RFEF ordered to pay Mediapro €12.3m in Copa del Rey rights case

A court has ordered the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to pay €12.3m ($13.6m) in compensation to Mediapro for planning to exclude the agency and broadcast production group from a tender for media rights to the Copa del Rey.

In a statement, Mediapro said that RFEF president Luis Rubiales (pictured) “intended to exclude” the company from the tender, which covered media rights to the Copa del Rey from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

According to Mediapro, the RFEF withdrew the tender, thus preventing the awarding of the rights to the agency. Mediapro said that the Provincial Court of Madrid has declared that the RFEF incurred actions contrary to Article 2 of the Spanish Antitrust Act and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The RFEF was sentenced to compensate the Mediapro for loss of profit derived from not having been awarded the contract to manage the media rights in Spain, Europe and internationally. The RFEF has been ordered to compensate Mediapro for loss of profit up to a maximum of €12.3m. The RFEF is also required to pay the costs involved in the proceedings.

The decision comes on the back of a judgement in January last year, when the RFEF was ordered to pay compensation to Mediapro after a court ruled that it unlawfully excluded the agency from the process of awarding the domestic and international broadcast rights to the Copa Del Rey across the 2019-22 cycle.

The latest development comes after the RFEF earlier this week cancelled an invitation to tender for its video assistant referee (VAR) services amid the ongoing legal process between the federation and Mediapro.

In March, the RFEF launched the tender process for its VAR services across a four-year contract, spanning 2023-24 to 2026-27. The following month, however, the process was suspended after the latest legal action taken against the RFEF by Mediapro.

The suspension came after the Commercial Court No.2 of Madrid issued an order granting a precautionary measure requested by Mediapro in relation to the tender.

Earlier this year, Mediapro claimed a legal win over the RFEF following the latter’s refusal to allow coverage of the 2019 Copa de la Reina final. Mediapro requested €242,000, plus interest, in compensation from the RFEF, a proposal that Mediapro said the Provincial Court of Madrid had accepted in full.

It marked the fourth time in a year that that the courts had sided with Mediapro, which has previously condemned the “erratic and personality-driven management” of Rubiales.

In May last year, Mediapro won a ruling against the RFEF after the Mercantile Court No.12 of Madrid decided that the governing body abused its position by not including Mediapro in the tender process for media rights to the final of the 2019 Copa del Rey.

The RFEF had previously been ordered to pay almost €1.25m in compensation to Mediapro following a court case relating to the award of video assistant referees (VAR) services to sports technology company Hawk-Eye back in 2019.

Following the latest ruling, Mediapro said: “Luis Rubiales’ obsession to inflict damage on Grup Mediapro and the repetition of illicit behaviour, subsequently sanctioned by the courts, only undermines the prestige of the institution, and reduces its economic resources due to compensation payments it must face.”