Football fans sent illegal IPTV stream warning as thousands of users handed huge fine for watching

Football fans have been sent another clear warning when it comes to illegal IPTV, with thousands of fines already issued.

Given the hefty cost of watching live football on TV in the current climate, piracy and illegal streaming is rife and authorities have been desperately trying to crack down.

Major moves have been made to "disrupt and dismantle piracy operations" - with a man from Lebanon recently sentenced to 11 months in prison after being found guilty of five charges relating to intellectual property and cybercrime offences.

He was also forced to pay costs of $90,000 (£69,000) in damages.

And in Spain, La Liga are also taking huge measures - with president Javier Tebas said to be spending 60 per cent of his busy day in a bid to put an end to the piracy.

Spanish outlet Cope produced an in-depth feature on how La Liga is trying to tackle piracy after their data uncovered that for every hundred people who watch football in the country, forty do so by illegal means.

They also estimated that the league loses €600 and €700 million euros per season because of piracy and they are hoping to cut audiovisual fraud by 50% in Spain.

A dedicated anti-department of fraud containing 50 people at its headquarters are tasked with achieving that target.

According to La Liga, anyone caught is required to pay a fine of €450 and thousands of people have already been forced to cough up - as well as there being 1,300 successful rulings against bars who broadcast football illegally.

How La Liga president Javier Tebas is trying to end football piracy

It appears as though Tebas is very much playing an active role in the anti-piracy push as it is his "main obsession". According to the report, Tebas sits and watches a screen displaying IP addresses responsible for pirated football content but he also poses undercover in a telegram group and even goes to the length of downloading apps.

"The president personally joins some Telegram group, goes down to the lowest level, to see how the pirates operate," Guillermo Rodríguez, La Liga's Director of Anti-Fraud Operations, explained.

"He also personally downloads some apps that offer pirated football."

Javier Tebas is leading a huge push against pirating football. Image: Getty

Tebas set up the department in 2013 and with a whopping 2,000 or 3,000 IP addresses responsible for illegal broadcasts, his team report any IPTV attacks - with the courts giving their full backing.