October 14: Spain’s Liga F is forecasting record revenue of €33.3m this season, but the headline figure masks a far less comfortable picture underneath: income from broadcasting and commercial deals is expected to drop by a third.
Budget documents for 2026/27 put these traditional revenue streams at €12m, down from €18m last season, although overall income is forecast to rise by almost 30%.
The difference is being made up elsewhere, with the F-League expecting €21.25 million in “other operating income,” compared with roughly €7.8 million a year ago, although the league has not publicly broken down where all that increase will come from.
Public funding also plays a role in the equation. Liga F pays around €5m through its inclusion in La Quiniela, Spain’s football pool system, while support also comes from the Sports Council and the Spanish Football Federation.
The trade slump has been brewing for some time.
The F League’s agreement with LaLiga, which had acted as the competition’s exclusive commercial agency, ended this summer, a year earlier than originally planned. The deal had generated around €42m over five years and its early conclusion wiped out around €10m of revenue the F-League had hoped to receive in 2026/27.
Its broadcast model has also changed: DAZN remains the main domestic rights holder until 2029, but no longer controls the global package. RTVE has picked up the live matches, while Liga F is pushing to sell international rights on a territory-by-territory basis.
This gives the league more control but less guaranteed money in the short term. No international rights deal for the current season has yet been publicly announced.
The other big piece in the picture is Pau Gasol. Gasol16 Ventures and associated investors agreed in principle earlier this year to invest up to €55m in Ligue F over four seasons for between 35% and 49% of commercial and sponsorship revenue over a 25-year period. Liga F has allocated 40 million euros to clubs and 12 million euros to league operations.
The clubs approved the proposal in June, but the deal has not yet been formally finalized. The F League has also not clarified whether any of this proposed investment is reflected in its latest budget.
That matters because the league plans to hand out around €20.7 million to its 16 clubs this season, including €12.8 million in direct financial aid and €7.9 million in commercial and broadcast revenue.
The margin of error is very small. League F expects a pre-tax profit of just €140,892, around 0.4% of expected revenue, after financial costs.
President Beatriz Álvarez said in June, when Gasol’s proposal was presented, that it was time for the League to “take a step further, come of age and enter a new dimension”.
The next step is proving expensive.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)