The international dispute over the cuts to renewable energies approved by Spain more than a decade ago has now reached the 2026 Football World Cup. According to El País, several creditors claiming millionaire compensation from the Spanish State are expanding embargo threats in the United States and have focused on the economic activity related to the Spanish national team during the tournament.
The newspaper's information indicates that the funds and creditors involved in these lawsuits are requesting documentation and financial information linked to contracts and operations related to the national team. Among the cited elements are commercial agreements, logistics providers, hotels, travel, and sponsorship contracts linked to the team's presence in U.S. territory during the championship.
According to El País, the strategy seeks to identify possible assets, payments, or economic flows susceptible to being subject to precautionary measures or seizures within the jurisdiction of the United States. The move occurs in a particularly sensitive context, as part of the 2026 World Cup will be played precisely on U.S. soil.
The publication also points out that some creditors have expanded judicial requests for information towards companies related to the activity of the selection and with the organization of the displacements and services associated with the national team. According to the newspaper, the objective would be to reinforce the options for the execution of international arbitration awards pending collection.
The origin of the conflict
The confrontation dates back to the energy reform approved by the Spanish Government in 2013, when the renewable energy subsidy system was modified. Those changes caused a wave of international arbitrations filed by foreign investors who considered that the conditions under which they made their investments had been altered.
Many of those procedures were processed before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an organization dependent on the World Bank specialized in arbitrations between States and international investors.
ICSID has been issuing different awards favorable to investors in recent years. In several cases, multi-million dollar compensation against Spain is recognized. The official database of the organization records dozens of proceedings linked to the Spanish energy reform.
The judicial battle in the United States
One of the key points of the conflict is now in the United States. There, several federal courts have allowed creditors to advance in proceedings to recognize and enforce some of those arbitral awards.
The Spanish defense maintains that these arbitrations between community investors and Member States of the European Union clash with the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU and with European regulations on State aid. The European Commission has supported this interpretation on different occasions.
The European Commission itself has publicly defended that intra-European arbitrations within the framework of the Energy Charter Treaty are incompatible with EU law following the CJEU rulings. Despite this, several creditors have tried to enforce the awards outside Europe, especially in jurisdictions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia.