MADRID: Gerard Pique’s investment group Kosmos is claiming $50 million in damages from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for the termination of its contract to organise the Davis Cup.
“After the termination by the ITF, there is now a dispute between (the parties) in which we are claiming up to $50 million,” the former Barcelona defender said in an interview with Spanish sports daily Marca on Thursday.
In January, the ITF announced the end of the agreement with Kosmos, originally a 25-year deal worth $3 billion which commenced in 2019.
A source close to the matter said the ITF and Kosmos had failed to reach a new financial agreement.
The 2019 Davis Cup finals were the first in a single-city format, one of the changes made under the widely-criticised partnership between the ITF and Kosmos.
Kosmos have taken its dispute with the ITF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, citing the “unjustified termination” of its contract.
“We believe that what we have done with the Davis Cup is a resounding success,” said Pique.
“We arrived with a competition which was in decline, which was at its lowest. And in terms of sport, economics and viewership, we have above all reformed the tournament.
“We have quadrupled our income in one year. We have gone from three to fifteen sponsors,” continued Pique, who blamed the Covid pandemic for having “changed everything in sports”.
“Covid was impossible to predict,” he said, adding that “many leagues and federations adapted and the ITF decided that they did not want to renegotiate their conditions”.
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