Madrid Court rules LaLiga-CVC deal invalid due to irregularities

As he claims Jorge Calabres from the journal The Spanish, Court of First Instance No. 47 in Madrid annulled the contract between LaLiga and CVC at the Extraordinary General Meeting, which was concluded on August 12, 2021. The judge upheld the lawsuit filed by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic Club in its entirety.

According to the ruling accessed by the journalist The Spanish“the rules of convening the assembly were violated, and an operation of such a large scale both in terms of time and economy was subjected to the procedure of appointment without providing all the data necessary to understand and assess its scope.”

Javier Tebas violated LaLiga statutes by convening an assembly “without justifying its urgency”. In turn, “the documentation provided to the clubs was incomplete”. In addition, the judge added that “the timing of the delivery of the Rothschild report, given the importance of the operation, did not allow for its proper analysis.”

During the assembly itself, “a factor was introduced that altered the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding and accompanying reports submitted for discussion.” The ruling is crucial for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic in their fight against the deal between LaLiga and CVC. The three clubs have taken legal action, both civil and criminal, against LaLiga president Javier Tebas, as well as against Javier de Jaime Guijarro, head of the CVC fund, and against the CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS fund itself.

This ruling does not invalidate the agreement between LaLiga and CVC, which was voted down on December 10, 2021, which was condemned by the same three clubs as a “misleading structure”. This ruling, however, is hampered by the “LaLiga Impulso” project and what is more, it claims The SpanishCVC is considering breaking the contract due to legal uncertainty using the exit clause it has.

Óscar Mayo, general manager of LaLiga, stated that “six or seven months have been spent in talks with some clubs, but not all, such as Real Madrid.” The ruling said this was “in line with the statement made by the club under Florentino Pérez’s presidency at the assembly”.

In addition, the judge considers it “indisputable that during the assembly a change was made to an operation that was on the agenda, in that the clubs that did not want to vote to retain their television rights were left out of the economic operation.” The ruling stated that “this change is not trivial”. LaLiga officials present at the Assembly did indeed use words such as “operation reconfiguration” and “readjustment” of the deal.

This change has just made the terms sheet that was voted on invalid. The wording of point 4 of the agenda was therefore modified. A representative of Athletic, according to the letter, stated: “The proposal was presented to us, within a week it was approved by the Assembly of Delegates, and within two weeks you have already voted it in the Assembly …. You accept and take or leave and do not criticize. a fixed amount of EUR 150 billion over 50 years … I think it really distorts the alleged competitiveness benefits a bit.”

The correction that was made to the operation rendered “reports submitted in support of the operation invalid, both economically, fiscally and legally.” Therefore, “if the terms of the contract sheet were changed, the assessment was no longer adequate to know the consequences of the operation.”

Javier Tebas himself admitted during the assembly that “a reconfiguration is necessary because there are already fewer clubs”. In response to a question from an Espanyol representative, he had doubts and showed a lack of knowledge: “We don’t know exactly, I can’t tell you.” Despite this, Óscar Mayo confirmed that “the terms sheet was binding”.

Despite these irregularities in concluding the contract, convening the meeting and changing the agenda, LaLiga’s compliance department, headed by Esperanza Bernal-Quirós, at no time warned of the irregularities, thereby absolving itself of responsibility.

In a letter sent to the clubs today (Friday, June 9), LaLiga limited itself to indicating that this ruling does not affect the Assembly’s agreement of December 10, 2021. Proceedings in this case are also pending before the Provincial Court in Madrid. In addition, according to the letter, “it is limited to assessing whether there were any formal irregularities in the terms of the summons and the acceptance of the agreement.”

Update

21:50 Media: Barcelona withdrew from the lawsuit against LaLiga filed together with Real Madrid and Athletic!

22:05 Victor Malo (Culemania): Barça prefer to be on good terms with LaLiga because it is up to them to sign contracts this summer. In the same way, the club is seeking rapprochement with UEFA after the Negreira affair. The normal thing is that he moves away from Real Madrid and also from the Super League.