La Liga, Facebook Feel Fallout of Catalan Unrest in Asia
La Liga, Facebook Feel Fallout of Catalan Unrest in Asia
(Bloomberg) -- The postponement of the classic Madrid-Barcelona football match because of separatist unrest in the Catalonia region is having ramifications across the globe, and may prove a setback for the Spanish league’s effort to expand its fan base in Asia with the help of Facebook Inc.
The fallout is being acutely felt in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, where La Liga and Facebook had organized the city’s first-ever viewing party for the match known as El Clasico. The party, which was expected to draw 5,000 people to watch on a giant screen at a convention center, was the latest in a series of events arranged by Spain’s soccer federation as it tries to catch up globally with the popularity and wealth generation of England’s Premier League.
La Liga suspended the Oct. 26 match set for the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona as separatist unrest spread in the city after a Madrid court on Oct. 14 condemned a group of independence leaders for sedition. Nine activists were sentenced to lengthy jail terms for organizing a 2017 referendum on seceding from Spain that the government considered illegal. The verdict triggered violent clashes between activists and police and a general strike on Friday paralyzed the city.
The decision to reschedule the match, one of at least two the teams are due to play this season, prompted La Liga to cancel related events in China, Indonesia, South Africa and Russia, according to Javier Ibanez Casero, La Liga’s communications director for Asia. In Asia, La Liga has been organizing so-called watch parties since the 2016-2017 season and a single viewing event in New Delhi attracted 18,000 people.
In India, where Facebook has had exclusive live rights to La Liga since last season, the league has almost 3.7 million followers, compared to 2.1 million for the Premier League, according to Ibanez. The Premier League broadcasts in the region through pay television, whereas Facebook is free to air.
La Liga’s international broadcast revenue ranks second of the five top soccer leagues at 897 million euros ($999 million) a season, according to KPMG. That’s well behind the top-ranked Premier League, with 1.6 billion euros in revenue.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Hellier in London at dhellier@bloomberg.net;Arun Devnath in Dhaka at adevnath@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Andrew Davis, Sara Marley
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