Gerard Pique's Kosmos Group seeking $50 million in damages from International Tennis Federation after Davis Cup contract termination
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) terminated its Davis Cup partnership with Gerard Pique's Kosmos Group earlier this year, for which the firm is now seeking up to $50 million in damages.
Speaking in a recent interview with Marca, Pique defended the slew of decisions that were brought to the Davis Cup format under his tenure, most notably introducing neutral venues that led to a severe lack of spectator turnout.
The former Barcelona superstar is of the opinion that what he and Kosmos did with the Davis Cup is nothing but a "success story," revealing that they increased the revenue generation multifold and brought more investors than ever into the project.
"We believe that what we did with the Davis Cup is a resounding success story. We arrived with a competition that was decadent, it was in low hours. And at a sporting, economic level, above all, and audiences, we turned the tournament around. That is evident and verifiable with numbers. We multiply by four the income in a year. We went from three to 15 sponsor," Gerard Pique said.
The Spaniard admitted that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything in sports, leading to his company paying almost $40 million a year out of the market to the Davis Cup.
Now that their deal no longer exists, citing the lower fee other tennis tournaments had to pay to the organizing boards, Kosmos Group and Gerard Pique are seeking $50 million in damages from the ITF. However, Pique couldn't expand any further on the topic due to confidentiality reasons.
"What happens is that in 2020 the Covid arrives and disrupts everything in all sports. We had an agreement with the ITF, that we paid them a very significant amount of money, I would say out of the market, 40 million a year. In a similar competition, like the ATP Cup, which was the same, Tennis Australia paid 10 million to the ATP," Gerard Pique said.
"So we were paying four times as much. In 2020 there was no Davis Cup, during a part of 2021 it was played behind closed doors... The fix we were paying was out of the market. After the termination by the ITF there is now a dispute between us in which we claim up to 50 million dollars. We cannot say more due to confidentiality restrictions. But I feel very proud of everything we did," he added.
"In four or five years, I think the Davis Cup will no longer be from the International Tennis Federation" - Gerard Pique
Gerard Pique then addressed remarks from Dietloff von Arnim, President of the German Tennis Federation, calling the partnership between Kosmos Group and the Davis Cup "disastrous" for the ITF.
Pique believes that such comments are being made only for political or electoral reasons, as Dietloff von Arnim had a good relationship with his company back then. In fact, the Spaniard claimed that the German Tennis Federation has contracts worth €70 million only because of him and Kosmos Group.
"I saw the comment and I think that people are not informed, or they do not know, or it is that they want to use us for a political, electoral issue, because they have the elections in August. The president of the German Federation had a good relationship with us.
"The ITF, with our agreement, has benefited. Right now he has contracts that we signed for a value of 70 million euros. The Billie Jean King Cup was closed in Andalusia thanks to us," Gerard Pique said.
Proclaiming that what Kosmos has received from the ITF is nothing compared to what they have given to them, Gerard Pique predicted that the Davis Cup will leave the hands of the tennis body in the next 4-5 years because of gross mismanagement at the top.
"What we have given them compared to what we have received is outrageous. We believe that everything that has happened is very unfair. I believe that the Davis Cup will last two or three years with the contracts that we closed at the time, but I see a complicated future for it," Gerard Pique said.
"In four or five years I think the Davis Cup will no longer be from the ITF. It will be either from the ATP or from a third party that is going to buy it, because the money is not going to find the management. President David Haggerty promised to distribute an amount of money to the Federations that will be impossible to give because the competition does not generate it," he added.