The Spanish football league (LFP) has asked for Manchester City to be investigated under Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and backed UEFA’s decision to look into Paris St Germain’s huge recent spending spree.
The LFP called for European soccer’s ruling body to look into the two clubs’ finances after they each splashed out over 200 million pounds in the last transfer window.
“PSG and Man City’s funding by state-aid distorts European competitions and creates an inflationary spiral that is irreparably harming the football industry,” LFP president Javier Tebas said in a statement on Monday.
PSG have been owned by the Qatar Sports Investment fund since 2011 and City were bought by The Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008.
La Liga requested that they be investigated in August, saying both clubs have sponsorships which “make no economic sense and lack fair value”.
UEFA opened a formal investigation last week into PSG to see if their transfer spending has contravened the break-even rules of FFP.
“PSG is a habitual offender and has been violating UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations for years,” Tebas added.
“It is important that UEFA doesn’t just look at the most recent player transfers, but at PSG’s history of non-compliance. The transfers are merely the result of years of financial doping at PSG,” he said.
The French club signed Neymar from Barcelona for a world record fee of 222 million euros while Manchester City brought in players including Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy for a combined 215 million pounds, more than any other club has spent in a single transfer window.
Manchester City said they had no comment to make about the situation. PSG were not immediately available to respond.
