Thebes and CVC raise the pressure on the clubs to expedite investments a year and a half after the agreement

The irruption of

in the Spanish king of sports a year and a half ago has put the management model of national football clubs to the test.

The execution of the almost

that the investment fund is injecting, in phases, into the competition within the framework of an agreement with LaLiga is not being a bed of roses.

Most of the teams are on the verge of exhausting the items destined to clean up their mistreated accounts and rebuild their sports squads, but the investments reserved for infrastructures and growth are showing a slowness that is beginning to make CVC and the football employers themselves impatient.

Since January 2021, the 42 cubes incorporated into LaLiga Impulso have received

, almost half of the total.

The terms of the contract between the competition and CVC set the terms of the sharing of funds.

Clubs can allocate 15% of this oxygen balloon to transfers, as well as to cut debt.

The remaining 70% must be dedicated to strengthening key areas such as digitization, branding, infrastructure improvement or international expansion.

Until now, the clubs have covered

(226.4 million) of the item destined to reduce their financial liabilities and have consumed

(174.3 million) of the allocation for transfers.

The picture is very different when talking about investment in growth: sports companies have only mobilized

of the total.

This means that the Spanish teams have, until 2025, just 48 million to recover their financial statements and less than 100 million to attract players.

While, in just two years, they will have to give out more than 900 million assigned to the growth of the club.

Under the terms of the contract between LaLiga and CVC, the investment fund is risking everything for the clubs to do their homework.

The injection of 2,000 million to the First and Second Division teams that joined the agreement, has as a counterpart the transfer of

of the economic rights of the exploitation of the competition.

In order for the fund and the employers to get the accounts, the clubs should increase their annual profitability by around

, taking into account the increase in income of these entities that will generate the investments they must make.

The impatience of LaLiga and its financial partner was felt in the interventions of Javier Tebas and

, the head of CVC in Spain, during the II Conference of LaLiga Impulso that was held in PortAventura on February 14 and 15 and which THE WORLD attended.

In front of 450 attendees, CVC's

recognized "the enormous effort" that is being made to mobilize this inflow of capital, but acknowledged that there is

in the firm .

"This is a collective project,

. If we put the same ambition in the management part as in the sports part, we will greatly multiply the value of most of the clubs".

Sports entities are advancing out of step in achieving the milestones set.

LaLiga divided the clubs into four groups, depending on the starting point, taking into account the different verticals to be developed.

This classification determines if the teams receive more or less funds and if they must meet more or less ambitious goals.

Those who started with the greatest advantage form groups 2 and 3. In terms of compliance in these two categories,

(90.5%),

(85%) and

(84.2%) lead.

Others, such as

(63.2%) were highlighted as a success story, in the case of the San Sebastian club, due to the restructuring of its organizational chart and the incorporation of talent.

Results in 4 years

The average compliance falls into groups 4 and 5, which, in general, includes more humble sports societies.

Fear

explains why some clubs think twice before undertaking the structural changes required by the agreement.

"Reinforcing the squad means shooting up fixed costs and, in football, one can do things very well from Monday to Friday, but Sunday comes and it's not up to us whether or not the ball goes in," insisted a manager in a huddle. with journalists.

"What makes soccer different from any other business?"

.

, president of SD Huesca, raised the question during the welcome dinner.

.

The answer illustrates the idiosyncrasy of a business where the strategic plans designed in the offices are conditioned to what happens in 90 minutes of a game.

And it is precisely the very nature of the football industry that is affecting, and a lot, the development of LaLiga Impulso.

The conclave organized by LaLiga, to which some media were invited as prosecution witnesses, was a meeting point (and debate) between dozens of entities with diametrically different management models.

If something became clear in the two days of retirement, it is that the fine print of the financial agreement with the new

of Spanish football continues to raise doubts.

An example.

Two spokespersons for different teams could not agree on whether or not a club that is in good financial health can divert the

earmarked for debt to cover other levers.

Each of the LaLiga Impulso sports societies has been required to have a Development Plan, which the employers supervise and outline.

As of today, 32 roadmaps have been delivered, of which 21 have been adjusted after receiving contributions from LaLiga.

A total of 11 clubs are working on correcting errors and

.

In some teams, the disappointment due to the lack of immediate benefits to the changes made so far is palpable.

Thebes addressed it in his inaugural speech: "Some thought that with the entry into the Impulse Plan they would all have to be growing.

. We are advancing investments that, organically, would have been dilated fifteen or twenty years".

All in all, the sports entities that have associated with CVC are convinced that, despite the challenge of the Impulse Plan, it will take the clubs to a turning point on the path towards their professionalization, by introducing unprecedented levels of supervision in the industry.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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