As we’ve been blogging here all week, the legal spat between Mediapro and Sogecable broadcast rights has begun to heat up even further and threatens the rest of the season. 58 million euros is said to already be owed by Mediapro to Sogecable for last year’s matches and now a further claim of 200 million is being disputed because of a breach of contract during last week’s matches where 3 games were “pirated” to free-over-air television by Mediapro on their channel La Sexta, to which Sogecable is stating that they did not have the rights to air(1). Mediapro countered that they are owed 48 million euros by Sogecable, that a contract signed between the two parties in October of 2006 is invalid, and they intend on filing a countersuit next week.

It looks grave for Spanish football and we’re all worried that more games will be lost this coming week, but it looks like the Spanish Football Federation has a lot to lose as well (as is being ed here (2), has ruled in favor of Mediapro, will allow them access to grounds despite Sogecable’s protests, and they have “rearranged the (league) schedule” on Saturday to accommodate the broadcasts. Nice, huh?

I don’t know how this will translate in us being able to watch La Liga matches in the United States, but it looks like those in Spain, Real Madrid and Barcelona especially, will be broadcast over the air just maybe not necessarily in their usual times.

In the end, I think that CNN is right in this article, that this will all go away soon, an agreement will be settled on, Sogecable will get more of the pie like most of the financial websites are reporting, and Mediapro will get a hefty buyout or a better contract. As usual though, we as fans will pay dearly.

Due to “The Television Wars” in Spain, Sunday’s match between Racing Santander and Barcelona was another casualty of the fight between Audiovisual Sport and Mediapro causing the big game to be blacked out around the world.

Closer to home, the match wasn’t shown on GolTV either. Neither was the Saturday game between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. The end result for TV viewers in the United States has got to be one of frustration especially with the highly anticipated beginning of the 2007/2008 season.

Instead of the Racing against Barcelona match, GolTV showed Sevilla versus Getafe. For those fans who already saw that match on Saturday, I wonder how many of them turned to Fox Soccer Channel to watch their Super Sunday Plus show.

Luckily for La Liga fans, the 3pm ET kickoff between Valencia and Villarreal was shown on GolTV.

Viewers in the United States and around the world were upset this weekend after the scheduled clash between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid was not shown on TV. In the United States, GolTV showed the Bayern Munich against Hannover match instead of the Madrid derby.

The reason the Madrid derby wasn’t shown worldwide was due to a dispute between Audiovisual Sport and Mediapro in Spain. According to The Guardian newspaper, Audiovisual believes it is owed $80 million from Mediapro from last season.

With that amount of money in dispute, it may take quite some time before viewers are ensured they won’t miss any matches. Complicating the matters is the story that Audiovisual is planning on suing Mediapro. Let’s hope this unfortunate disagreement is resolved as soon as possible so we don’t miss out on La Liga.