Davis Cup, the ITF terminates the agreement with Kosmos

Another year, more news for the Davis Cup but this time the big changes don’t concern the format. Indeed, the ITF suddenly announced the end of the collaboration with Kosmos Tennis after five years of partnership. “The ITF confirms that its partnership with Kosmos Tennis for the Davis Cup is coming to an end,” reads the statement that appeared on social media. “The ITF has ensured that the financial contingencies are in place and, as the guardian of the competition, will run the 2023 qualifiers and finals as scheduled, with the Final 8 taking place in Malaga, Spain this November. In 2018, the ITF sealed a major deal for tennis as it was the partnership that generated the most participation, prize money and funds to support the global development of our sport. As well as being focused now on delivering another spectacular edition of the Men’s Tennis World Cup, we will focus on the future growth of what is the largest annual team competition.”

the reasons

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In 2018 Kosmos, founded and chaired by former footballer Gerard Piqué, signed a 25-year agreement with the International Tennis Federation to acquire and organize the Davis Cup, which then led to a radical change in the format of the competition. The Davis Cup was thus branded as the tennis “World Cup”, with the aim of reaching and attracting as many fans as possible. As reported by Marca, however, after trying to renegotiate the $40 million per edition FEE (which would increase from 2024), Kosmos and ITF were unable to reach a financial settlement. This is despite significantly increased revenue after the inclusion of a fourth venue for the group stages. Furthermore, in October last year a historic agreement was reached between ATP, Kosmos Tennis and ITF for the management of the competition and its inclusion in the official ATP calendar.