{"id":126364,"date":"2025-08-07T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126364\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:52:10","slug":"gary-linekers-the-rest-is-football-disney-score-la-liga-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/126364\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker’s ‘The Rest Is Football’ & Disney+ Score La Liga Deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGary Lineker\u2019s is claiming the title of first podcast to secure a clip rights deal with a major European soccer<\/a> league after tying with Spain\u2019s La Liga<\/a>. At the same time, La Liga has confirmed Disney+<\/a>\u2018s UK and Ireland service has secured rights to the competition for the next three years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe podcast deal, which Lineker\u2019s Goalhanger Films struck with La Liga, is also for three years, and will see the launch of a video-first podcast titled The Rest is Football: LaLiga, which former BBC Sports presenter Lineker will host alongside Alex Aljoe. It will be available of YouTube and Spotify in the UK and Ireland, featuring clips from every la Liga game along with expert analysis and discussion.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the UK, interest in La Liga is spiking with the inclusion of players such as Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold at Real Madrid and Marcus Rashford at champions Barcelona. Lineker, who is set to front ITV reality show The Box, turned out for Barca during his playing career in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve made no secret of my love for Spanish football over the years,\u201d said Lineker, who is Goalhanger\u2019s co-founder. \u201cEver since I played there in the late \u201980s, I\u2019ve followed the story of La Liga closely. Now, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Marcus Rashford joining Jude Bellingham and Conor Gallagher in Spain, all eyes will be on La Liga\u2019s biggest games each week.\u00a0The Rest Is Football: LaLiga\u00a0will be the perfect way to catch all the goals and key action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoalhanger\u2019s other co-founder, Tony Pastor, noted that downloads of The Rest is Football spiked to 19.6 million and streams in June 2024 during the last men\u2019s UEFA European Championship, which saw Spain defeat England 2-1 in the final. In particular, YouTube viewing was well up, with \u201cmore than half\u201d of the downloads made thrre.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBringing weekly match action to The Rest Is Football feels like the natural next step for the show. Podcasting is no longer just an audio medium \u2013 video is transforming how people engage with our content and bringing in entirely new audiences,\u201d said Pastor.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Rest Is Football: LaLiga launches on August 19 and will releases weekly episodes, with the video stream limited to the UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+ deal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe news came on the same day Disney+ confirmed it had secured a three-year deal, beginning on August 16, that will give subscribers access to live Saturday night La Liga soccer games. This will kick off with Valencia CF hostingReal Sociedad at the Mestalla Stadium from 8:30pm UK local time.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney-owned ESPN will provide the production and commentary. Real Madrid and Liverpool legend Steve \u2018Macca\u2019 McManaman will lead the commentary team alongside former Arsenal and West Ham midfielder Stewart Robson. Broadcasters Ian Darke and Rob Palmer will alternate play-by-play duties throughout the season.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal also sees ESPN.co.uk and ESPN UK\u2019s social channels and YouTube offering highlights of every La Liga game and news on developments in Spain. It comes soon after Disney+ secured exclusive rights to the UEFA Women\u2019s Champions League across Europe for the next five years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt Disney, we celebrate storytelling that moves and excites,\u201d said Karl Holmes, Disney+ EMEA\u2019s General Manager. \u201cFrom the cinematic scale of FX\u2019s Alien: Earth to the sharp wit of Only Murders in the Building and the action-packed suspense of Lucasfilm\u2019s Andor, our customers know they\u2019re in for something special.\u00a0With La Liga joining the line-up, they can experience that same excitement on the pitch with weekly matches featuring legendary clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona and stars like Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold as part of their Disney+ subscription.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFormer Sky finance chief Holmes recently took up his post at Disney+. He\u2019ll soon be joined by long-serving ITV exec Angela Jain<\/a>, who was named Head of Content for EMEA in June.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+\u2019s move is the latest example of a streaming service acquiring sports rights as a means to attract new subs in the competitive UK market. For example, Prime Video has in recent seasons dipped into the market for Premier League and Champions League games.<\/p>\n

\n\tLa Liga President Javier Tebas said:\u00a0\u201cToday begins a new era in La Liga\u2019s broadcast distribution in the UK and Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker\u2019s is claiming the title of first podcast to secure a clip rights deal with a major…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,7299,2961,4732,224,5337,221,77593],"class_list":{"0":"post-126364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-disney","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-liga","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-the-rest-is-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}