A Spanish court on Thursday suspended a planned strike by footballers in protest against a new TV rights law, which threatened to shut down the country's top league at the weekend.

The National Court said in its ruling that allowing the strike to go ahead would "prevent the conclusion of the championship" and would "cause a serious organisational disorder".

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The AFE players' union announced last week that footballers would go on strike indefinitely from Saturday and the league, which controls clubs in the top two divisions, filed a petition to have the action declared illegal.

The strike call threatened to halt the clash between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona on Sunday which could seal the championship for Barca.

It would also have disrupted the last league matches on May 23 and the Spanish cup final on May 30 between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao.

The league had warned that a stoppage could cost it 50 million euros (Dhs 2.1 billion) per matchday in lost revenue.