“Neither LaLiga, nor the Federation nor anyone pays attention to us”

The president of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), Cani Fernándezhas asked that this body be freed from having to report every time there is a contest for the issuance of football rights, taking into account that they “never pay attention”.

Fernández referred this Monday in Madrid, at a meeting organized by Nueva Economía Fórum, to the report issued by the CNMC on the competition for the issuance of football rights, in which it establishes, for example, that these rights are not auctioned for a longer period 3 years old

“I am going to try to make a request that they please free the CNMC from having to report every time there is a competition for football rights, because in the report in which we say that the rights are not granted for more than 3 years, They never pay attention.”

He added: “With the means I have, to make reports so that they are not followed up later, it is almost better that they remove that competence from me.” There are “many hours of work” that the CNMC dedicates to it so that “later the Federation, LaLiga or whoever does what they want”.

The president has affirmed that the requirements of the auctions are already known because there is a sufficiently broad body of doctrine and, taking this into account, “well, we almost skipped the report and went directly to the infringement procedures”, she suggested.

Last autumn, the CNMC issued a report on the competition for football broadcasting rights, called by LaLiga, in which it was required to modify some aspects such as the duration of the contracts, which were proposed for up to 5 years, while the regulatory body wanted to limit them to three years. Finally, La Liga launched the call for 5 years.

Telefónica is limited by the CNMC to present offers to exploit the exclusive football rights for 3 years -as a result of the obligations it acquired with the purchase of Canal+ in Spain- but it also bid for 5.

With this, the award of these rights for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 seasons to Telefónica is subject to the CNMC lifting or modifying this resolution that limits the maximum duration of the contracts to three years.

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