The end of free soccer?

The Professional Football League (LFP) has relaunched its offensive against the transmission of Liga matches on free-to-view television. La Liga's governing body wants the government to put an end to its obligation to show one match a week on a free-to-air station (currently La Sexta and some local channels, on Saturday nights.)

The LFP has announced its strong-arm tactic: a proposed strike in March that will leave stadiums empty across the country. The weekend the LFP has slated is March 19 and 20, when among scheduled matches are the Madrid derbi between Atlético and Real, Valencia's home match against Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao versus Villarreal.

Soccer in Spain is considered of "general interest" under a 1997 law covering the transmission of sporting events. The law states that one match per week must be televised and available in the whole country. No other league in a European Union country has such a regulation in place. In France, Italy, England and Germany all matches are broadcast through pay-per-view television channels. The LFP believes it is time Spain followed suit.

"We talked with all parties a year ago about this and they said they would study it. But as the political class does not wish to take notice of a historical demand, we are proposing a matchday strike," said Javier Tebas, vice president of the LFP. "We do not oppose free-to-view football. Our petition does not include King's Cup or Champions League games. We are just asking that they remove the obligation to show a Liga match per week."

Behind the request- which does not affect the Segunda División- are economic factors; the LFP estimates that the free-to-view Saturday match costs Liga clubs between 150 and 200 million euroseach season. If the Saturday game is rescinded, the LFP has proposed using the funds to pay off the debt of clubs with the Spanish state, which stands at around 600 million euros.

The LFP is in favor of ending free-to-view matches on July 1, 2012. In addition to pulling the plug on live matches, the LFP also wants to put a stop to round-up programs, which show highlights of matches as soon as the final whistle sounds. Tebas considers these to be "entertainment" programs that cannot cite the right to information to show images from matches.