Spanish justice freezes €50 million from beIN for late payment to LaLiga

A Spanish court has ordered the temporary freezing of 50 million euros belonging to the media group beIN Sports for non-payment of TV rights to LaLiga, the manager of Spanish professional football, according to a court decision published on Monday and consulted by AFP .

This is the last soap opera of the showdown between the sulphurous president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, and the powerful boss of the beIN group and president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.

A LaLiga spokesman confirmed to AFP that the Spanish league had started legal proceedings « to guarantee the payment of the amounts determined by the contracts for the international TV broadcasting rights, after beIN’s late payment ».

Pending the complete study of the file, a Spanish court has therefore decided to freeze EUR 50 million from the Qatari group.

Over the past five years, the audiovisual group beIN has paid around 1.5 billion euros to LaLiga to acquire international TV rights. The company broadcasts LaLiga on three continents and 35 countries, including France, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

“BeIN is one of the most important media groups in the world of sports and entertainment. Our reputation is built on decades of investment, top-notch broadcasts, strong, long-term relationships with rights holders, and careful monitoring of payments,” a beIN Media spokesperson said. Group with AFP.

“We will not publicly disclose the content of any private discussions we maintain with LaLiga or any rights holder. This is not the way business should be conducted, especially not by professional and recognized institutions,” the spokesperson continued.

« Soccer Insult »

Al-Khelaïfi, also president of the European Club Association (ECA), is regularly the target of criticism from Javier Tebas, whom he rubs shoulders with on the UEFA Executive Committee.

This summer, on Twitter, Tebas notably called Kylian Mbappé’s new contract at PSG an « insult to football ». In August, LaLiga had requested the abrogation of the contract binding Paris Saint-Germain to Kylian Mbappé, previously coveted by Real Madrid, before the Administrative Court (TA) of Paris.

In May, during an event organized by LaLiga, Tebas had again tackled Al-Khekaïfi: “He has many hats, there are too many conflicts of interest, it is not possible (…) In 2022 , in football, that shouldn’t happen anymore. A major player like him should not be able to be in these organizations and run a TV channel that buys (the rights to) LaLiga and the Champions League”.