by Ryan D. Jaeger
Tomorrow (Wednesday, March 30), a court in Spain will decide whether a strike organized by the country's football governing body, Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) that will see all La Liga games cancelled this weekend, will go ahead or not.
The La Liga strike was called last week in protest to a Spanish law dating back to 1997 which requires that one La Liga match be televised every week for free on a Spanish public TV channel. Both the LFP and the Spanish FA argue that the law is unfair and costly.
Said LFP president José Luis Astiazarán, 'We at Ligue de Football Professionnel are not saying that there shouldn't be free-to-air football, just that we shouldn't be obliged to show a game every week.' He added that there was 'very little chance' of avoiding strike action.
As a result, the footballing organisations planned for a strike this weekend to drive home their point. However, news of the strike not only incensed most Spanish football fans, but prompted six of the 20 La Liga clubs to file an appeal in court to have the strike blocked.
If the court upholds Sevilla, Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Real Zaragoza, Espanyol and Villarreal's motion to overturn the strike, football fans across Spain will celebrate because the games can continue this weekend en route to crowning the 2010/11 La Liga champions.
While the LFP, the Spanish FA and the 14 other La Liga clubs may feel that the law is unfair, critics of the strike have pointed out that the fans themselves will lose out, especially those that have forked out big money for tickets, travel and hotels for this weekend's games.
Said Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido, 'It's not the right moment, politically speaking, to make these demands and, what's more, it should not be the fans who pay the price.' Plus, if the strike goes ahead, the La Liga schedule will be pushed back by three weeks.
