MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid is not participating in the agreement made by the Spanish women’s soccer league with former NBA player Pau Gasol and other investors.
The club said “this agreement does not align with the growth model of women’s football, which is based on sustainability, transparency and the full autonomy of the clubs.”
Spain’s Liga F announced Monday that it had begun a new era with the incorporation of Gasol16 Ventures and Fortified Partners as strategic investors in a decision ratified by the clubs at an extraordinary assembly held in Madrid.
It said the operation valued at 55 million euros ($62.6 million) would be executed over the next four seasons, calling it “the largest private capital investment made to date in women’s competition in Europe.”
Madrid said the private investors would receive a percentage of the competition’s future commercial revenues (between 35% and 49%) until June 2051, and the affiliated clubs would get 40 million euros ($45.6 million) collectively while forfeiting a percentage of revenues for 25 years.
Madrid said it respected the decision of those clubs that deemed it appropriate to join the initiative, but “the voluntary nature of the agreement requires that the choice made by each club should not result in differences in treatment or economic or institutional consequences for those who choose to remain outside the operation.”
It also said it believed that “a decision with economic and governance effects extending over the next 25 years should take into account not only the clubs currently participating in the competition and benefiting from the resources derived from this operation, but also those that will join Liga F in the future, as they will also be bound by the approved model without having been involved in its decision-making or having benefited from the initially distributed funding.”
Madrid added that a quarter of the clubs participating in the competition also decided not to participate in the agreement.
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