After losing La Liga rights, DirecTV drops GolTV

Cesc Fabregas and La Liga powers like Barcelona will no longer be on GolTV.

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NEW YORK (AP) - DirecTV is dropping GolTV on Thursday following the network's loss of rights to Spain's La Liga.

GolTV had held La Liga rights since the 2004-5 season, when it took over from Fox. It sublicensed some games to ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.com.

DirecTV last month started broadcasting beIN Sport, the Al Jazeera-owned network that has bought U.S. rights to La Liga, Italy's Serie A and France's Ligue 1.

GolTV still has rights to Germany's Bundesliga and the U.S. Open Cup final.

"As a result of DirecTV's new relationship with the Emir of the State of Qatar and founder of Al Jazeera, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, DirecTV intends to remove GolTV from its Sports Pack effective Sept. 13,''GolTV said in a statement.

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