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LaLiga is now paying people €50 to report bars, restaurants and casinos that are showing football without a proper broadcast licence, and it's fair to say the scheme has raised a few eyebrows.

 

The league, headed by president Javier Tebas, claims the move is about recognising the role ordinary people can play in protecting audiovisual rights, and that all tip-offs will be handled confidentially and assessed against technical criteria before any reward is paid out.

 

In other words, you can't just point the finger at your local and pocket the cash, there needs to be proof the broadcast was actually illegal.

 

Knowing whether a bar is showing football legally is apparently pretty straightforward. During a licensed broadcast for commercial premises, a "B" should appear on screen while casinos should show an "A".

 

No letter, no licence. That's the signal to reach for your phone and file a report, which LaLiga says can be done at any time from a mobile device.

 

Pirated football has become a real headache for LaLiga and it’s costing the league a small fortune, particularly when it comes to bars skipping the subscription. Commercial venues can expect to fork out somewhere between €280 and €350 a month for a legitimate package, compared to as little as €10 to €30 for a home subscription depending on what's included.

 

This also comes amid a climate of tension surrounding the league's efforts to curb domestic piracy. Every weekend, LaLiga instructs phone operators to block hundreds of websites and digital services it suspects of streaming matches illegally, with court authorisation to intercept large volumes of internet traffic if a pirate site is detected within it.

 

LaLiga, meanwhile, is pressing ahead, and with €50 on the table, it clearly believes there are plenty of people willing to help. Whether football fans are quite so keen to turn in the pub showing the game is another question entirely.

 

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