Lawsuits against deal and league boss: Real is fighting against the billion-dollar deal


Lawsuits against Deal and league boss
Real is fighting against the billion dollar contract

A huge amount of money is said to be pouring out over Spain’s football clubs. But there is tremendous opposition to a new TV contract worth billions, at least among the big clubs. Real Madrid are now opening the very heavy guns. The league is still calm.

Record champions Real Madrid vehemently oppose the planned partial sale of the marketing and television rights of the Spanish soccer league to the British financial investor CVC. The capital club announced legal action against the € 2.7 billion agreement between the league association La Liga and CVC. League president Javier Tebas and CVC partner Javier de Jaime Guijarro would also be sued under civil and criminal law. The takeover of ten percent of a newly founded marketing company of the league by CVC has yet to be approved by Spain’s first division club.

The holding company CVC is trying to get its foot in the door in European professional football after the sport was badly financially shaken by the corona pandemic. CVC had already failed in Italy due to the resistance of the clubs. In Germany, too, the majority of Bundesliga clubs shy away from a proposed sale of foreign rights. In Spain, CVC is to receive ten percent of the future television revenues of the games in the first division for the financial injection.

FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta had criticized this as a “mortgage on club rights for the next half century” and announced resistance – although the cash injection would relieve the financially ailing club of some of its worries. Barcelona had to let long-time Argentine top star Lionel Messi go because he is not affordable with the given player budget. The 34-year-old has now been hired by Paris Saint Germain.

According to the plans of CVC and La Liga, the clubs should not be allowed to spend the fresh money on player purchases. League President Tebas wrote on Twitter of “threatening methods” by Real boss Florentino Perez. Last week, the league organization was still calm: They are not afraid of legal action by Real. One is used to litigation with the club.

However, the 42 clubs in Spain’s first and second division have yet to vote on the agreement. The league announced that, according to the statutes, only a simple majority of the votes was required to accept the project, they would even propose a three-quarters majority. It is certain that at least 33 clubs are in favor, said league director José Guerra.

At a meeting of the delegates’ committee, all 14 members, including representatives from clubs such as Atlético Madrid, Betis Sevilla, Sevilla FC and San Sebastián, pledged their support for the LaLiga plans. According to reports from Spanish specialist media, around 90 percent of the money from the contract will be distributed among the clubs. The money should also flow into the clubs of women and amateur football, it said. According to this, FC Barcelona can expect a financial injection of around 270 million euros, Real with a good 260 million.

.