Spain

Brazilian football player Neymar was cast in the lead role of this year’s World Cup before being cast in plaster following a back injury in the quarter-final. Owen Evans looks at whether the Barcelona superstar can now follow in David Beckham’s footsteps to commercial superstardom.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has reported a profit of €2.18m ($2.97m) for its 2013 financial year and said that it again intends to waive its right to a state subsidy.

In the space of a week in May, Atletico Madrid won Spanish football’s top-tier and was seconds away from a famous UEFA Champions League victory. Dermot Ledwith speaks to the club’s commercial director Javier Martinez about the challenges and opportunities in capitalising on the new success.

Liga ACB, the top division of basketball in Spain, will be reduced to 17 teams for the 2014-15 season after the Bilbao Basket team was excluded from the competition.

The Olympic Park for Barcelona’s staging of the 1992 summer Games is set to be transformed into the world’s first sports theme park, according to a new project unveiled in the Spanish city.

Spanish resort La Manga Club has agreed a four-year deal with the European Powerlifting Federation (EPF) and International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) to host all major powerlifting competitions governed by the organisations until 2018.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has announced that the Spanish capital of Madrid will host the finals of the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup national youth team tournaments from 2015 to 2017.

Spanish Liga football clubs received at least €332m ($451.5m) in direct public aid between 2008 and 2012, according to a report from the Associated Press.

This third annual survey of global sports media consumption by Perform, KantarSport and TV Sports Markets takes our research wider and deeper than before. Wider, because the number of territories covered has increased from 10 to 14, with the inclusion this year of important growth markets such as India, Indonesia, Japan and Turkey. Deeper, because we have asked questions designed to burrow down into new areas, such as consumers’ second-screen activities, that have not been properly examined until now.

This second annual survey of global sports media consumption by Perform, KantarSport and TV Sports Markets confirms many of the trends highlighted in the first report in 2011 and brings into even sharper focus some of the changes in consumer habits that anybody working in the sports media industry needs to be attuned to.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) board of directors has approved the introduction of a new grass-court international tournament in 2016 in Mallorca, Spain.

Singapore businessman Peter Lim, the new owner of Spanish Liga football team Valencia, has struck a deal with national banking conglomerate Bankia to restructure the club’s substantial debts, while La Liga rival Malaga is facing fresh uncertainty over its ownership.

Barcelona and the Spanish top-tier Liga football club’s former president, Sandro Rosell, have been summoned by a judge to give evidence in court over the tax evasion scandal surrounding the signing of Brazilian superstar Neymar.

The European Club Association (ECA), the independent representative body for European football clubs, has appointed Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu to its executive board.

The protracted takeover saga surrounding Spanish Liga football club Valencia has drawn to a close with Singapore businessman Peter Lim agreeing a deal to acquire a 70.4 per cent stake in the debt-ridden team.

Euroleague Basketball has selected Madrid to host the 2015 edition of its showpiece Final Four series.