Man City, PSG putting European football in danger, says La Liga boss

[files] President of La Liga Javier Tebas REUTERS/Albert Gea

European football is in ‘danger’ unless ‘state-owned’ clubs such as Manchester City and Paris St-Germain can be controlled, the president of Spain’s top league says.

La Liga has filed a complaint to UEFA about what it believes to be Financial Fair Play breaches by the two clubs. It believes they are effectively run by wealthy countries and circumvent rules designed to keep spending sustainable.

Both clubs have vigorously denied the complaints.

Premier League winners, Manchester City, are majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour of the United Arab Emirates, while the Emir of Qatar owns French champions, PSG.

“We’re doing it to defend the football eco-system in Europe,” said La Liga president, Javier Tebas.

“We think European football is in danger. (We have) not been able to design a system to control the state-owned clubs.”

He has strongly criticised PSG over the new multi-million-pound contract they gave star striker, Kylian Mbappe.

Speaking at a European Leagues meeting in Amsterdam, he added: “We’ve made official complaints about PSG for financial doping.

“UEFA has allowed losses because clubs reduced their turnover, but PSG increased their wage bill by an incredible amount during COVID. Their wages for 2021-22 were 600 million euros. It is impossible. That is without including Mbappe. It is obvious they are not applying FFP (Financial Fair Play) rules. It is endangering the entire financial eco-system in Europe.”

The complaint against PSG was made last week and the one against City in April, although La Liga says it reserves the right to extend these complaints.

In July 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a two-year Champions League ban imposed on City by UEFA