Spanish FA Joins Lawsuit Opposing $2.3B LaLiga-CVC Deal

The Spanish Football Association, Real Federación Española de Fútbol, has joined a lawsuit led by Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Athletic Bilbao that opposes a deal between La Liga and CVC Capital Partners.

CVC struck a deal worth roughly $2.3 billion last year to assist with La Liga’s pandemic-related financial struggles.

• The equity firm would receive a reported 8.2% stake of the league’s new media company in charge of managing media rights — La Liga Impulso — over a 50-year period.
• CVC has admitted that the firm is likely to sell within the next 10 years.

Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Athletic Bilbao filed a lawsuit against the deal shortly after it received approval from 37 of the league’s 42 teams in December. The teams called the deal “ruinous” for Spanish football and presented an alternative plan for funding that they said would be “15 times cheaper” ahead of the vote.

RFEF has now joined the three clubs “to prevent Spanish football from being conditioned for the next 50 years.” The governing body emphasized that the league and private equity firm were the only beneficiaries of the deal.

Season of CVC

CVC Capital isn’t only focused on La Liga. The firm, Advent International, and Italy’s FSI Fund, agreed to a similar $2 billion deal for a 10% stake in Italy’s Serie A’s media unit. The league’s board unanimously approved the deal in November. Bundesliga blocked a deal in May that would have given CVC and other firms a 25% stake in its media rights.