La Liga: Live football every day on Sky Sports 5 HD
After a weekend in which the Premier League made a compelling case for being the world's most exciting league, La Liga looks to capture the imagination with live games every day this week. As Javier Tebas, president of the Spanish football league, explains, it's all part of the plan...
Monday 22 September 2014 11:55, UK
The showpiece finale to the 2013/14 European football season came in Lisbon in May. Both teams contesting the Champions League final were Spanish as Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid in extra time of an enthralling match at the Estadio da Luz.
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Three months later, the 2014/15 season kicked off with the UEFA Super Cup. Once again Real Madrid emerged victorious and once again the opponents were Spanish as they beat Sevilla in Cardiff – the Andalusian side having won the Europa League in the spring.
Despite the struggles of the national team in the summer, it’s clear that 2014 has still been quite the advert for the dominance of Spanish club football. Speaking at the Soccerex global convention in Manchester this month, La Liga chief Javier Tebas was in understandably bullish mood.
“I think the best league is the Spanish league,” he told the room of delegates. “Not only because we have the best players in the world but also on a sporting level because we have won all the competitions there are to win.
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“It’s not just the two big clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona. Atletico Madrid were the finalists in the Champions League. Sevilla were the winners of the Europa League and Valencia were only eliminated from that competition by Sevilla in the semi-finals.”
But there’s a catch. It’s called the Premier League. With television contracts and a global brand that provides significant financial muscle, the English game has a huge head start in terms of the emerging markets. It’s something Tebas acknowledges - and hopes to change.
“The Premier League is the biggest league in terms of finance and expansion,” he added. “It is known around the world in a way that La Liga isn’t so there is work to do. The Spanish league has to work to get on a par with the Premier League of England.
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“I’ve been the president for 16 months and one of the central ambitions I have is for the global expansion of La Liga. We can’t do it within one year but within six to eight years we want to be at the global level of the Premier League and the NBA.”
There are numerous aspects to the strategy. Tebas talks of tackling the chronic debts that affect 13 of the clubs in the Primera Liga, but hopes that the problem can be solved. He realises that La Liga needs more than just a handful of clubs capturing the imagination if the league is to thrive.
“We have two huge brands in Spanish football – Barcelona and Real Madrid - but we have to work to promote the other clubs as well,” he says.
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“At the moment, people in Asia prefer to watch a Premier League match than Barcelona versus Almeria. We want our international audience to understand the rivalries of all the clubs. They might know about Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid but we want them to see the whole picture.
“As a result, we are launching a competition called the LFP World Challenge in which other clubs tour the world so they can form relationships with international audiences and people can get to know these other clubs in Spain.
“We have been in Australia with Malaga. We have been Hong Kong and the United States. We’ve been in Mexico, Colombia and Peru with teams like Valencia and Sevilla. Teams that we would like to be as well known as Real Madrid and Barcelona. We want to expand La Liga’s presence.”
Tebas plans to achieve this by providing La Liga with unprecedented levels of exposure. That means tailoring kick-off times for overseas markets and staggering games throughout the week. It’s a tactic causing concern at home but Tebas admits that the focus is on building interest abroad.
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“We don’t want to have all the focus on Barcelona and Real Madrid. As a result, we have changed our timetables. We want to establish a timetable that is clear and attractive to the Asian market which is five or six hours ahead. We can now have matches from 4pm in the afternoon.
“Once a month, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Valencia or Sevilla will play at that time. That’s our commitment to our international operators so they can establish a strategy that’s geared to foreign markets.
“This model that’s sometimes been criticised in Spain of having 10 different time slots with matches kicking off at different times enables us to be the only league in the world that can practically always provide live football.
Live La Liga Football
“So when an American gets up at the weekend in New York, if he wants to see Spanish football then he can see it live. If somebody wants to wake up in the East they can also see some live football as well. We know that actually watching football is so valuable. There is nothing like the direct hit of seeing football. It’s priceless.”
From Monday September 22nd, there is the chance to see live La Liga football every day of the week on Sky Sports…
Monday: Getafe v Valencia (Sky Sports 5 HD, 7.45pm kick off)
Tuesday: Real Madrid v Elche (Sky Sports 5 HD, 7.00pm kick off)
Wednesday: Almeria v Atletico Madrid (Sky Sports 5 HD, 7,00pm kick off)
Live La Liga Football
Thursday: Valencia v Cordoba (Sky Sports 5 HD, 9.00pm kick off)
Friday: Elche v Celta Vigo (Sky Sports 5 HD, 8.00pm kick off)
Saturday: Barcelona v Granada (Sky Sports 5 HD, 5.00pm kick off)
Saturday: Atletico Madrid v Sevilla (Sky Sports 5 HD, 7.00pm kick off)
Sunday: Real Sociedad v Valencia (Sky Sports 5 HD, 6.00pm kick off)
Sunday: Cordoba v Espanyol (Sky Sports 5 HD, 8.00pm kick off)
