RFEF joins lawsuit against LaLiga's CVC deal - SportsPro

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has joined Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve LaLiga’s investment deal with the CVC private equity firm.

Worth around €1.99 billion (US$2.25 billion), the LaLiga Impulso deal sees CVC take a 8.2 per cent stake in a new company which will manage the league body’s sponsorship and media rights assets for the next 50 years.

The investment is intended to help clubs recover from the financial adversities caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the 2020/21 season alone, Spanish clubs lost a total of €733 million (US$837.16 million).

At the end of January, the civil lawsuit filed against LaLiga by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao was given approval for a hearing by a Madrid court. The judge investigating the case called the parties to a hearing of precautionary measures on 24th February.

Having now joined the opposition, the RFEF says that the deal with CVC could inflict ‘incalculable damage’ on Spanish soccer and that it hopes for ‘the annulment of the agreement’. Spanish soccer’s governing body added that it hoped to prevent the domestic game from being ‘conditioned for the next 50 years’.

CVC’s investment was officially approved in December, with 37 of the 42 clubs voting in favour. Shortly after this, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic confirmed that they would be taking legal action against the Spanish soccer league body.

The three clubs tabled an alternative proposal before CVC’s investment was approved. However, this was dismissed by LaLiga.