La Liga's biggest clubs in Real Madrid and Barcelona are now looking to sue the league over the new deal with CVC Capital.
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The trouble in Spain’s top-flight football league, La Liga, never seems to end. Fresh off losing their most marketable superstar in Lionel Messi, they now have another headache to deal with. The league’s biggest clubs in Real Madrid and Barcelona are now looking to sue them.
The reason? The new 2.7 billion euro deal that the league brokered with CVC Capital Partners. Indeed, the suit could likely involve Javier de Jaime Guijarro, the chief of CVC Capital Partners.
The Spanish clubs have promised to pursue legal action over the deal, which it hopes to get blocked. The 42 sides in Spain’s top two divisions will vote on it soon.
On paper, it makes little sense for either of the two sides to oppose the deal. It brings a much-needed injection of capital at a time when matchday revenues are still non-existent.
Real Madrid and Barcelona, as two Spanish sides with massive stadiums, have felt the crunch of playing behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet, as things stand, both clubs are hesitant to go ahead with the deal. And this is despite the fact that this deal would have given Barcelona the money to re-sign Messi on a new deal.
The main reason for their opposition is the fact that this deal gives CVC Capital a 10% share in the league’s future television rights.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta said the deal was the equivalent of “mortgaging the club’s rights over the next half-century”.
The stance is understandable given that, as things stand, Real and Barca earn a substantial chunk of the La Liga TV rights money.
Javier Tebas, the chief of La Liga, has hit out at Real president Florentino Perez for using “threatening methods”.
El método amenazante que desde hace años utiliza FP en privado lo traslada ahora a lo público. Clubs e instituciones llevamos años soportando sus amenazas. Desde 2015 contra la venta centralizada, las impugnaciones constantes de acuerdos, la Superliga…
El @realmadrid merece más https://t.co/Cl3EF6ucxp— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) August 10, 2021
The Spanish league also said last week it was not worried about threats of legal action.
