Soccer - Clubs clash over Serie A Italian TV rights sale -sources

But other clubs asked for assurances that, before any vote on the broadcast rights licences, Serie A will pursue talks to create a new business to handle the league's media rights and to sell a stake to a private equity consortium, the sources said. For months Serie A has been negotiating the sale of a 10% stake in the proposed venture to private equity firms CVC Capital Partners, Advent International and Italian fund FSI.

The sale of screening rights for Italy's top flight soccer league in its home market has been blocked by a clash among Serie A clubs over a separate deal with private equity investors, two people close to the matter told Reuters. Serie A clubs discussed bids for domestic pay-TV licences for the 2021-2024 seasons at a meeting on Thursday, with sports streaming service DAZN leading the race in a challenge to the country's dominant pay-TV player SKY.

Nearly half of the 20 clubs, including Juventus, Inter Milan and Lazio, were ready to vote on the bids, paving the way for a deal with DAZN, according to two sources at the meeting. But other clubs asked for assurances that, before any vote on the broadcast rights licences, Serie A will pursue talks to create a new business to handle the league's media rights and to sell a stake to a private equity consortium, the sources said.

For months Serie A has been negotiating the sale of a 10% stake in the proposed venture to private equity firms CVC Capital Partners, Advent International and Italian fund FSI. However, some teams still have reservations and Serie A as yet lacks the required majority acceptance for the deal to go through, the sources said.

"It was a total stalemate," one of the sources, a top official at a Serie A club, told Reuters. A statement from Serie A said the clubs will reconvene next week to discuss DAZN and SKY's offers, worth 850 million euros ($1 billion) and 750 million euros respectively.

Under a three-year contract expiring at the end of this season, Serie A earned 973 million euros a year from SKY and new entrant DAZN, with SKY taking the lion's share of matches. ($1 = 0.8260 euros)

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