Primera Liga attendances slump

It's mainly the result of matches being scheduled at unusual times to satisfy pay-per-view television operators.

According to sports daily AS, only 61.22 per cent of the tickets available for the first round of league matches were sold, compared to an average of 70.23 per cent throughout last season.

This was despite twin giants Barcelona and Real Madrid both playing at home.

Spain's appalling economic crisis - with unemployment running at about 25 per cent - is believed to be a major factor in this decline.

Attendances at Liga matches have been falling for four years now, since the country slid into recession.

However, according to AS and other media outlets, the principal reason is the insistence of pay-per-view operators Mediapro and Prisa on no two games being played at the same time, in the belief that this will lead to an increase in subscribers.

Only two games were played at the same time last weekend, and the intention of the two operators is that from now on all 10 matches are played at different times.

The possibility of playing matches on Friday night - the only football-free evening in Spain at the moment - is also being considered by the operators.

The kick-off times were particularly unusual this weekend, with games starting at 11pm local time on Saturday, Sunday and Monday - and finishing at almost 1am.

The Zaragoza-Valladolid game finished in the early hours of Tuesday, drawing a predictably tiny crowd - 11,000 in the 35,000-capacity stadium.

According to Mediapro, such late kick-off times were an attempt to avoid the heat because La Liga started earlier than ever this season - in August.

Supporters' blogs and websites have expressed unanimous indignation at the kick-off times and have threatened to boycott games.