Real Madrid To Take Legal Action Against LaLiga Over €2.7bn Deal

Real Madrid have announced they will take legal action against LaLiga president Javier Tebas, CVC Capital Partners, and its director Javier de Jaime Guijarro after the Spanish league agreed to sell 10% of its business to the investment fund for €2.7 billion.

The league’s executive committee unanimously approved the sale last week but it must be ratified in Thursday’s general assembly.

La Liga needs two thirds of the 42 voting clubs in the top two tiers of Spanish football to be in favour.

Madrid will oppose the sale and have warned it will take every action possible to prevent the deal from going through.

A club statement on Tuesday read: “Real Madrid C.F. Board of Directors unanimously agreed to initiate both civil and criminal legal action against the LaLiga President, Mr Javier Tebas Medrano, Mr Javier de Jaime Guijarro, head of the CVC Fund, and against the CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS Fund itself.

“In addition, the Board of Directors has resolved to take any legal action it considers appropriate to annul and render ineffective any possible resolutions adopted by the LaLiga Assembly, due to be held on Aug. 12 2021, in relation to the agreement between LaLiga and the CVC Fund.”

Tebas has pushed for LaLiga to compete with the Premier League on an economic level. He said in October that while La Liga had grown financially under his seven-year stewardship, the Premier League is still No. 1 and there was work to be done on foreign markets such as China.

Tebas responded to Madrid’s statement on social media and tweeted: “The threatening method that FP (Madrid president Florentino Perez) has been using in private for years is now being transferred to the public. Clubs and institutions have been putting up with their threats for years.

“Since 2015 against the centralised sale, the constant challenges of agreements, the Super League … Real Madrid deserves better.”

The deal is expected to bring more money into LaLiga. For their initial investment, CVC will pocket 11% of the money raised by LaLiga through the sale of television rights and sponsorship for the next 40 years.