Spanish La Liga’s clubs have approved the €2.1 billion deal the league body negotiated with a private equity firm, CVC.
The deal which La Liga and CVC agreed upon less than two weeks ago was subjected to voting and the majority of the 42 La Liga’s clubs voted in favor of the deal.
Only four La Liga’s clubs – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Bilbao, and an unnamed Second Division club, refused to vote in favor of the deal.
Based on this, CVC will go on to pay La Liga €2.1 billion in exchange for the 10 percent of the league’s commercial asset. Those clubs who voted against the deal insisted that CVC’s valuation of the commercial rights was too low.
Despite agreeing to part with 10 percent of the league’s commercial rights, the league’s president Javier Tebas stressed that the league body did not sell anything to the private equity firm.
He however noted that the €2.1 billion that would be injected into the Spanish La Liga courtesy of the deal would “answer to the challenges” facing the club.
Despite how good the deal looks, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta said the deal is like “mortgaging the club’s rights over the next half-century”.
When the deal was announced earlier in August, Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said the deal was “illegal” and would “increase inequality”.
Also, the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, is planning to drag La Liga to court over the deal. In CVC’s reaction, the private equity firm described Perez’s intention to drag La Liga to court over the deal as “totally disproportionate and manifestly unfounded”.
But CVC’s reaction would not stop Real Madrid from taking ‘both civil and criminal legal action’ against La Liga and the league’s president.
A statement from Real Madrid read: “The club’s board met at 11:00 on Tuesday morning and unanimously decided to take both civil and criminal legal action against the president of LaLiga, Mr. Javier Tebas, Mr. Javier de Jaime Guijarro of the CVC fund, and against the CVC Capital Partners,” Real Madrid’s statement said.
“The board have also decided to carry out all kinds of appropriate legal action to annul the agreement reached by LaLiga and CVC.”
The latest reports claimed that the private equity firm might have to reduce the amount that was expected to be paid to La Liga since four clubs have decided not to agree to the deal.
If that happens, that might mean that the four clubs that voted against the deal – Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Bilbao, and the unnamed Second Division club would not participate in the sharing of the investment.
