Spain’s top women’s football league, Liga F, has been left empty-handed after its latest attempt to sell audiovisual rights closed without a bid reaching its reserve price.
According to Spanish news outlet ABC, the league set a minimum price of €5 million for the rights to all eight matches in each matchday of the championship, or €2 million for a single free-to-air game per week.
International rights were also offered at a reserve price of €800,000 and drew no qualifying bid.
Liga F said none of the proposals submitted had reached the minimum price set for the lots.
The failure forces Liga F into a second round of tendering. The new window will last one week and, the league said, will keep the same terms and conditions as the first.
The league had been seeking a multi-year deal covering three, four or five seasons starting from the 2026-27 campaign.
The situation stems from the early end of the previous agreement with streaming platform DAZN.
In September 2022 the over-the-top (OTT) service paid €35 million for five seasons of exclusive Spanish pay-TV and international rights (roughly €7 million per year), with Mediapro as producer and the channel Gol carrying one free-to-air match a week.
That contract is now being terminated ahead of schedule, leaving the competition without a confirmed broadcaster for the upcoming season.
Reports indicated that DAZN’s dedicated women’s football package (Plan Victoria) had only around 10,000 subscribers at one point, generating roughly €1 million to €1.4 million a year, far short of the rights fee.
By summer 2025 the platform was already renegotiating, seeking a lower price and the ability to sub-license matches to other broadcasters to spread the cost.
Liga F had hoped the tender would secure both pay-TV coverage of the full slate and free-to-air exposure for selected matches to boost visibility.
Operators will now have until August 19, 2026 to submit new bids, 10 days before the competition starts on August 29.
Without bids, clubs cannot know how much money they will receive from audiovisual rights, which also affects their budgets and spending.
The commercial struggles of women’s club football reflect broader debates about the product’s appeal.
Elite women’s teams are frequently outperformed in training or exhibition matches by well-drilled boys’ under-15 or under-16 sides, a pattern that has been observed across several countries.
This gap in athletic output, combined with differences in technical speed and physical intensity relative to the men’s game, continues to limit mainstream audience interest and the willingness of broadcasters to pay premium fees.
Despite these commercial and competitive realities, feminist campaigners and activists continue to demand equal pay, equal prize money and equal media treatment with the men’s game.
