Piqué gets all the goals and is now left without the Davis Cup

These are not easy days for Gerard Pique. Personally and in his relatively new role as a multitasking businessman. To the public escrache that his ex-wife Shakira gave him Through a song that 12 hours after its premiere had 26 million views worldwide, after five years of alliance and four editions organized, his sports management company, Cosmosleft the Davis Cup after the failure to reach an agreement with the International Tennis Federation (FIT), an entity with which it renegotiated the loss of the agreed fixed amount of 40 million euros per year.

Piqué had signed a contract for 25 years committing to an investment of 3,000 million dollars. But the annual fee covered practically all of Davis’ turnover and left him no profit margin, not even to be reinvested; Therefore, he asked to start the renegotiation.

The FIT had agreed to lower the fee in the pandemic -10 million euros in 2020 and 19,700,000 in 2021- but since 2022 the fee has been recovered: 32 million euros in the last campaign while for 2023 it would be around 36 million and for 2024, 44 million, according to data published by the Spanish platform 2 playbooks.

Kosmos’ management – and the way the FIT has embraced Piqué’s changes – has been widely criticized for sweeping reforms aimed at ending the popular home and away qualifying format and for failing to maintain consistency in the competition system (going from a single-venue final over four days to a four-city group stage with a fifth venue) in one of the biggest team tournaments in the sporting world. In any case, the activity was closed to a FIT which, supported by the vast majority of national associations (including Argentina), she was always eager to achieve greater profitability -more premises, more money- of one of its main products.

Now the body that governs tennis in the world has recovered the tournament 123 years of life and you’ll have to decide whether to arrange it again yourself or resell the rights.

In a statement, he announced that the 2023 organization will continue as per the signed contracts. The FIT also recalled that it negotiated “a solid agreement for tennis in 2018. The association has increased attendance, prize money and interest in Davis Cup and has produced funds to support the global development of our sport “.

Before the news broke, the ATP was also expected to join the Davis Cup Board of Directors in 2023 in a move that was read as a plan to regain control of the tournament. It wasn’t supposed to happen.