Is the Spanish Football throwing a fit? It is reported that the La Liga President asked the UEFA to investigate PSG and Man City. For spending too much money.
News broke over the weekend that the Spanish Football governing body had asked UEFA to look into Paris St Germain and Manchester City, believing the two clubs were in breach of the FFP (Financial Fair Play) rules.
This was later confirmed by the La Liga President, Javier Tebas, who stated that he believed both City, who are backed by Abu Dhabi and PSG, backed by Qatar benefits from state aid. As such, he believes this distorts the market. What he really means by that is the two Spanish giants no longer get their own way.
It shouldn’t be dismissed that both Barcelona and Real Madrid were sponsored by Qatar and Emirates Airlines. Emirates, Madrid’s current sponsor, is a subsidiary of the Emirates Group. The owner? The Dubai Government. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, up until last season, it was Qatar Airways who sponsored them. Again, the state-owned airline.
Now it would be fair to say that these are merely sponsors and not owners of the club. But what about the owners of each club? Florentino Perez is now in his second spell at Madrid and maybe Mr. Tebas has forgotten his first spell. In his previous role as President, the club would pay over the odds in order to get players in demand, similar to what PSG are doing and, to a lesser extent, City.
In 2001 he paid 73 million Euros to bring Zinedine Zidane to ‘Los Galacticos’, which was then a transfer record fee. Not to mention the Frenchman was about to turn 30. The following seasons he oversaw Ronaldo, David Beckham, Michael Owen, and Robinho all move to Madrid for mas dinero!
In fact, of the current top ten biggest transfer fees paid in football history, six belong to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, including the current second highest, Ousmane Dembele. Of that top ten, only one actually left Spain for any club, and that was Neymar.
So what is the real reason for the toys now being thrown out of the pram? Is it because they are genuinely concerned about the way the transfers are going and the money players command? If they were, you would guess they wouldn’t spend 105 million Euros for a guy who just celebrated his 20th birthday. Neither would they have made multiple approaches for Philippe Coutinho if their concern was over an unbalanced environment.
The fact is, after more than a decade of the Spanish giants (mostly Madrid) flooding the market with their Galacticos policy, they are not happy no longer being the big boys on the block.
I would assume it was this summer window started this particular snowball rolling. Why would Neymar, or anyone ever want to leave Barcelona? The Nou Camp? The Trophies? Add to that Messi stalling on his contract. With the hardball played by Liverpool over the Coutinho deal, we may be closer to unraveling this particular onion. And it tastes as it smells, bitter.
Next: Grading every Manchester City transfers
It has to be noted that, as this is being written, the UEFA is investigating neither side is being investigated for their ownership. However, PSG were under an investigation for their overall transfer policy within this window. However, this was before this letter arrived on their desk. While I am not sure of UEFA’s finding in regards the transfers for PSG this time around I do feel quite comfortable that City have little to worry about in this particular matter.