August was a real earthquake for Spanish football, with its epicenter in Madrid and aftershocks throughout the country as more details about LaLiga’s agreement with CVC became known. And, although with less intensity, we have been going for a few days and it will continue like this until December 10, when the situation will be repeated: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Club fight to prevent an operation from going ahead in which nothing is at stake, more Beyond preventing their rivals in the national league from receiving an injection of 1,994 million euros.
It is very difficult to understand that two clubs that are still fighting for the Super League today present themselves as the saviors of the teams that they were going to devalue with this new competition, even if they say no. “We make ourselves available to all clubs to study legal, reasonable, profitable proposals and without being imprisoned by a fund,” he said. Florentino Pérez.
TV rights pledged
And this week he came with an approach, which he did not offer a firm offer, which showed a high degree of ignorance about the situation of his fellow competitors and with objectives that are difficult to believe. At the end of the day, it will be in the assembly on December 10 when forces are measured. But there is a condition that already cancels the counter offer of Madrid, Barça and Athletic: they already have their television rights pledged with other loans, which disables them.
To sum it up: the idea of Pérez is that the clubs transfer part of their television rights to a new company, which would be used as a guarantee to obtain the same 1,994 million euros that LaLiga gives them from international investors. Those who join would be tied for 25 years to this investment vehicle – a mortgage, as he said. Laporta-, which would pay annual interest of 115 million euros.
This, provided that the objective of achieving an interest rate of between 2.5% and 3% is met. Credible? It is difficult to think that a fund sees a similar risk in Barça and Madrid, which today are the ones that can be financed with these costs, that in elevator equipment that one year charge 50 million for television and the other can go down to less than 8 million.
As some club says, “we are 39 fools united in front of the 3 smartest”
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But there is a more conceptual question that Barça and Madrid have not understood. Apart from the money, what small and medium-sized clubs need is someone to accompany them and advise them so that the money they will receive allows them to take a leap in business terms. That is what CVC and LaLiga are pursuing, which will control each euro invested. In the case of Florentine, its formula is pure debt with funds that the only thing they want is that the loan be returned, whether it has served or not to increase the competitiveness of the tournament.
The basketball maze in the transformation of the competitive pyramid
The public debate on sport and its transformation the more business it generates today is focused on the football Super League, the greatest exponent of how the conversion of clubs into multinationals breaks the seams of the historical model: regional leagues, national leagues, international tournaments. However, the path of this change has been marked by basketball for some time, although in his case it is to give some economic viability to clubs with ambition.
The NBA and FIBA joined forces two years ago to create a continental league in Africa, aware of the impossibility of building a solid system for talent development with national leagues. And this week, the international regulator announced the creation of an Asian Basketball Super League in collaboration with the national leagues, so that the eight best teams from Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China compete at a higher level.
It is a concept that FIFA has wanted to put on the table in many regions of the world for football, with the consequent controversy that this means playing something sacred today: the national leagues. The question is which will have the capacity to survive or will seek mergers to remain relevant in the future.
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