La Liga boss Javier Tebas preparing to mount legal challenge to Club World Cup

SINGAPORE – La Liga president Javier Tebas on June 26 confirmed that they are planning to mount a legal challenge to Fifa’s plans for an expanded Club World Cup.

Tebas, who was in Singapore for meetings with several La Liga stakeholders, told The Straits Times via an interpreter during an exclusive interview: “Yes, we are making a legal challenge. We are studying that now and we are going to do it in the next weeks.”

World football governing body Fifa announced last December that the revamped Club World Cup, featuring 32 teams – up from the current seven – will be held every four years from 2025. The first tournament will be staged from mid-June to mid-July in the United States.

Several top European sides have qualified, including current La Liga champions Real Madrid, rivals Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto, Benfica and Juventus.

The outspoken Spanish football league chief, a 61-year-old lawyer by trade, explained that the expanded tournament will put even more pressure on an already packed football calendar.

The increased number of matches and the scheduling conflicts with domestic leagues and competitions could dilute the value of existing broadcast rights and sponsorship deals, thus leading to potential revenue losses for clubs, he said at the Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel.

“I am opposed to it becoming a 32-club format. It takes up an important part of the football calendar which already has many competitions. It will not only affect the players who play in that competition but it affects all of us. It also leads to local clubs to have lesser income.”

It will not be the first legal action against Fifa, after the European Union (EU) court ruled last December that Uefa and Fifa had contravened EU law by preventing the formation of the European Super League (ESL), a proposed competition featuring some of the top clubs from Europe.

Tebas said: “These type of decisions (for a Club World Cup) cannot be made unilaterally, like what Fifa is doing at the moment.”

Tebas is not alone in challenging the Club World Cup. In May, Fifa said it would not consider rescheduling the tournament after global players’ union Fifpro and the World Leagues Association threatened legal action if it did not review its plans.

A month later, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and France’s players’ union (UNFP), both Fifpro members, submitted a legal claim with the Brussels court of commerce against Fifa over the Club World Cup which they say violates players’ rights to have sufficient rest between seasons.

PFA chief executive officer, Maheta Molango, also said that players are ready to go on strike over concerns about the overloaded playing calendar.

Tebas also expressed concern about the breakaway ESL, a project backed by Real Madrid and Barcelona but since abandoned by other major clubs.

Tebas said: “As long as there is a Florentino Perez (Real Madrid president), I am worried about it (ESL). It is important that I speak out about the ESL because people have to know that the creation of an ESL will kill the domestic football leagues and kill European football. People like Perez only think about their own project and they feel that as the richest, they must have the power.”

Tebas, who had helmed La Liga since April 2013, said he hopes to have at least one La Liga match played in Miami as soon as the 2025-26 season in a bid to bring the competition closer to markets outside Spain.

But in the meantime, he is focused on fighting the scourge of illegal streaming of matches, which is costing La Liga an estimated €600 million (S$870 million) in losses annually, he said.

Tebas added that La Liga is working with internet service providers (ISPs) around the world and is also hoping for legislations to be put in place to stop such practices.

In March, the English Premier League obtained a court order to force ISPs here to block 25 of the most popular websites that illegally stream its matches. It is understood that the La Liga supported the EPL in this move.

He also criticised tech firms like Apple and Google for not doing more to prevent smartphone users from downloading applications that host illegal streaming of matches through the respective app stores.

Tebas explained that illegal streaming undermines the legitimate holders of broadcast rights, which will subsequently lead to lower bids and eventually impact the long-term financial health and competitiveness of La Liga.

Tebas said: “It is very, very worrying. The biggest worry. It is the main priority for us to address. We have to fight against this through legal means in each country. We need to act against the providers for these illegal services too, like Apple and Google, who are also partners in crime in this illegal streaming.”