La Liga now 2nd richest football league
June 7, 2018
From David Del Valle in Madrid
A 46 per cent rise in the cost of football TV rights in Spain between 2015 and 2017 has driven La Liga to become the second richest national league in the world, behind the Premier League.
A Deloitte report has revealed that La Liga, with a record profit of €2.85 billion, has overtaken the German Bundesliga which is now in third place with €2.79 billion. The Premier League is the somewhat distant leader with €5.29 billion.
The La Liga boom is the result of the increasing revenues in the TV rights. According to Deloitte, La Liga had €1.48 billion in TV revenues, representing 52 per cent of the total, up 20 per cent on 2025-2016 season. It is 74 per cent more than the TV revenues in the Bundesliga with €854 million, but far away from the Premier’s €3.2 billion.
The news comes at a time when La Liga is auctioning its TV rights from 2019 to 2022 with TV operators having until June 25th to submit their bids. La Liga aims to come closer to the Premier League with revenues of up to €1.3 billion a year.
The Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, the French Ligue 1 and the Italian Serie A comprise ‘the big five’, representing €13.4 billion – 54 per cent of the revenues from all domestic leagues in the world which amount to €24.6 billion, according to Deloitte.