The 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) North and Central America World Cup has unexpectedly emerged as a "debt collection stage." Foreign investors who say they suffered losses from Spain's repeal of renewable energy subsidies about 10 years ago are moving to seize Spanish asset in the United States during the World Cup. There is speculation that everything from the Spain national team's lodging deposits to various contract deposits could be subject to seizure.
The Financial Times (FT) reported that U.S. investment funds Blasket Renewable Investments secured authority from a U.S. court to trace and seize Spanish asset during the World Cup period. Blasket holds the right to receive more than 600 million euros (about 1 trillion won), including damages and interest that an international arbitration panel ordered the Spanish government to pay.
Blasket expects to recover at least 200 million euros (about 351.3 billion won) through enforcement in the United States. To that end, Blasket has sent subpoenas to FIFA, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), the Hilton hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the Spain national team is staying, and Adidas, the official uniform supplier, to identify the status of Spanish-related asset in the United States.
Matthew McGill, Blasket's counsel, told the FT, "Anything Spain brings into the United States as an asset is of interest," adding, "We could try to seize hotel deposits paid for government official lodging."
The Spanish government and the football federation are drawing a line. The Spanish government's position is that the national team and the federation are private organizations independent of the state and should not be affected by this dispute. The Royal Spanish Football Federation also says the government and the federation are separate entities and is pushing back against the investors' seizure attempts.
The roots of the dispute go back to 2013. At the time, Spain paid large-scale subsidies to foster the solar and wind industries and actively attracted foreign investors. But as the eurozone fiscal crisis increased the burden on public finances, the government of then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy drastically scaled back the support system.
Investors said, "We invested trusting government policy, but the promise was overturned," and filed a series of lawsuits with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) under the World Bank. To date, Spain has lost 27 cases, and the burden combining damages and interest has exceeded 1.7 billion euros (about 3 trillion won).
However, the Spanish government is refusing to pay the damages. The FT said, "The European Union (EU) is also on Spain's side," adding, "The EU sees payment of damages ordered by international arbitration panels as potentially constituting illegal state subsidies." The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a similar judgment in 2018.
Investors, on the other hand, argue that Spain still bears obligations under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). The ECT is an international treaty that allows foreign investors to sue a state if policy changes lead to investment losses.
The legal battle between the two sides has now reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Spain has asked to block the seizure of asset in the United States on the grounds of sovereign immunity, and the Supreme Court is expected to decide by the end of this month whether to hear the case.