La Liga score major victory as pirate streaming service is ordered to pay out €31.6m

La Liga have made a point of pushing back against the illegal streaming of football matches in recent years, and have scored a major victory.

The illegal streaming platform has been providing links to La Liga games since 2014 online, and as reported by Relevo, Rojadirecta have been ordered to reimburse MediaPro €31.6m in damages and compensation. They were one of the largest illegal streaming platforms in Spain.

The owner, Igor Seoane, has been living in Malta in recent years, but was brought to justice last week. That said, the court ruled that it was Rojadirecta liable for the costs, as is Seoane himself, which was celebrated by La Liga President Javier Tebas.

“They fall, and the ones that fall, and they will be big fish. Google, Cloudfare, amongst others… They also make money from this robbery.” he tweeted out.

Tebas has said in the past that he dedicates more than half of his time to fighting piracy, and has been lobbying for law changes all over the world in order to fight the piracy. Criticism against him has centred on the fact that watching La Liga in Spain is at least twice as expensive as in Italy, Germany or France, despite, Spain having the lowest average income.