Lorraine Williamson
Spain’s top football league has picked a new public target in its war on illegal streaming: Cloudflare, the US-based internet infrastructure giant that helps websites stay fast and secure. La Liga says Cloudflare is allowing pirated match broadcasts to flourish. Cloudflare says it is being scapegoated — and that Spanish users are paying the price through heavy-handed blocking that knocks legitimate sites offline.
The dispute has escalated from technical arguments into something more combustible: a battle over who should police the live internet, and how far enforcement can go when the match is in play.
Why this suddenly matters more
La Liga’s timing is not accidental. The league recently signed domestic TV rights deals valued at more than €6 billion (around $7 billion) through the 2031–32 season, making broadcast protection central to its business model. If piracy rises, rights values come under pressure — and so do club finances that depend on television income.
From La Liga’s perspective, the modern piracy problem is no longer just shady streaming sites. It is a fast-moving ecosystem of mirror links, IPTV platforms, social media clips and “streaming portals” that can pop up and disappear mid-match.
La Liga’s claim: Cloudflare sits in the middle
La Liga says a significant share of match piracy relies on Cloudflare’s network. In comments reported by the Associated Press, league president Javier Tebas argues that more than 35% of La Liga’s piracy in Spain is distributed using Cloudflare infrastructure, despite thousands of notices and enforcement measures via internet providers.
The league’s anti-piracy operation is sizeable. It says analysts monitor the web for illegal broadcasts, then pass takedown and blocking requests to intermediaries — companies such as Cloudflare that sit between users and the sites they are trying to reach.
La Liga also points to court-backed action in Spain that, it says, supports blocking measures during live broadcasts — including against IP addresses associated with pirate distribution.
Cloudflare’s reply: “This is censorship — and it’s breaking the web”
Cloudflare denies it is doing anything unlawful, describing itself as a defender of a free and open internet. It says La Liga’s approach relies on “indiscriminate” blocking that prevents Spanish users from reaching tens of thousands of legitimate websites while matches are on.
In other words, Cloudflare’s core argument is collateral damage: when blocks are applied at the infrastructure level, lawful sites can get swept up with the pirates — particularly when multiple domains share the same underlying services.
This is not a hypothetical complaint. La Liga itself has previously addressed website disruptions in Spain linked to IP blocks during matchdays, framing the problem as connected to “illegal Cloudflare practices” and the wider fight against piracy.
The legal backdrop: court orders, appeals, and a widening European fight
Spain is not the only front. Cloudflare’s role has drawn attention across Europe as sports bodies push for faster, match-time enforcement. The AP report notes Cloudflare facing similar issues in several countries, while La Liga says it has taken its concerns to international and EU-level institutions.
In Spain, coverage of court developments has described judicial backing for La Liga’s ability to pursue IP blocking against illegal distribution — including challenges brought by Cloudflare and others.
Meanwhile, La Liga continues lobbying in Brussels for stronger, more consistent tools to tackle live sports piracy, arguing that current recommendations do not move quickly enough for the realities of matchday infringement.
What policymakers are really being asked to decide
Behind the football rows and corporate statements sits a broader question: should “internet intermediaries” be pushed into a more active enforcement role, even if that increases the risk of lawful disruption?
Rights holders argue that live piracy is uniquely time-sensitive. A pirated film appearing hours early is damaging; a pirated match streamed to thousands during the 80th minute is fatal to the product. Cloudflare and digital rights advocates counter that infrastructure-level blocking can become a blunt instrument — and blunt instruments have a habit of hitting the wrong targets.
Spain cracks down on illegal football streaming
What this could mean for fans in Spain
For viewers paying for legal football coverage, the fear is simple: weekend disruptions and accidental blocks becoming normalised as “the cost” of enforcement.
For those tempted by illegal streams, the risks remain clear: piracy is unlawful, enforcement is tightening, and the pressure on intermediaries means fewer places to hide. The fight is moving upstream.
And for everyone else trying to use the internet during a match — businesses, creators, small sites — the outcome matters because this debate is shaping what a “live, blockable internet” might look like in the years ahead.