The proposals of funds and banks
The Football league on the proposals of funds and banks for the television rights of Serie A he is serious. He has called a real tender complete with a tight timetable that will lead to the choice of the advisor to evaluate them by the end of the month (the meeting should take place on April 24th). At stake are a dozen offers that vary greatly both in terms of economic entity and structure. On the one hand the funds: private equity such as Apollo, Apax, Carlyle, Three Hills Capital Partners, Searchlight and last but not least Oaktree (who has a loan deal with Inter Milan) have already moved, which according to Reuters has put up $1.75 billion for 5% of the newco. On the other are the banks Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Barclays and Jefferies. The former would also ask to have a role in the future governance of television rights, while the latter would be active with only a financial role.
The April 12 deadline
According to news collected by Truth&Business by Wednesday 12 April the deadline will expire for submitting the ad hoc documentation and participating in the tender for the selection of the advisor. There are independent subjects, among these Kpmg, who had also played a role of consultant also on the occasion of the last offer of the funds for the rights of our series A and Lazard and others who, on the other hand, would have a sort of conflict of interest given the double role of advisors such as Goldman and Citi.
The advisors’ proposals will be examined by the Lega Serie A board of directors, which will select a shortlist of candidates to present at the next general meeting scheduled for the end of April. Then the assembly will choose the advisor. At that point – if everything goes smoothly – a process of selection of offers from funds and banks should start which hopefully will not be infinite. After all, the cake at stake is very important and the future of Italian football is being played around the casket of television rights.
Comparison with the Premier
In the two-year period 2010-2011, the Premier League collected one billion and 332 million euros from television rights against the approximately 950 of our Serie A. A little over ten years later, the English league of billions brings home more than 4, while Serie A has slightly exceeded one. All stopped while in the rest of Europe they ran. Spain has gone from 680 million to almost one billion and 900 million, essentially tripling its revenues. As well as the Bundesliga which has reached one billion and 300 million.
Moral of the story: from the second economic force in Europe, Italy has found itself in fourth position with all that follows in terms of spending power especially on the players’ market. One fact above all, in the last season the Italian team that collected the most from television rights was Inter Milan with 84 million euros, while the last in the Premier League, Norwich City, took 116. The goal is to reverse this trend. And if the help of the funds will be needed to achieve this goal, only the presidents of the League will be able to decide.