La Liga have once again attacked the culture of pirate streaming of football matches, starting with one of their most iconic players. President Javier Tebas has been campaigning on the issue for some time, but it will help little that one of Spain’s best players is not using the legal subscriptions either.
The pirate streaming of sports has increased by 36.5% in Europe between 2021 and 2023, according to the Office of Intelectual Property in the European Union, underline Relevo. The same outlet note that Spain is the country that is affected most by the issue, and that there is 25% more streaming than anywhere else in Europe, as per the same study. It’s an issue that La Liga claim is worth €700m in lost revenue, and Tebas has been lobbying for Google and other major businesses to take more preventative action.
This week Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior posted a picture of him watching Los Blancos’ clash with Liverpool, in which you can see the logo of an illegal streaming site. Tebas claims that Vinicius was in Spain while he was watching.
“If it is in Madrid, and I think it was in Madrid, it is piracy. Access to the content to watch the Champions League in Spain has to be through Movistar Television. To see that content you had to have a VPN (virtual private network necessary to propagate the signal), or a satellite dish directed to another place. There must be active behaviour outside the scope of Movistar. It has been communicated that next time they must not pirate the game,” Tebas said.
The La Liga President supposedly sent Real Madrid a letter complaining about Tebas behaviour. It is an issue that affects both, although given the strained relations between the two companies, it would be a surprise to see them work together on it. Earlier this season a similar incident occurred, with Fermin Lopez fined after posting a screenshot of a pirate stream, which he later deleted.