Shutdown of Spanish football averted by judge's ruling

A Madrid judge ruled on Wednesday that professional football should be played in Spain this weekend, thus averting a shutdown threatened by the clubs.
Purificacion Pujol, a civil judge in a Madrid court, announced the ruling the day after hearing the arguments of the club's association, the Liga de Futbol Profesional (LFP), and of the six first division clubs opposed to the shutdown.

Pujol's ruling is a setback for the LFP, most of whose members had wanted the shutdown in order to put pressure on the government to revoke the 1997 law which guarantees that one first division match per week is transmitted free of charge on open television.

The LFP is determined to eliminate this free match and have every game in a pay-per-view format, in order to increase the club's television revenues.

La Liga is the only major European league to have a free televised game.

The government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has not made it clear if it will consider revoking the 1997 law. Secretary of state for sport, Jaime Lissavetzky, was opposed to the shutdown, as were Sevilla, Villarreal, Zaragoza, Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad.

The court ruling means that the Spanish league season will finish as planned on May 22.