New controversy over pirate IPTV: LaLiga responds to criticism and denies mass blocking of legitimate websites

LaLiga kicked off last Friday, August 15th in Spain with the first match of the season, Girona-Rayo Vallecano. Thousands of fans are already closely following their teams, whether at the stadium or at home. However, with the rise of illegal IPTV, LaLiga launched the anti-piracy campaign "You have pirated football. They have you" to raise public awareness of the risks of illegally accessing broadcasts .

This alert is aimed at those who watch football matches illegally from home, given that, last season, LaLiga intensified its efforts to combat piracy by monitoring IP addresses and collaborating with operators —such as Vodafone, Orange, Digi, MásMóvil, and Telefónica. This approach was primarily intended to discourage illegal viewing and protect the broadcast rights of professional football in Spain. However, LaLiga has just clarified that it is "false" that there are mass blocks of legitimate websites in its battle against piracy.

LaLiga states that all measures taken "are part of an authorized and supervised judicial procedure, under very restrictive and guarantee-based criteria, and under protocols that include multiple safeguards and guarantees." Furthermore, according to the Europa Press agency, the organization chaired by Javier Tebas reiterates that, "in some cases, technology providers such as Cloudflare host both legitimate and illegal websites on the same IP address , thus serving as a digital shield for such criminal conduct."

Therefore, LaLiga concludes that "this may be misleading," considering that "more than 51% of pirate IPs that broadcast LaLiga content use Cloudflare services, which demonstrates how these infrastructures are used by digital criminals to hide their activity, with their approval and acquiescence."

It is worth mentioning that these statements by LaLiga respond to a series of questions following the recent blocking of IP addresses, taking into account that the political party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya understands that it is necessary to warn about the anti-piracy strategy of the organization chaired by Javier Tebas , which, in its opinion, has affected legitimate services such as the video game platform Steam, the social network X or institutional websites, putting network neutrality and freedom of information at risk.

What risks does watching pirate football pose?

In a statement, LaLiga warns that illegal football is "the main threat to the sports and entertainment industry, with an estimated impact of between 600 and 700 million euros in losses for Spanish clubs alone." It also estimates that "more than 50% of viruses detected on the internet come from pirated services or illegal download platforms."

In response to this warning, the organization reinforces its belief that pirated football is a "serious threat to security and privacy" because it compromises integrity and freedom by opening " a door that can allow third parties to gain uncontrolled access to personal information and devices."

To raise awareness, LaLiga reveals the risks viewers face when watching pirated football:

A fight that seems to have no end

LaLiga has stepped up its efforts to combat piracy by monitoring IP addresses and collaborating with operators. This helps it discourage illegal consumption and protect football broadcast rights. It has also obtained authorization to identify and prosecute users who access pirated content . As a result, the blocks ordered by LaLiga are dynamic, not massive, and are targeted at IP addresses . This results in thousands of websites and services unrelated to football being affected by sharing the same IP address as an illegal service.

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