Scandal in the Davis Cup: a legal battle with millionaire claims begins between the ITF and the company of Gerard Piqué

With its future shrouded in doubt, the Davis Cup was at the center of a legal battle between the International Tennis Federation and the company Cosmoschaired by Gerard Pique. As reported by several Spanish media, the former player’s club Barcelona -who lives tumultuous days even personally, due to the problems derived from his separation from Shakira— and the ITF has filed multimillion-dollar lawsuits against its counterparties, weeks after breaking the deal they signed in 2018 to host the world’s oldest and most traditional racquet competition.

Kosmos went to Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) for “unjustified termination of the contract”. He is also asking for compensation of several million – the amount has not been disclosed – for the “damages” caused by the breakup of a relationship, which was to last 25 years, and by the loss of the most important competition for the countries of world tennis, for the investment group reported this Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the ITF is asking Piqué’s company to pay 25 million euros for “breach of contract”, as the French newspaper anticipated earlier this week The Team. This amount corresponds to the “guarantee fund” that Kosmos had to pay in case of non-compliance with the points of the agreement.

The federation led by the American David HaggertiFurthermore, he believes that an extra payment is due for the accumulated debts and for damages for the bad image transmitted by the abrupt termination of the contract, which would be around 30 million. Therefore, the total demand could rise even beyond 60 million.

The ITF announced in a January 12 statement the end of the agreement with Kosmos over Davis’ organization, just five years into a relationship.

A source close to both sides explained that the problem was economic. Piqué’s company had promised to invest $3,000 million over 25 years, but the pandemic and the trend in sponsorship and television investments made it impossible to meet expectations.

The ITF agreed to renegotiate the agreed fee – which was around 40 million euros per edition – during the pandemic, so that this amount would be reduced to just 10.2 million in 2020 and 19.7 million in 2021.

In 2022, the annual price envisaged in the contract signed at the time was recovered. According to Spanish media 2playbook.com, this year 32 million euros were paid, which in 2023 amounted to 36 million and in 2024 to 44 million euros. The company wanted a new renegotiation, but the ITF refused.

Kosmos was the architect of the revolution in the format of the competition, which since 2019 has ended with a final phase, trying to make the tournament more attractive.

But the new Davis had many detractors, because he radically removed the formula of different duels with one team at home and another away, with best-of-five-set matches spread over a weekend. And the system with the qualifiers at the start of the season and the finals at the end, failed to connect with that new crowd that he was chasing.

The ITF has not yet commented on its plans for the competition beyond the 2023 edition, which will take place as scheduled, the Qualifiers next month and the Finals, divided into two stages, between September and November.

“The ITF has ensured that financial contingencies are covered and, as guardians of the competition, we will stage the 2023 edition’s qualifiers and finals as planned, with the eight-team finals taking place in Malaga, Spain, in November,” he said on Jan. 12.

But we don’t know what will happen to the most traditional competition in world tennis from 2024. And this crossing of requests between Piqué and the ITF only darkens the prospects.