La Liga have officially filed a complaint to UEFA against Paris St Germain and Manchester City over alleged violations of the Financial Fair Play rules, the Spanish professional football league has announced.
Javier Tebas, the President of La Liga, had said last month that his organization would seek legal action against the French club after Kylian Mbappe snubbed an expected move to Real Madrid and renewed his contract with PSG until 2025.
They also announced a “further legal action against the European Union, France and Switzerland” justice systems as it understands that “these clubs are continually breaching the current regulations” of financial fair play.
A complaint against Manchester City had been lodged to UEFA in April before La Liga filed another one against PSG last week.
The reason behind the complaints seems to stem from the fact that the Spanish league missed out on the high-profile signings of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe which can have a drastic economic impact on the league on the basis of TV rights, gameday audience, and merchandise sales.
With the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the league is left without world-class names.
The Spanish league also said it was “contemplating expanding that complaint” against City due to “new data” that has come to light.
Although the statement did not give any specific details, the English champions signed Norway striker Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund on a contract that reportedly could cost them over 300 million euros ($313 million), including his salary, agent fees, and bonuses.
Mbappe’s contract extension at PSG did not go down well the La Liga either with the league saying PSG’s new offer to Mbappe “attacks the economic stability” of European football.
“It is scandalous that a club like PSG, which last season reported losses of more than 220 million euros ($232.32 million) after accumulating losses of more than 700 million euros in prior seasons … with a squad cost around 650 million for this season, can close such an agreement,” LaLiga said at the time
After months of negotiations with Real Madrid, France international Mbappe ended up staying with the Ligue 1 champions for a reported annual salary of 50 million euros until 2025.
Both Manchester City and PSG are termed as “state-owned clubs” with PSG running under the state-run Qatar Sports Investments, while City is under Abu Dhabi ownership.
Both clubs have already faced sanctions by UEFA but were let off the hook by the Court of Arbitration for Sports.
