Atresmedia denounces lack of transparency in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the sale of football rights

Atresmedia's objective is to call for a transparent tender open to all operators in the sector.

Atresmedia has denounced the lack of transparency of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in the sale of the football rights it manages. From the audiovisual group they assure that "the RFEF would have negotiated and practically closed an agreement with a television operator for the exclusive transfer of the exploitation rights of the friendly matches of the Spanish National Team, without having offered such rights to the market, a mechanism by which it would obtain the highest possible return on said rights."

Atresmedia has had confirmation of said negotiation through the Federation itself, as well as through information published in various media in recent days.

In the opinion of Atresmedia, "this process is being carried out irregularly and without having given either Atresmedia or other television operators the opportunity to bid for these rights. Furthermore, in the case of events of general interest, article 20.1 of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication dictates the need to comply with a negotiation process that must be transparent, objective and non-discriminatory, as well as the mandatory respect for competition rules, with the consequent concurrence of bidders."

The objective of Atresmedia is the opening by the RFEF of a transparent tender open to all operators. For weeks now, through multiple burofaxes sent to the Federation, Atresmedia has been unsuccessfully requesting information to be able to make an offer in competition with other operators, which is why it has brought the facts to the attention of the Secretary of State for Sports as well as the CNMC.

The CNMC itself, upon learning of the situation and under the provisions of article 69.2 of Law 30/1992, of November 26, on the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure, has opened a period of prior information in order to learn in greater detail the circumstances of the case and the convenience or not of initiating the corresponding procedure.