Government wants radios back in soccer stadium

The government has expressed its desire to put an end to the conflict between radio broadcasters and the Professional Football League (LFP), which is seeking payment to allow radio reporters to cover games in stadiums. The deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, on Tuesday placed herself "at the disposition" of both parties to find "a position of equilibrium."

The Popular Party administration has also said it would consider legislative changes "that would permit access to soccer stadiums for radio broadcasters so that they can air freely, as they have been doing, covering only the costs that they may incur."

From the beginning of the 2011-12 season, the LFP has barred radio reporters from stadiums. The broadcasters have had to employ increasingly ingenious degrees of subterfuge to cover games: camouflaging themselves among fans, watching on television or in bars, and leaning from the balconies of nearby residential buildings.

"We are not going to pay and we are not going to negotiate," said Manu Carreño, the director of Carrusel Deportivo, the flagship soccer show of Cadena SER, on the first weekend of Liga action.

"It is an attack against the right to information," chimed in Paco González of Catholic radio network COPE's Tiempo de Juego soccer show.

Only four radio stations, with minority audiences, support the fee scheme and were allowed access to stadiums on La Liga's opening weekend; two local Huelva broadcasters at Deportivo's Riazor stadium, Sportscartagena and Real Betis' in-house commentary team.

Even Real Madrid coach José Mourinho weighed into the debate: "Without radio, the sport will not be the same."

At the time the ban was imposed while he was still opposition leader, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he was opposed to the idea that radio networks should have to pay to cover La Liga. Now Sáenz de Santamaría has backed her boss, saying the government is willing to "find a solution" to the impasse.

The secretary general of the Spanish Association of Commercial Radio, Alfonso Ruiz de Assín, has applauded the government initiative and wants the law to state plainly that radio networks "should not have to pay to cover matches, as it is a tax-free activity." In a move to placate the LFP, the radio networks have offered to pay around 800,000 euros a season for the use of stadium installations. But the LFP wants between 15 and 20 million euros per year.

The radio networks, both public and private, maintain that the retransmission of matches is protected under the constitutional right to freedom of information. The LFP, though, believes that as radio broadcasts enjoy large audiences they should be bracketed with television, which pays vast sums for the right to show matches.

In her appearance in parliament, Sáenz de Santamaría announced that the State Council of Audiovisual Media would be shut down. She said this regulator body, which is present in most countries in the EU, is neither "convenient nor necessary" because spectators' rights can be overseen by existing regulatory organs "without the need to spend 6.5 million euros to create a new one."

The government's plan is to transfer the responsibilities of the Audiovisual Council to the Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT).