nido, the president of Sevilla, as its standard-bearer, has refused to sign the contract, arguing that Spain should adopt a system similar to those in England, France or Italy. In the Premier League for example the wealthiest clubs earn less than twice as much as the league's smaller teams. In La Liga , the disparity between Real and Barcelona, and Zaragoza, Racing or Sporting can be as much as 19 times, according to a study carried out by consultant Sport+Markt.

"Under the current system of revenue sharing, it would be impossible for any club other than Madrid or Barça to win the league," Del Nido said after Tuesday's meeting, with the presidents of the five other interested clubs at his side. One club, Málaga, remains aloof from the group of 13 and the rebellious six. "I don't know how any of us could justify to our fans that we are only able to compete for fifth place," added Del Nido, whose consortium proposes 50 percent of television revenues be split equally among Primera clubs, with 25 percent shared out according to attendance and another 25 percent dependent on results on the field.

The Real and Barça-led signatories argue that their model already allows for a fairer sharing of the spoils: as it stands the two richest clubs receive between 44 and 47 percent. Under the terms of the contract signed this week, they would each receive 17 percent. Furthermore, they argue, the contract would ensure that Barça and Real could not earn above eight times more than any other club.

"What cannot be allowed to happen is that the first-placed team earns 130 million euros and the last-placed team gets 9 million euros," Del Nido said. "In the past 10 years the 'big two' have earned1.5 billion euros more than the third-placed team and with this agreement in the next six years Barça, Real, Atlético and Valencia will earn 1.5 billion euros more than the third-placed team, whoever that may be. Of 79 Liga titles, Madrid and Barça have won 51. In the last 10 years they have won it eight times, and in the last five years nobody else has won it. This imbalance doesn't happen anywhere else in the world."