Mueez Ajao
– Barcelona are suing LaLiga over the league’s refusal to allow them to join other clubs in increasing their salary cap by 15% after the CVC investment deal, club vice president Rafa Yuste said on Friday.
– Just four of LaLiga’s 42 first- and second-division clubs — Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and second-tier Ibiza — voted against the €2 billion agreement with CVC Capital Partners in December 2021.
– The rest were handed funds to invest in infrastructure and modernisation, as well as a 15% increase in their league-imposed squad spending limits, in return for CVC receiving 11% of LaLiga’s TV rights revenue over the next 50 years.
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– Sources told that the Catalan club have now launched legal action — filing a complaint with a Barcelona court — alleging that LaLiga’s failure to increase their salary cap by the same margin means they cannot compete equally with their rival clubs.
– “We’ve filed a commercial complaint,” Yuste said. “We believe the club’s rights are being infringed.”
– Barcelona’s opposition to the CVC deal saw them excluded from the terms of the agreement, missing out on the cash influx but retaining their share of TV rights income.
– The Catalan club were forced to activate a series of their own financial “levers” last summer, selling off assets — 49% of Barca Studios to Socios.com and Orpheus Media and 25% of domestic TV rights for the next 25 years to Sixth Street — to be able to increase their squad spending limit sufficiently to register new signings.
– League sources told that Barcelona had previously appealed the refusal to increase their spending limit by 15% to the Spanish Football Federation’s UEFA Licence Appeals Committee and been denied.
– LaLiga believes the terms of Barcelona’s financial deals differ from the CVC agreement in several key respects, sources said.
– The league argues that Barca have already increased their squad spending limit by 100% with the actions taken last summer and that an additional 15% would therefore be discriminatory to other clubs.
