Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Club have jointly presented an alternative plan to LaLiga’s billion-dollar deal with US-British private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. The three clubs were the only ones in LaLiga to oppose the deal in August and now hope to convince the rest of Spain’s professional clubs to rally behind an alternative proposal. LaLiga is not taking the plan seriously for the time being.
CVC wants to invest an amount of two billion euros in the competition in exchange for ten percent of the future revenues of the clubs. The billions are divided among the clubs, which then have fifty years to pay back the money. According to calculations by the three rebellious clubs, the professional clubs from Spain will ultimately lose at least 9.9 and a maximum of 17 percent extra when repaying. LaLiga wants to use the money to grow globally and become “a global digital entertainment company.” The goal is to close the gap with the Premier League.
Earlier it became clear that Barcelona and Real Madrid doubt the repayment term of fifty years. The Catalan club pointed to the unpredictability of the football world; an example that Barcelona mentioned was the fact that the sale of the Camp Nou’s sponsorship rights has been under discussion for ten years now. Barcelona also wonders what the clubs will get with the deal. It is feared that mainly LaLiga will benefit from the billions that CVC is transferring.
So now Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletic Club have presented an alternative plan, which in their view is more financially beneficial for all clubs. They have informed all professional clubs about this in a letter. Their proposal was developed by investment banks JP Morgan, Bank of America and HSBC and is called ‘Project Sustainable’. With the help of the banks, an amount of two billion euros would be raised, which would then have to be repaid within 25 years with an interest of 2.5 to 3 percent. According to the initiators, this will make the clubs much cheaper in the long run than with the original plan.
In addition, TV rights remain in the management of the clubs; the big clubs feared they would be at risk by sacrificing some of the media rights in the CVC deal. LaLiga calls the club’s proposal “hypothetical” and “improvised without a minimum of substantiation”. LaLiga hopes to get the CVC deal approved through a vote next Friday. The league has been warning other clubs for some time that the top clubs want to place their own interests above the general interest, with the recently averted Super League as evidence. However, the three opponents hope to convince enough clubs to prevent at least 22 of the 42 professional clubs from voting for the CVC deal next week.
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