Madrid : Real Madrid and Barcelona expressed their opposition Thursday to the Spanish league’s deal with an investment fund that secured $3.2 billion in funding to help its clubs, reports AP.
The league’s executive committee unanimously approved the “strategic agreement” with international investment fund CVC Capital Partners on Wednesday.
The majority of the league’s clubs are expected to give their final approval to the deal in an upcoming general assembly.
But Spain’s two biggest clubs are resisting the plan, taking on the Spanish league that opposed their ill-fated attempt in April to launch a largely-closed breakaway European Super League.
Barcelona said “the operation that has been announced has not been sufficiently discussed with the clubs.”
Ángel Haro, president of Real Betis — one of the teams that are part of the league’s executive committee — said that he expected a large majority of the clubs to approve the deal. Spanish champion Atlético Madrid also represented the clubs in the league’s executive committee.
As part of the agreement, the private equity firm which used to own Formula One would have a share of about 10% of the league’s revenues and a stake of 10% in a new commercial entity that values the league at 24.2 billion euros ($28.7 billion).
“The clubs have signed over their audiovisual rights exclusively for their sale on a competitive basis for a period of three years. This agreement, by way of a misleading structure, expropriates 10.95% of the clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years, in breach of the law,” Madrid said.
“Real Madrid cannot support a venture which hands the future of 42 first and second division clubs over to a group of investors, not to mention the future of those clubs who qualify over the next 50 years,” it said.
Barcelona said “the amount is not congruent with the years of duration, and the deal affects part of all clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years.”
“FC Barcelona feels it is inappropriate to sign a half-century agreement given the uncertainties that always surround the football world,” it said.
The league had said the funding would help the clubs’ finances and boost its global presence as it continues to try to catch up to the powerful Premier League, the world’s richest soccer league. It said CVC would not have control of the management of the competition, or the sale of its broadcasting rights.
The clubs would receive 90% of the money paid by CVC, with 70% aimed at long-term structural investments. Some of the money would also go toward paying off debts and increasing their spending limits on players and coaches.
Madrid and Barcelona are among the clubs with heavy losses exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Barcelona earlier Thursday announced that Lionel Messi will not stay at the club because the league’s financial regulations made it impossible to sign the Argentina star to a new contract.
