On Saturday 10 October, while Real Madrid were playing Villarreal, around twenty websites of our group stopped loading in Spain. Among them was gotpv.es, the shop where customers of a point-of-sale software buy and renew their licence. There were also hospitality, cleaning and retail sites. None of them streamed football or had anything to do with it.
When the match ended, everything came back. Nothing on our side had failed: without knowing it, we had collided with a measure designed for someone else.
Key points
- To fight piracy, LaLiga can ask Spanish ISPs to cut off, during matches, the internet addresses used to stream football illegally.
- Those addresses are often shared by thousands of legitimate websites, which go down with them.
- OONI counted 554,507 legitimate websites affected in Spain between January and June 2026.
- There are two legitimate interests at stake, and the debate on where to draw the line is still open.
What LaLiga is after
Piracy is a real problem. Whoever streams matches without the rights takes a business paid for by clubs, broadcasters and the fans who do pay for their subscription. Since late 2024, a Spanish court ruling has allowed LaLiga to ask internet providers to block, during matches, access to the addresses used to stream pirated football.
The goal is legitimate, and the courts have backed it.
What you can’t see from the stands
Many pirate sites hide behind the same services that millions of ordinary websites use to load faster and stay protected. On those services, a single internet address is shared by thousands of websites that have nothing to do with each other. Blocking that address is like closing an entire office building because one office is doing something illegal.
It is not an isolated case. The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an independent organisation that measures internet censorship, found that between January and June 2026 554,507 legitimate websites were unreachable in Spain at some point during matches, including those of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, UNICEF and UNHCR (OONI report, 30 June 2026).
Two rights on the same pitch
There is no obvious good guy and bad guy here. Two legitimate interests collide:
- That of the rights holder, who sees its product taken every weekend.
- That of thousands of shops, charities and professionals with no link to football, who for two hours simply cease to exist for their customers. With no warning, and no way of knowing whether it will happen again next week.
The underlying question is uncomfortable for everyone: how much harm to third parties is acceptable to protect a right? And who decides where the line is?
Where does the legal route stand?
The collective route is still open, but with no final outcome yet:
- In 2025, Barcelona Commercial Court No. 6 rejected the annulment requests filed by Cloudflare and RootedCON. Both then took the case to Spain’s Constitutional Court (RootedCON, Cloudflare) and, as far as we know, there is no ruling yet.
- In April 2026, the Economy Committee of the Spanish Congress approved a non-binding motion from ERC and PSOE calling for proportionality in these blocks, although it does not change the law (Xataka).
- The Glosarix initiative (EstaLaPagas) is gathering evidence for a class action (Periodistas en Español).
One of the court’s reasons for rejecting the challenges was that no harm to third parties had been proven. That is why, after Saturday, we documented our case with dates and measurements and sent it to RootedCON and the Spanish Startup Association, who are leading the collective defence.
What you can do if it happens to you
If your website «goes down» at weekends, right during match time, it may not be your server. Try it from a connection outside Spain: if it works there, you have probably collided with a block. You can check live at ¿Hay ahora fútbol? and talk to your hosting provider: there are solutions, each with its own cost.
And if you want to see how your website looks from the outside, check it for free.
Frequently asked questions
Why doesn’t my website load during football matches in Spain?
Your website may share an internet address with one that streams football without the rights. During matches, Spanish ISPs block those addresses under a court order, and the legitimate websites sharing them go down too.
How do I know if a LaLiga block affected me?
If your site fails only during match time and only from Spanish providers, but works from a connection in another country, it is very likely. The public tracker hayahora.futbol shows blocked addresses live.
Are these blocks legal?
Yes: they rest on a 2024 court ruling that the courts have upheld. The open debate is about proportionality, given the harm to websites unrelated to football.
What do you think: a reasonable price, or harm nobody should have to bear?