A SPANISH court will now not decide until tomorrow (Thursday) whether a planned strike that would see the last two weeks of La Liga and the Spanish Cup final called off is legal.

The players' union announced last week that its members would begin industrial action indefinitely from this Saturday in protest against a new collective bargaining ruling on television rights. The league body declared that illegal and the national court sat this morning to discuss it before announcing a decision would be adjourned until tomorrow.

If the strike is called off, Barcelona could become champions for the fifth time in seven years with victory away to Atletico Madrid, last season's champions. The Catalan club are also set to play in the cup final against Athletic Bilbao at the end of the month.

Spain is among the last European countries to move towards a collective arrangement for distributing TV money, with the current set-up of marketing rights individually heavily favouring Barcelona and Real Madrid. The hope is the new arrangement will create a more level playing field, helping the poorer teams in the league. The proposed new set-up would still be weighted towards the richest and most successful clubs but to a lesser extent.