August 9 – FC Barcelona has joined Real Madrid in protest against La Liga’s proposed CVC investment.
Spain’s two biggest clubs who were the leaders in the failed Super League project that would have been funded by outside investment, 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 in its commercial rights.
“FC Barcelona considers that the operation that has been made public has not been sufficiently verified with the clubs (owners of the TV rights),” wrote the club in a statement. “The amount is not consistent with the years of duration and that part of the audiovisual rights of all clubs for the next 50 years are affected.”
“FC Barcelona wants to show its surprise at an agreement promoted by La Liga in which it has not had the criteria of teams, like FC Barcelona itself, and does not even show options among more competitors to be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages in a scenario with many questions such as the post-pandemic.”
Last week, La Liga revealed it had an agreement in principle with the American firm that could well reshape the financial future of the professional game in Spain, but it didn’t take long for Madrid to condemn the agreement, which still needs to be voted on by the 42 clubs in Spain’s top two divisions.
“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 leages,” said Real Madrid in a statement.
Yet it was Madrid together with FC Barcelona and a select group of elite clubs which tried to launch a private equity finded Super League earlier this year in a bid to cement their domination on and off the pitch, but the project collapsed spectacularly following a wave of protests.
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