Javier Tebas has claimed “State owned clubs” like Manchester City are as big a danger to football as the European Super League.
La Liga president Tebas has launched a new tirade against City and Paris Saint Germain over their Middle East ownership as he revealed why Spain’s top league had reported them to UEFA. La Liga have written to UEFA alleging Financial Fair Play breaches by both City and PSG whose ownership stems from Abu Dhabi and Qatar respectively.
Tebas insists that La Liga have made the complaint to protect “football’s eco system” rather than any self interest as La Liga were accused of sour grapes because Real Madrid missed out on signing Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe this summer. Talking at the Club Advisory Platform in Amsterdam, Tebas said: “The European Super League is as dangerous as State owned clubs.
“The clubs owned by States, and it’s not a problem to be owned by a State, are hard to control and they are endangering football’s ecosystem. It’s inflating the wages system and are inflating UEFA’s control and the FFP system which is why it is important to report it. We are not doing this for Real Madrid, we are doing it to defend football’s ecosystem.”
City signed Haaland for £51m after Real Madrid turned their attentions to Mbappe but missed out on the France star who opted to stay at PSG after agreeing a mega £200m contract. Tebas accused the clubs of “inflating” sponsorship deals and huge, lucrative personal appearances for players in the States where they are owned.
Tebas added: “When we refer to State owned clubs, the most known are Manchester City and PSG. These clubs have certain behaviour which can be criticised. The sponsorships are not done at market value, they are done at inflated value and then they take the deals outside of the country with the players making personal appearances as part of the deal while they are paid an extraordinary amount.
“The third trait of the State owned clubs is the huge losses and that damages the whole ecosystem.” Both PSG and City have repeatedly and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
PSG “refused to dignify” Tebas’ latest outburst with a formal statement. Although one executive commented: “The last person we’ll take lessons from is Javier Tebas. The first person who needs lessons on conflicts of interest, financial management and market distortion is Javier Tebas. We look forward to seeing who he threatens, hacks and sues next week – and which hat he’ll be wearing when doing so. We look forward to the midnight updates on El Chiringuito.”
