August 6 – Real Madrid have condemned the La Liga – CVC brokered deal that will see the private equity firm invest €2.7 billion in Spanish football in exchange for a 10% stake, with the Bernabeu giants calling parts of the deal “deceptive” and CVC “opportunistic”.
On Wednesday, La Liga revealed it had an agreement in principle with the American firm that could well reshape the future of the professional game in Spain, but it didn’t take long for heavyweights Real Madrid to shoot down the agreement, which still needs to be voted on by the 42 clubs in Spain’s top two divisions.
It is a curious position for the club that just three months complained that football was on the edge of bankruptcy and that they were going to save the game with their Super League and make themselves even more phenomenally wealthy and competitively dominant in the process.
The club said that the agreement was closed without the participation or knowledge of Real Madrid and that La Liga only today allowed Madrid access to the terms of the agreement. It alleges that the agreement would take 10.95% of the audiovisual rights negotiated by the clubs over the next 50 years, and labelled CVC an opportunist fund that unsuccessfully tried similar deals with both Serie A and the Bundesliga.
“The negotiation has been done without a competitive process and the economic conditions agreed with the CVC fund give it returns of more than 20% per year. It is this same opportunistic fund that unsuccessfully tried similar deals with the Italian and German leagues,” said Real Madrid in a statement.
“Real Madrid cannot support an operation that gives investors the future of 42 First and Second Division clubs and the future of the clubs that will qualify during these 50 years.”
“Real Madrid will convene the assembly of compromise partners to discuss the agreement and the significant unprecedented losses in our 119-year history that such agreement would cause.”
The deal values the Spanish league at €24.25 billion and La Liga said the money will be used to “to fulfil its transformation strategy to become a leading global player in the digital entertainment market”, as well as driving the growth in fan numbers globally and improving the digital fan experience.
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