Serie A Clubs Delay Avenue Capital's €320m Rights Stake Bid

Some Serie A clubs have delayed talks on Avenue Capital's offer of €320 million for a roughly 10% stake in the league's international media-rights vehicle, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The New York firm's bid would value the business at about €3.2 billion. Representatives for Serie A and Avenue Capital declined to comment.

Key facts

• Avenue Capital offered €320 million for a roughly 10% stake in the vehicle that will hold Serie A's international broadcasting, sponsorship and betting rights, valuing the business at about €3.2 billion ($3.54 billion), Reuters reported on 12 November 2026.
• Three people familiar with the matter told Reuters that some of the league's 20 clubs opposed entering exclusive negotiations, arguing that Serie A should keep the flexibility to consider alternative offers while it assesses the bid.
• One of those people and a fourth person said Avenue Capital remained the only bidder still actively negotiating, even though the league had not granted formal exclusive talks.
• Any deal requires the backing of at least 14 of Serie A's 20 clubs. Reuters said enough clubs had expressed reservations to delay the process, but it did not give a precise count.
• In October, Reuters reported that a joint bid from Carlyle and Nextalia had offered around €650 million for a stake of roughly 17%, valuing the venture at about €3.75 billion.
• According to UEFA data cited by Reuters, the league's international media-rights business generates around €250 million, a fraction of the totals at the Premier League and LaLiga.

What has delayed the talks

The latest Reuters report, published on 13 November 2026 and datelined Milan on 12 November, does not say that the Avenue Capital offer has been rejected. It says some clubs have put the brakes on the process. The people briefed on the talks said those clubs were unconvinced by the offer and did not want the league to lock itself into exclusive discussions with a single fund.

That hesitation matters because of how the leading bid is structured. Reuters reported last month that Avenue Capital had emerged as the preferred bidder even though some rivals had pitched higher valuations. The attraction, those sources said, was that Avenue's proposal was a common equity investment and did not include the protections on future cash flows sought by some competing bidders. In October, the same reporting named the Carlyle-Nextalia joint bid at around €650 million for roughly 17%. Avenue, Serie A, Carlyle and Nextalia all declined to comment at the time.

The November update is narrower. Avenue is still described as the only bidder in active talks, but without formal exclusivity. The sources did not identify the clubs that have raised objections, and they did not say how close the league is to the 14-club threshold required for approval.

Why the stake sale matters commercially

Serie A is not selling a share of the league itself. It is exploring a minority sale in a new company that would hold its international broadcasting, sponsorship and betting rights. A 10% stake at €320 million would imply a €3.2 billion valuation for that international commercial vehicle. The cash would be new capital against a rights business that, on the UEFA figures cited by Reuters, still generates around €250 million a year from overseas media.

That gap with England and Spain is the commercial problem the sale is meant to address. Reuters noted that broadcasters' interest in Serie A abroad has been squeezed by the Premier League and LaLiga, and by a crowded international calendar. A private-equity partner would be buying a claim on future growth in those international rights, not on the league's more valuable domestic package.

The structure of any deal will shape how much of that growth stays with the clubs. A plain equity investment leaves future cash flows to be shared as dividends. Protections of the kind Reuters said some rival bidders wanted can give an investor a priority claim on incoming money. Clubs that prefer a higher headline valuation may still resist terms that pull cash out of the business before it can be reinvested. That tension sits alongside other club-level finance stories already on this site, including Inter Milan's 2025/26 accounts and the wider picture of private-equity ownership at club level.

Context and what happens next

This is not Serie A's first attempt to sell a slice of its media rights. Reuters recalled that the league explored a plan in 2021 to sell a 10% stake in its more lucrative domestic media unit to a consortium led by CVC, and that those talks collapsed after the proposal failed to win the required majority. The current process is different in one important respect: it is aimed at the smaller international book, not the domestic rights that still dominate Europe's largest football broadcast contracts and the club-level broadcast income rankings.

What comes next is a club vote, or a further delay while the league tests whether an exclusive mandate is even available. Reuters' sources said enough reservations had already been voiced to slow the process, and both Serie A and Avenue Capital declined to comment. Until at least 14 clubs are prepared to back a deal, the €320 million offer remains a bid, not a closed investment.

Sources

• Reuters via The Star, "Some clubs put brakes on Serie A stake sale talks with Avenue Capital, sources say", 13 November 2026
• Reuters via CNA, same report, 12 November 2026 dateline
• Reuters via The Straits Times, "Avenue Capital emerges as frontrunner for stake in Serie A media rights venture, sources say", 19 October 2026