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A deal that could bring private equity to La Liga will be put before a vote Thursday, but one of the league’s top clubs is threatening legal action to stop the transaction.
La Liga needs 22 of its 42 clubs to approve a contract with CVC Capital Partners, and league executives appear confident they have the votes.
Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Athletic Bilbao oppose the pact, as does the Spanish Soccer Federation, which called it illegal and harmful to the league’s long-term financial picture.
- Per the Financial Times, CVC would buy a stake in La Liga’s broadcast and sponsorship rights through a holding company for around $117.3 million.
- The private equity firm would gain 11% of the revenues of those properties for the next 50 years.
- CVC would also chip in $2.9 billion that would go to clubs as an interest-free loan.
Real Madrid said on Sunday that its board of directors “unanimously agreed to initiate both civil and criminal legal action against” La Liga president Javier Tebas Medrano, CVC head Javier de Jaime Guijarro, and CVC.
The club resolved to take legal action to block any resolutions that come out of Thursday’s league meeting. It previously said the CVC deal “by way of a misleading structure, expropriates 10.95% of the clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years, in breach of the law.”
Combined revenue of all European soccer clubs fell to $30.5 billion in the 2019-2020 season, down 13.4% from the previous year. La Liga’s revenues fell 8% to $3.74 billion.
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