The Administrative Court of Sport (TAD) has opened a file against the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, for very serious misconduct for not reporting in time about the call for an assembly on August 12, 2021 in which the clubs ended up approving the agreement between LaLiga and the CVC fund, from which Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Club withdrew, according to what was announced iusport and this newspaper later confirmed. The file opened by the TAD refers, in any case, to an issue that was corrected by LaLiga, since it called a new assembly again, this time correctly, on December 10, 2021, where the commercial operation between this body and CVC was approved. With its decision, the TAD partially estimates a complaint sent by the Higher Sports Council (CSD) with which it intended that the Court open a file on Tebas. The complaint was based on a request to the CSD by the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, in which he alleged discriminatory treatment in the call for that assembly in August 2021, which was not announced at least ten days in advance. The TAD, therefore, opens a file on Tebas.
In conclusion, the TAD appreciates a possible infringement of article 76.1.a) of Law 10/1990 on Sport by Tebas, the call for the assembly in August 2021, an issue on which the court has already issued a ruling, although this is being appealed. It was last February when the Court of First Instance No. 15 of Madrid dismissed the lawsuit filed by Real Madrid, accompanied by Athletic Club, against LaLiga, which aimed to challenge the extraordinary assembly of La Liga held on December 10, 2021, in which the commercial operation between this body and the CVC fund was approved. The court details iusportrejected the three grounds for appeal raised by Real Madrid, considering that the statutes of LaLiga were not infringed in relation to the lack of information, that the Royal Decree-Law 5/2015 regulating the ownership of audiovisual rights was not infringed at that general meeting, nor was the Sports Law infringed by authorising a restructuring of LaLiga in violation of its statutes. Real Madrid, not satisfied with this, asked the Higher Sports Council to forward a complaint to the Administrative Sports Court against the president of LaLiga, alleging that it was subjected to discriminatory treatment.
According to article 76.2 of the Tebas law, he risks one of the following sanctions: a financial penalty, a public warning, temporary disqualification from two months to one year and dismissal from office. The CSD, for its part, cannot provisionally suspend Tebas under any circumstances, not even with a file for a very serious infraction, as is the case, since LaLiga is a private entity. Another issue is when something like this affects a sports federation. In that case, article 62.2.c) of the 2022 Sports Law establishes that the CSD may, with respect to federations, “suspend, with justification, and as a precautionary measure, the presidency or the other members of the governing bodies, when disciplinary proceedings are initiated against these persons as a result of alleged infractions classified as very serious…”.
In a statement issued by LaLiga, Javier Tebas has expressed his confidence that he will not be disqualified: “It is a clear, closed issue, which had already been denied to Real Madrid on two previous occasions, simply for having called an emergency meeting with a deadline of 8 days instead of 10, where no relevant decision was taken. It is a question of form, where in addition the substance of the same, which was the CVC agreement, was subsequently taken to another meeting in December 2021, so I am sure that there is no justified reason for a disqualification.”
It seems that someone cannot accept that their Super League has been unanimously rejected by all of world football and that the CVC project with LaLiga was ratified with all the guarantees by an overwhelming majority of 39 out of 42 clubs and ratified by the courts. It seems that… pic.twitter.com/BMSoVasFR8
— Javier Tebas Medrano (@Tebasjavier) July 23, 2024
Tebas, in a video via X, also pointed to the Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, whom he accused of not accepting that his Super League project had been “unanimously rejected by all of world football.” “What he cannot convince either the clubs in Spain or the clubs in Europe, he tries to do by looking for other ways,” he added.
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