At the Football Business Conference held by the Financial Times last Thursday in Spain, La Liga President - Javier Tebas accused Man City of trying to circumvent financial fairness by covering up the costs of affiliated companies with commercial business. Tebas described Man City's case as having many details similar to the famous Enron accounting scandal in 2001.
Tebas said that La Liga has filed a complaint against Man City's case with the European Commission (EC) since July 2023. The 62-year-old president said that the EC is still investigating the incident and will have a final answer in the near future. When receiving this information, Man City temporarily declined to comment.
The reason for this complaint from La Liga is that the EC has a regulation prohibiting companies operating in the European Union (EU) from receiving money from abroad to distort the domestic market. Tebas said that although Man City no longer has any companies operating in the EU, they are playing in European tournaments, affected and having an impact on the EU commercial market.
Tebas said this at a Financial Times meeting after receiving questions about Man City's troubles with the Premier League over the relevant party transaction rules (APT).
"What worries me is not the APT, it is companies outside the City Football Group ( Man City's parent company). This is the place that provides money to pay for the expenses of this team. They have a scouting company and a marketing company. These are places that have very high costs. They made a bill for the team with less money. Since then, Man City have had less to spend than when they did not have this group of companies.
All they are doing is finding ways to avoid rules and regulations. We have reported this to the European Union, along with events and data - Tebas shared.
The reason La Liga filed the complaint is because they believe Manchester City is being subsidized "not transparently" by companies and financial funds based in Abu Dhabi. These companies have a close relationship with the owners of Sheikh Mansour club. Mr. Sheikh is also Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
After that, Tebas compared Manchester City's behavior to the case of energy company Enron. This US-based enterprise filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after receiving reports of widespread internal fraud over many years. This was the largest bankruptcy in the history of US businesses at that time, leading to the collapse of Enron.
Tebas said that La Liga had previously filed a complaint about a similar incident against Paris Saint-Germain, citing Qatari owners as having distorted the EU market through inflated sponsorship contracts with domestic companies. La Liga also filed a complaint about the incident in August 2023 but have not received any further response.
When asked if La Liga is concerned about Newcastle United, a team in which the Saudi Arabian National Investment Fund holds a majority stake? Tebas said that this English team has not done anything to the point of being able to complain.
