Real Madrid seeks legal action against LaLiga/CVC deal

The board agreed to initiate both civil and criminal legal action against La Liga president Javier Tebas Medrano, CVC managing partner Javier de Jaime Guijarro, and against the CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS fund.

In addition, Real Madrid's board resolved to take "any legal action it considers appropriate" to annul and render ineffective any possible resolutions adopted by the La Liga Assembly, due to be held on 12 August 2021, in relation to the agreement between La Liga and CVC.

La Liga, the major football league in Spain, agreed a 10% stake sale to CVC at the beginning of August. The deal values La Liga at around EUR 24.2bn and would fund structural improvements while also offsetting some of the immediate impact from Covid-19.

But the sale still requires approval from the league's executive committee and clubs. CVC and LaLiga have been holding meetings with officials from member clubs to garner support for the deal, according to media reports.

Real Madrid has been very vocal in its opposition to the deal. On 5 August, it issued a statement saying that the agreement with CVC was reached "without the involvement or knowledge of Real Madrid", with La Liga only giving "limited access" to the terms of the agreement after it was struck.

"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," Real Madrid added, having noted that the La Liga clubs have signed over their audiovisual rights exclusively for their sale on a competitive basis for a period of three years.

The club also argued that the negotiation was carried out "without competitive proceedings" and objected to CVC targeting a 20% annual return. "This opportunistic fund is the same that tried and failed to reach similar agreements with the Italian and German leagues," the statement continued.

The club said it would convene the Assembly of Representative Members to debate the agreement and discuss the "significant loss of equity, unprecedented in [the league's] 119-year history".

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