Javier Tebas used every means at his disposal to undermine the Women's Champions League final played by Barça. But his plan backfired.
Javier Tebas's unequivocal defeat
Just as he schedules times for Barça that could harm them in their European commitments, he set up television counterprogramming to "combat" the Barça-Arsenal match played in Lisbon.
He scheduled the two top matches of the day for 6:30 p.m. last Sunday. In those matches, Espanyol and Leganés were fighting to stay up against Las Palmas and Valladolid.
The Lisbon match started at 6:00 p.m. The goal was probably to overshadow the possibility of another Champions League title for Barça with LaLiga.
But Tebas failed in his attempt. Up to four different channels broadcast the women's Barça-Arsenal match (TVE, TV3, Movistar, and DAZN) and the ratings were overwhelming. So much so that they embarrassed Tebas's LaLiga.
40.2% audience share in Catalonia
On TVE, there were 2.4 million contacts with the match, with a 10.8% share. On TV3, the level reached that of the men's Barça: 1.2 million viewers and a 40.2% share.
What about Javier Tebas's offering? The Espanyol-Las Palmas match had an audience of 147,000 viewers, a 2% share. The Leganés-Valladolid match was watched by 38,000 viewers, a 0.5% share.
Between the two "exciting" matches in which survival was at stake, they didn't even reach 200,000 viewers. Nothing compared to the millions for the women's match, which represented a resounding defeat for Tebas. That day, Tebas was relegated.
To make matters worse, in that same last LaLiga matchday, the Real Madrid-Real Sociedad match was watched by 553,000 people (6.7% share). Meanwhile, the Athletic de Bilbao-Barça match, which closed LaLiga, was watched by 723,000 viewers, with a 6.6% audience share.
It should be clarified that TVE and TV3 broadcast the women's final on free-to-air television, while the LaLiga matches were pay-per-view. But it's still surprising that Real Madrid and Barça aren't able to surpass the numbers of the women's Barça team.
One thing is certain. No one was forced to watch the women's match.