By Andrew Warshaw
September 7 – Like him or loathe him, it’s hard to ignore Javier Tebas when he is speaking his mind. Critics may accuse the Spanish league boss of being a publicity seeker but his comments at this week’s Soccerex sports business conference in Manchester, when he took to the podium with all guns blazing to attack those he accused of “financial doping”, was not some ill-thought-out rant.
It was inevitable that Manchester City would defend their position in the wake of Tebas’ allegations that they and Paris St Germain were distorting the market by spending more money on players than most other clubs could shake a stick at.
Yet Tebas has a strong point, one which your average football fan might relate to. That point is this: where do you draw the line in terms of what is fair and unfair, right and proper, when it comes to splashing untold amounts of glory-hunting cash? Someone, argued Tebas, has to be held to account.
It was a theme he further explored in a subsequent media briefing when he questioned the whole rationale of how UEFA is conducting financial fair play and why it has little effect on bridging the gap between the haves and have-nots.
It was simply no good, said Tebas, for UEFA to take years investigating a club’s compliance before coming to a verdict. By then, he contended, the horse has already bolted and the damage done in terms of everyone else suffering from unfair competition.
Tebas insists he has nothing against PSG. Or Manchester City for that matter. His beef is that the two clubs rely on unrealistic sponsorships fuelled by Middle East oil and gas revenues from Qatar and Abu Dhabi in their thirst for success rather than monies generated from within football.
“If Abu Dhabi and Qatar are behind PSG and Man City, that by itself is not a problem. The problem is when commercial income to cover their costs is not real. When sponsorships are above market price, that’s financial doping. The contracts don’t reflect true market income. What then happens is that clubs who don’t have state sponsorship need more money to compete.”
Tebas is mystified as to why UEFA reduced sanctions meted out three years ago to PSG and City after apparently taking the view that both clubs had made a sufficient effort to comply with FFP. UEFA recently announced they were having a second look at PSG’s dealings following the eye-watering acquisition of Neymar for a world record €222 million and the almost certain purchase of the (currently on loan) Kylian Mbappe next year for what will be another monstrous fee.
Tebas takes the view that UEFA let both clubs off the hook too soon.
“It was some strange agreement that was not made public,” he charged. “We sent a letter of complaint at the time but what have UEFA done since in terms of paying sufficient attention to PSG and City? If they’d taken a proper look, they would have sanctioned them already again. You have to stop these problems before they happen. I don’t think fines and reduction of squad sizes is sufficient. Teams that use financial doping have played for an entire year. That’s unfair on the victims who play by the rules.
“I’m not looking to kick anyone out of European competition but the rules are there. We have to stop this situation because if we don’t do anything, it might be PSG and Man City today but tomorrow it could be the Sheikh of Bahrain, someone from Malaysia or a Russian oligarch.”
There is, of course, already a Russian oligarch owner in top-flight football in the shape of Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. “What he used to do was not right either,” says Tebas, “but he’s settled down. Even he realised (the inflated spending) couldn’t go on. But states can’t say that. They just turn on the oil and gas.”
Strong words but words that perhaps reflect what many fans feel about the worst excesses of foreign ownership. And Tebas is not alone. Still stung at being outmanoeuvred by PSG over Neymar’s transfer, Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu echoed the same sentiments.
“The market is inflated by the money that does not come from football, it comes from somewhere else. Something has to be done,” Bartomeu said in an interview published in Spain. “Qatar and Abu Dhabi, two countries that have two clubs. If Bayern, Manchester United, Real Madrid or Arsenal buy a player off of you, you know where the money has come from but these [other] clubs distort the market.”
So far Tebas has restricted his official protests about financial doping to UEFA. But if nothing is done? “If we see that there is no future, we will take it to the competition authorities in Brussels and, after that, potentially the courts.”
Some might argue that the situation in Tebas’ native Spain is hardly transparent, with all manner of dodgy land deals and both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the world’s two most famous players, embroiled in tax cases. Tebas isn’t afraid to address this.
“If Spanish clubs have behaved improperly, they need to be punished. But let me remind you that we have gone as far in the past as to relegate teams. As far as Ronaldo and Messi are concerned, I’m not making excuses but in both cases it’s not about money they have received from their clubs. In the case of Ronaldo… it is about income that was not earned within Spain. With Messi, no-one believes he really knew what he was signing. But I agree it’s not healthy for Spanish football and hurts us.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734983782labto1734983782ofdlr1734983782owedi1734983782sni@w1734983782ahsra1734983782w.wer1734983782dna1734983782