Strike action in La Liga is blocked

SPAIN'S league programme will go ahead this weekend after a Madrid court upheld a challenge from six breakaway clubs and blocked threatened strike action by the professional football league (LFP).

"The court decides the official calendar for the first and second divisions should remain unaltered for the next round of matches," a statement from the court said yesterday.

The LFP, which had also suffered the resignation of its vice-president late on Tuesday, accepted the judge's ruling and immediately issued the kick-off times for this weekend's matches.

The managing director of Villarreal, one of the six "rebel" clubs along with Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Espanyol, Athletic Bilbao and Real Zaragoza, said he was relieved. "A strike would have been a stab in the heart for football," Jose Manuel Llaneza told Radio Marca.

The LFP had voted last month to suspend matchday 30 unless the government scrapped a rule that one La Liga game per matchday should be shown on freeview television.

Last week, as talks with the government failed to make much progress, six clubs known as the G-6 broke ranks and mounted a legal challenge to the LFP's decision.