The RFEF, the Spanish soccer federation, has requested to join the lawsuit launched by Athletic Club, Barcelona, and Real Madrid to challenge the €1.99 billion ($2.3 billion) commercial agreement between the top-flight LaLiga and private equity firm CVC.
The national body has joined forces with the three clubs and called for an "annulment of the agreement and of the operation itself".
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The RFEF made its request on Wednesday (February 2) to the Court of First Instance number 15 of Madrid.
In its statement, the federation stated that it has been forced to take this action to protect its rights and those of non-professional clubs and to “prevent Spanish football from being conditioned for the next 50 years.”
The Spanish body went on to say: “The RFEF shares the criteria of the three claimant clubs on this point and maintains that incalculable damage is being caused to Spanish football, with only the league, together with the CVC fund, benefiting from this agreement.
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“In addition, the federation understands that the LNFP (LaLiga) has taken advantage of the moment of economic weakness of the clubs in the current scenario and that it exceeds its powers with audiovisual rights.
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By GlobalData“It is once again made clear that the agreement between the LNFP and CVC increases inequality and makes an evolution of the format of professional football competition in Spain impossible in a capital and definitive way.”
The Madrid court recently admitted the civil lawsuit filed by the teams, with a hearing date set for February 24.
Athletic, Barcelona, and Real Madrid sued LaLiga and CVC over their recently concluded ‘LaLiga Impulso’ (Boost LaLiga) claiming the partnership will cause “irreparable damage to the Spanish soccer sector as a whole”.
A total of 37 clubs across Spain’s top two divisions voted in favor of the commercial tie-up in December and recently received an initial financial injection of €400 million from the deal last month, and a further €298 million this week.
Initially, CVC agreed to invest around €2.7 billion but with Athletic Club, Barcelona, and Real Madrid, as well as two other teams, opting out of the deal, which saw the firm reduce the figure accordingly in order to only support the clubs in favor of the move.
LaLiga agreed that the teams in opposition will not relinquish their broadcast rights income, but will not receive a share of the CVC money.
LaLiga and CVC this week also formed a new holding company known as LaLiga Group.
The league has transferred its business areas to the new LaLiga Group International holding company, in which CVC will hold an 8% stake for the duration of the partnership.
The RFEF will now enter into yet another legal case with LaLiga as the two parties have been involved in a bitter power struggle across a wide range of issues in recent years with no love lost between respective presidents Luis Rubiales and Javier Tebas.
Among the most recent cases, LaLiga won a protracted legal battle against the national federation to schedule weekly matches on Monday and Friday nights moving forward.
The Spanish top-tier also has a long-held ambition to stage regular season games overseas but plans for such matches in the US have to date been scuppered by opposition from the RFEF and soccer's international governing bodies.
