The gloves are off in Spain as Real Madrid and Barcelona both seek to ramp up the heat against La Liga in a battle to save their plans for a Super League.
The two El Clasico rivals have become allied over their position on the breakaway plans, which they continue to strongly support alongside that of Italian giants Juventus.
The three are the only remaining clubs from 12 founding members to continue their support for their proposals and have regularly released joint statements in recent months regarding its future.
The past week has seen the situation take centre stage in Spain with both Madrid and Barca positioning themselves against the Spanish league in a war for the future of the game.
It follows an announcement earlier this month that La Liga had struck a landmark deal with private equity firm CVC, which would inject €2.7billion (£2.3 billion) into La Liga in exchange for 10 percent of its revenue and a 10 percent stake in most of its business, with 90 per cent of the injection going to clubs.
The executive committee of the league - which does not include representatives of Barca or Madrid, but does have representation from Atletico Madrid and Sevilla, among others - gave the green light for the deal to go to a vote among the league’s 42 member clubs.
Such investment would provide an immediate - and much-needed - cash injection into clubs throughout the top two divisions of Spanish football, to alleviate short-term financial worries.
The income would have theoretically afforded Barca the funds to register a new contract for Lionel Messi and the four new arrivals at the Camp Nou this summer.
Last week, both Barca and Madrid released separate statements in which they opposed La Liga’s plans while their club presidents - Joan Laporta and Florentino Perez - met on Friday, alongside Andrea Agnelli of Juventus.
In the simplest terms, the CVC investment - and their contractual ties to the audiovisual rights of La Liga clubs - would kill off any lingering hopes of a Super League, which Barca and Madrid continue to promote.
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The situation reached a new level on Tuesday morning as Los Blancos released a statement in which they confirmed they were taking ‘civil and criminal legal action’ against La Liga and its president, Javier Tebas, over the investment plans.
It read: "The Board of Directors of Real Madrid CF, meeting today at 11:00 a.m., has unanimously agreed to carry out both civil and criminal legal action against the president of La Liga, Mr. Javier Tebas Medrano, against Mr. Javier de Jaime Guijarro responsible of the CVC Fund and against the CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS Fund itself.
"Likewise, the Board of Directors has also decided to carry out legal actions of all kinds that are deemed appropriate to annul and nullify the possible agreements adopted by the La Liga Assembly, to be held on August 12, 2021, regarding the agreement between La Liga and the CVC Fund."
La Liga chief Tebas immediately hit back at Perez over Twitter, accusing him of “threatening methods” over the course of “years” that have been used “in private” against “the clubs and institutions of La Liga”.
It is a war of words that is being played out publicly between the league and its biggest clubs, following on from a Twitter dispute between Tebas and Barcelona president Laporta.
Following the announcement that Lionel Messi would be leaving the Camp Nou, Laporta said he would not be prepared to "mortgage the club for half a century" - referencing the CVC investment.
Tebas shot back on social media by saying: "Hello Joan Laporta, you know that the CVC operation does not mortgage Barcelona's television rights for 50 years; what it does is make those rights worth more for all clubs, so you can go to your bank to ask for a loan to resolve the big debt. That was how you understood it a few hours ago. Resolved".
Laporta retorted: "Hola Javier, we don't interpret the situation like this. There were talks yesterday between our club and those at LaLiga leading this agreement and we didn't think the explanation was convincing enough. It's a risk we don't want to take on.
"I would also say to Javier, that the total of the operation with CVC is a lot less than what we feel the value of La Liga is at 10 percent. With all my affection, that's what I have to say."
La Liga, for their part, want to kill the Super League proposal once and for all, to tie down its two most profitable and marketable clubs in a long-term deal which would tie them to the league’s membership and rules.
The league’s announcement of the CVC investment came just days prior to Barca confirming Messi would not be renewing his Barca contract due to ‘financial obstacles’ (the salary cap) put in place by La Liga.
The timing of the news appears to have been designed to heap pressure on the Catalan giants to abandon their Super League plans and commit to the immediate investment - choosing keeping Messi ahead of the breakaway proposals.
This battle for power and control over the future of direction is being played out publicly and now looks set to go to the courts, with the situation becoming increasingly fragile.
It has been made allies of natural enemies and while Premier League clubs may have overwhelmingly distanced themselves from Super League proposals, its remaining backers are now prepared to abandon the plans.
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