La Liga Chief Encourages ‘Third Party’ Investment, Defying UEFA

The Spanish soccer league’s

president wants more investors to buy stakes in the transfer

rights of players, clashing with plans by the sport’s European

ruling body, UEFA, to outlaw the practice.

Javier Tebas said he’d like more funds to enter the market

now dominated by Doyen Sports to make so-called third-party

ownership more competitive and improve the terms that investors

offer to cash-strapped teams such as Sevilla and Atletico

Madrid. Doyen is part of a London-based hedge fund.

UEFA, based in Nyon, Switzerland, said it’s concerned that

investors may interfere in the $3 billion transfer market, and

wants to ban the practice from its competitions, including the

Champions League. Doyen provides financing that clubs can’t get

from Spanish banks, Tebas said.

“I’m very much in favor of this,” Tebas said in a seminar

at the league’s offices in Madrid. “It allows us to organize

debt and make our clubs more competitive.”

Spanish soccer clubs have a combined tax debt of 690

million euros ($933 million), and the government has set a 2020

repayment deadline. Doyen Sports Chief Executive Nelio Lucas

said the fund has invested 80 million euros in sports the last

three years.

Tebas said the league plans to start regulating investments

next year, and could limit the amount of deals per team. He also

wants funds to identify investors to comply with a law to stop

money laundering.

Doyen’s partners include Rixos Hotels Chief Executive

Fettah Tamince and Bayrock Group LLC founder Tevfik Arif. UEFA

officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Alex Duff in Madrid at

aduff4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:

Christopher Elser at

celser@bloomberg.net

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