My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope and mechanics of the blocking

  • Commenters clarify that “the internet doesn’t work in Spain during matches” is exaggerated: core traffic and major sites are mostly fine.
  • The problem is large IP ranges from CDNs (Cloudflare, others) being blocked by ISPs during LaLiga match windows, based on lists supplied under a court order.
  • This causes collateral damage: game servers, personal projects (e.g. on Vercel), Home Assistant instances, Docker image pulls, Ollama models, GitHub access, and a Backblaze B2 region become intermittently unreachable.
  • IPv6 sometimes remains unblocked, and some users resort to VPNs.

Legal framework and corporate roles

  • A Spanish court empowered LaLiga to specify IPs to be blocked in near real time to combat illegal live streams; ISPs must comply.
  • The judge explicitly said third parties shouldn’t be affected, but they clearly are.
  • Cloudflare and others are challenging this domestically and are prepared to go to EU courts; existing appeals have been rejected so far.
  • Similar mechanisms exist elsewhere (e.g. UK Premier League blocking orders, Italy’s regime), and there’s concern that courts might eventually mandate CDNs themselves to enforce blocks.

Debate over Cloudflare, CDNs, and centralization

  • One side blames Cloudflare’s centralization: putting many unrelated sites behind shared IPs means blocking one abuser hits thousands of innocents.
  • Others counter that CDNs are essential for performance and global reach; moving off Cloudflare would just push rights-holders to block even larger ranges.
  • Some argue Cloudflare should remove pirate streams faster; others note LaLiga acts without involving Cloudflare in real time.

Broadcast rights, pricing, and piracy

  • Multiple comments describe fragmented, expensive sports rights (Italy, Germany, Ireland, US) leading to €65–€200/month stacks of subscriptions and “dodgy boxes”/IPTV piracy.
  • Many frame piracy as a “service issue”: if legal access were simpler and cheaper, fewer would pirate.
  • Blackout rules (e.g. UK 3pm football, US baseball) are cited as further incentives to circumvent official channels.

Football culture, health, and corruption

  • Strong anti-football sentiment appears (hooliganism, “bread and circuses,” corruption in leagues), but others defend football as cheap, accessible exercise and social glue for kids and adults.
  • There’s disagreement over whether younger generations are abandoning football or not; evidence cited both ways.

Privacy and surveillance concerns

  • A past LaLiga app practice of using microphone and GPS to detect bars pirating matches is widely viewed as dystopian; long GDPR arguments revolve around whether location/audio here qualify as personal data and whether “consent” is meaningful.

Proposed responses and outlook

  • Ideas include affected companies suing for damages, more decentralised infrastructure, public pressure, and EU-level legal challenges.
  • Several commenters suspect resolution will be slow; meanwhile, workarounds (VPNs, IPv6, tracking sites) and frustration continue.