As I wrote in my just released book “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” one of the biggest and boldest Manchester City critics out there is La Liga President Javier Tebas. He feels, as do many others that Man City are not competing financially on a playing field level with everyone else in football.
“I have criticized what they do so many times,” Tebas said in late 2020 as City pursued Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi yet again, as they are understood to be doing now as well.
“Doing it one more time makes no difference. City is neither affected by COVID or pandemics or anything because they are financed differently and it is impossible to fight against that.”
Tebas took a shot at Man City, and their pursuit of Messi, once again today, stating that it would be “financial doping” if Manchester’s second club were to sign the Argentine galactico of all galacticos to a deal similar to the terms he received on his last Barca deal, which just expired at the end of last month.
Messi is currently a free agent, but he is expected to stay with the Catalan Club. In order to do so, the Camp Nou must first do some cost shedding, in order to make sure that he complies with the Financial Fair Play regulations in place so that he can register for the season.
“Exactly,” Tebas responded, during a conference call with English media, when asked if Messi would have to take a big pay cut in order to stay with Barca.
“He won’t be able to sign on the previous conditions, that’s impossible. But I don’t think any European club would be able to pay that amount.”
Last summer, when City’s UEFA ban for allegedly violating Financial Fair Play rules got overturned, Tebas also threw a verbal barb at City, and the other only state-owned club in football, Paris Saint-Germain.
“We all know what City do,” Tebas said.
“When they were punished [by UEFA originally], there was no surprise among the majority of us involved in European football.
“I don’t want to say [people were] happy, but at last there was a sense of justice against these big state-owned clubs, the other being Paris Saint-Germain,” Tebas said.
Tebas hit the nail on the head, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are on a different plane than everyone else. Of course, La Liga/Spanish football has also had plenty of corruption issues itself, but this is an entirely different animal with City and PSG.
Today, he was once again putting City and PSG on notice, and in a very strong fashion.
“City have lost €270m [during the pandemic] so obviously they wouldn’t even consider signing Messi [on his previous salary],” the La Liga boss continued.
“PSG have had losses, too, so they can’t even consider signing Messi [for that much].
“If they do, it will be financial doping. It would be incredible if it happened. We need to establish limits. Financial doping is damaging football.”
“It’s not real money because it’s not generated by the clubs. Money not from football causes bad inflation and ruins football because clubs must put in all this effort [to compete], which takes them above their financial capacity.
“We have to fight against this. This is one of the pending issues in European football. If it’s not solved, the game will find itself in a very complicated situation.”
He’s right, and this is a major topic of discussion, worthy of a deep dive at another space and time.
As it stands right now, PSG is running away with this summer transfer window; they are “winning” by some margin. But to be fair, they are getting it done with mostly Bosman (free) transfers.
Meanwhile City have yet to make a big splash signing this summer, but they have been linked with moves for Harry Kane and Jack Grealish, in addition to Messi.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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