The Spanish La Liga decided to wage war against Manchester City and PSG, lodging a complaint against these two teams due to continuous breaching of the Financial Fair Play rules. President Javier Tebas and Real Madrid’s chairman, Florentino Perez, called out both teams on several occasions, nicknaming them “state clubs” and claiming they have support from certain political factors in their states.
La Liga and most of its clubs have raised their voice against unfair competition over the last few years, which puts the above-mentioned teams in a better position. Some say it is like having the best online casino, but without internet access, while your competition has far less quality but active broadband.
Tebas Files Complaint
Tebas already filed one complaint to UEFA and other state courts earlier this year, after Erling Haaland ended up in Manchester City. The second and the most recent complaint, against PSG, came after Kylian Mbappe’s new deal with the French club.
According to Tebas, Mbappe received the highest contract in football history, while PSG ended this year with a deficit higher than €224 million. Additionally, the La Liga president claims that the French powerhouse already had a €300 million minus before the start of this year.
He mentioned City and its agreement with Haaland, suggesting that €60 million, the final price of the entire deal, isn’t relevant. Tebas claims that he knows what late Mino Rayola (Haaland’s agent) asked for the player when Real Madrid negotiated with him and that such figures were way higher than what Man City eventually reported.
In the meantime, Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Perez, had an explosive interview, in which he accused PSG of using a political influence on Mbappe’s decision to stay in the capital of France. Perez openly stated that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called Mbappe and urged him to reject Real’s offer. Also, he pleads that the Mayor of Paris did the same and that in the end, Mbappe went to Qatar, where he received all sorts of offers that he simply couldn’t refuse.
Perez said he had a few talks with Mbappe’s mother and got some of the information from her.
Meanwhile, Tebas said that PSG’s chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, could be in a conflict of interest and that La Liga has several experts analyzing his position. Al-Khelaifi is the lead figure of BeIN Sports and the European Club Association and is a UEFA’s Executive Committee member.
Various analysts say this is just another round of a war between Real and UEFA that broke out due to Perez’s idea of forming a Super League. That would break UEFA’s monopoly on continental competitions, and even though such an idea is stopped for the moment, Real’s president didn’t give up on it.
Not the First Time in Hot Water
Manchester City, and particularly PSG, have been seen as a strong ally of the UEFA in this battle, which raised some suspicions that the European house of football gave them certain benefits.
Both teams have been accused of breaching the Financial Fair Play in the past. The UEFA fined them on a few occasions, but according to Tebas’ and Perez’s words, they continue to do the same.
This special war between the Spanish teams and UEFA lasted for too long, and it escalated during the spring of 2021, once the Super League went public. However, following a strong response from the fans around the world, several teams backed out, while on the other side, Real, Barcelona, and Juventus didn’t give up on the idea of launching this competition.
In the meantime, Barcelona collapsed due to vast debt and is only now starting to show some signs of life. Opposite to that, Real went on to win the UEFA Champions League title, its 14th, and on its way to the top, Los Blancos beat both PSG and Manchester City, following magnificent comebacks.
We are ahead of a very hot summer, which will bring a lot more conflicts between La Liga on one side, and other powerhouses and UEFA on the other.
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andym
Founder and chief editor of La Liga Blog, Andy fell in love with Spanish football after a university placement year in the Costa Del Sol. His favourite Tapas is Albondigas and on Saturday afternoons, Andy can regularly be found trying to emulate his hero Carles Puyol for his amateur football team.