Manchester City and Paris St-Germain putting European football in danger: La Liga president

London, June 16

La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticised Manchester City and Paris St-Germain, saying European football is in "danger" due to "state-owned" clubs. La Liga has filed a complaint to UEFA about what it believes to be Financial Fair Play (FFP) breaches by Manchester City and Paris St-Germain. However, 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 ecosystem in Europe. We think European football is in danger. (We have) not been able to design a system to control the state-owned clubs," La Liga president Javier Tebas was quoted as saying by BBC.

Tebas 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 said, "We've made official complaints about PSG for financial doping. Uefa have 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 600m euros. It is impossible. That is without including Mbappe. It is obvious they are not applying Financial Fair Play (FFP) 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 said it reserves the right to extend these complaints.

--IANS