Spanish LaLiga clubs rewarded for upgrades

Spanish LaLiga clubs are being rewarded by the league’s governing body for aesthetic improvements to their stadia.

Spain’s top-tier football league introduced an audio-visual rule for this season, forcing clubs to make their home grounds look better on television if they wanted to cash in on the country’s improved broadcasting deals.

The rule was introduced to push clubs into improving and harmonising standards, and making LaLiga seem as high quality a product as the English Premier League to global audiences.

Minor improvements to stands, facilities, advertising boards and the colour of the grass on the pitch are among the changes that have taken place according to Adolfo Bara, the Spanish league’s marketing director, who was speaking at the Soccerex conference in Manchester.

“The problem with Spain is that it’s really hot in summer,” said Bara. “If you look, in September in some of the stadiums, the grass was yellow. We now talk to the clubs on how the groundskeepers must make sure it is proper green.”