私募CVC傳與FIFA和皇馬商討搞世界球會盃，恒大或成創辦球會？
CVC is holding discussions with Fifa, international football’s governing body, about acquiring the commercial rights to the revamped Club World Cup, a tournament that will feature some of the biggest football teams on the planet.
CVC, one of the world’s largest private equity groups with $82.5bn of assets under management, has a long history of buying and selling sports franchises, including Formula One and MotoGP. It has recently done deals in rugby union, paying £225m last year for a 27 per cent stake in England’s Premiership Rugby competition.
In October, Fifa announced that the current eight-team Club World Club would be replaced by a 24-team contest featuring at least eight European teams and taking place every four years. China will host the first expanded tournament in mid-2021.
But CVC executives were also recently approached by Florentino Pérez, Real Madrid’s president, about the club’s desire to create a rival annual competition featuring top clubs from around the world, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions.
One person briefed on the talks said an option under consideration is creating two leagues of 20 teams each. Eight of those teams could include the founding clubs behind the World Football Club Association, a newly created body of which Mr Pérez was named president last month.
Those founder members include Real Madrid, AC Milan in Italy, Auckland City in New Zealand, Boca Juniors and River Plate in Argentina, Club America in Mexico, Guangzhou Evergrande in China and Mazembe in DR Congo.
