The RFEF considers the CVC-LNFP agreement illegal

The Royal Spanish Football Federation has had the opportunity to examine before tomorrow's Assembly and with a margin of only 48 hours the documentation provided - we do not know if in a complete way - by the LNFP that structures the operation intended by it and CVC. This operation, carried out with the absence of the slightest publicity and concurrence in the selection of the successful bidder, has two parts: that related to the commercialization of audiovisual rights, on the one hand; and the rest of the LNFP businesses, which make up a heterogeneous group, on the other.



Regarding the agreements between the LNFP and CVC related to the audiovisual rights of sports clubs and corporations, the RFEF must express its opposition. Not only for legal reasons, which will undoubtedly generate numerous litigation derived from the agreement and may put its own viability in doubt, since it is intended to force some legal institutions to the extreme; but also for economic reasons, since the rights of clubs and SADs are heavily taxed for the next fifty years in exchange for a small amount of money. But the most important thing is that the agreement increases inequality and, in a capital and definitive way, makes a reasonable evolution of the format of professional football competition in Spain impossible. causing that in practice and in application of the agreement the competition is petrified without the possibility of evolution or can only be modified when a third party outside the sports structure so decides or agrees, a fact that flagrantly violates the law and the European sports model. In addition, forget the clubs that dispute non-professional competitions that, at the time of their promotion to the professional competition, will see that their income is reduced by the remuneration of CVC, without having obtained any benefit from the contribution of that entity.



If there are clubs that, with their inalienable and unavailable rights by third parties, want to borrow voluntarily, there is no problem in doing so, whether the conditions are considered market or if they are usurious, but not through an illegal agreement that obliges them to all, through the false attribution in favor of the LNFP of rights that it does not possess. Furthermore, we see little rigorous and very opportunistic, trying to go beyond the borders of the law to reach a terrible and regrettable economic agreement for the future of all Spanish football and, instead, fantastic for a fund and other possible beneficiaries.



The RFEF must also warn that it is not going to allow the contribution to modest football that comes from these audiovisual rights to be reduced during those fifty years. Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 established a very beneficial centralized marketing model for the LNFP, establishing controls and mandatory contributions for certain purposes. If the LNFP now intends to bypass the controls and reduce the contributions to which the Royal Decree-Law obliges it, the RFEF will be forced to exercise the legal actions that proceed to defend its rights and those of non-professional football. At this point it should be remembered that the Higher Sports Council would find itself in the same situation as the RFEF.



With regard to the rest of the LNFP businesses, the RFEF limits itself to verifying that it intends to create a new corporate structure, the sole purpose of which is that the President of the LNFP will become the President of the new entity, also receiving new emoluments for this and avoiding the already few controls that are now imposed on it.



In short, analyzing the operation with a fifty-year perspective, which is the one provided by the LNFP and CVC, as well as its contents, we must conclude that it exceeds what could be understood by the commercialization of audiovisual rights to the that the powers of the League are limited, and may irreversibly affect the future of the competition.



The RFEF, being aware of the various complaints and comments made by various First and Second Division clubs, has communicated its firm opposition to this agreement, through a burofax sent to the LNFP.

The original publication (in Spanish) can be found here.