La Liga Consider Showing Fan Tweets During Games to Make Up for Lack of Crowds
By Tom Gott
La Liga officials are exploring ways to make up for the absence of fans when football returns, and one such idea is to show tweets from fans in the stadium during the game.
League president Javier Tebas recently admitted that they were planning some 'interesting and groundbreaking' alternatives to fans for when football returns on 12 June, but there was no mention of what those ideas were.
However, in a video conference call with the Iberian-American Institute of Sporting Law (via Marca), Tebas went into more detail on how they will compensate for the lack of fans, with tweets and innovative camera angles both in their plans.
"Sometimes, we've watched games behind closed doors where there is an echo or the horrible sight of empty stands," Tebas said. "We're working on modern, imaginative ways [of avoiding this].
"There will be an interesting question of virtual advertising and having a stand with messages from Twitter that are shown during the game."
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Tebas also revealed that they are working closely with EA Sports, creators of the FIFA video game franchise, to find new and improved camera angles to keep fans entertained while watching the match from home.
La Liga already stand to lose around €300m by finishing the season behind closed doors - a fee which could rise as high as €1bn if the campaign is scrapped altogether - and Tebas added that financial restrictions will be put in place to stop clubs spending too much money going forwards.
Clubs in Spain already have their own specific salary caps, but it now seems as though those limits could be dropped in an attempt to save money.
? Lionel Messi
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"We already have the cash flows of the clubs and right now they have squads that exceed the limits we are going to set for next season," he said. "That brings consequences.
"They're going to have to look more at their grassroots football and come up with a strategy of wage reductions. There's nothing more you can do."