Real Madrid’s legal complaint about new media access requirements from La Liga has been dismissed by the Audiencia Nacional (National Court).
As part of its agreement with EA Sports, La Liga announced a number of new measures to increase media access ahead of this season, including having cameras in dressing rooms and in team huddles on the pitch.
Madrid, though, were strongly against the new requirements and refused to comply with La Liga, potentially costing them €13million (£11.1m; $14.2m) in lost revenue generated by the deal.
The capital side submitted a formal legal complaint to the Audencia Nacional last week, but this has now been dismissed by judge Jose Luis Calama.
Madrid claimed that the new agreements were “fraudulent in nature as they constituted an arbitrary disposition of the aforementioned rights, ‘specifically aimed at economically harming Real Madrid’.
“This would be motivated, according to the complaint, by the enmity that since mid-2021, ‘has been shown against this club by the president of La Liga Javier Tebas Medrano’ for his opposition to the Liga Impulso project and the initiative to create the Super League.”
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The court found that Madrid’s complaint did “not fit in the criminal code and rules out the crimes of unfair administration, misappropriation, corruption in business and the crime of imposition of abusive agreements”.
It also noted that Madrid’s complaint that the new measures were designed to specifically target themselves “was difficult to understand”, as the 19 other La Liga clubs, although some not as large, had agreed to them in a vote ahead of the 2023-24 season.
GO DEEPER
As La Liga sends cameras behind the scenes, Real Madrid face €13m hit for refusing access
(Photo: THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
