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La Liga president Javier Tebas says Real Madrid were wrong to try to block that new TV rights deal that comes into force this season. The Spanish government has formally introduced new legally binding legislation with the aim of sharing revenue more equally across all clubs, which ensures that Madrid and Barcelona must receive a smaller percentage of the overall total. The new agreement comes after years of arguments over the details of the changes. One of the major sticking points had been the sale of international rights for La Liga games, with Madrid having previously sold audio-visual rights individually to its technology partners. Madrid went to the courts in an attempt to stop the new arrangement after being the only club to vote against it at La Liga's AGM last September, and Tebas said that stance had damaged the capital club's standing. "We must be more competitive now and this regulation is necessary," he told AS. "Madrid, mistakenly, have been the most resistant. They are not aware of what this can mean. Their positioning against La Liga, taking us to the courts, is wrong, it damages them. "It is an attitude from the past, and even lacking in class, but they were not able to stop the rules coming in. Three times their legal attempts to block it were unsuccessful." Tebas said the new system would not significantly affect the big two's overall revenues and would bring more competition to the league, which has seen Barca (eight) and Madrid (three) emerge as winners in 11 of the last 12 seasons, with Atletico Madrid's 2013-14 success the only exception during that time. "Madrid and Barca are not going to change too much, and those below will grow a lot," he said. "Some clubs will even double their revenues. "The difference will be smaller. Atletico's share will grow. Villarreal and Sevilla will be up there [this season]. And I would put forward one of those from the middle -- Real Betis." La Liga's figures for the 2015-16 campaign showed that Madrid got more TV viewers than Barcelona inside Spain (25.5 percent to 16.9 percent), but the Catalan outfit were more watched overseas (21.9 percent against 25.6 percent), with Atletico third in both categories, followed by Sevilla and Valencia. Tebas said that work done by Barca to develop their overseas fanbase had paid off, and the league itself is now following a similar strategy. "International successes count a lot," he said. "Although Madrid won the Champions League [last season], it is very soon to see an effect on the audiences. Barca have consolidated on that. Also they have a great strategy that we follow ourselves. They open offices abroad. And their stars count for a lot." The new season gets underway on Friday and has avoided the kind of off-field distractions that have marred previous opening weekends, such as the squabbling over fixture dates last year and the players' strike that pushed back the opening weekend in 2011-12. Tebas accepted that he remained unpopular with some supporters due to issues such as inconvenient kick-off times for games and the banning of flags and banners from stadiums, but he said most people were happy with how he was running the league. "There will always be some people who are dissatisfied," he said. "There has been rejection, above all from ultras, but that makes me happy. My feeling is that most people agree with our management. I will call elections soon. But I insist, this is the first time, we are starting a season relaxed, without talking about television wars and debts."
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