La Liga boss slams systematic ‘financial doping’

MANCHESTER, England — Qatari-owned French side Paris Saint-Germain is “laughing” at the financial fair play (FFP) system, a combative Javier Tebas, president of Spain’s La Liga, said on Wednesday.

The 55-year-old also warned that if he was not satisfied with UEFA’s response to La Liga’s concerns regarding the lavish spending of both PSG and Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City, he would consider taking his case to Brussels and the European Union.

PSG stunned the soccer world by luring Brazilian superstar Neymar away from Barcelona for a world record $264 million and then took Monaco’s highly-rated French star Kylian Mbappe on loan with an option to buy him for $216 million.

In response, UEFA launched an investigation to see whether the club has broken FPP rules.

Manchester City also spent heavily in the last transfer window, lavishing an estimated $288 million on players — although they unloaded several, too.

“PSG is laughing at the system,” Tebas said at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester, speaking through a translator.

“A Spanish journalist defined it, and I hope I am not being rude, as like they were peeing in the bed or the swimming pool.

“Well, Neymar has gone on to the diving board and peed into the pool — it can’t be tolerated.

“But this is not solely because of Neymar. We at La Liga have fought hard for collective TV rights. We are being destroyed and this is going to damage the industry.”

Tebas has revolutionized La Liga since taking over in 2013, engineering a collective TV rights deal and other measures. He said PSG was simply not paying market prices.

“All PSG has to do is turn on the gas tap,” he said, referring to Qatar’s massive energy reserves. “This is what PSG have been doing for the past four years.”

Tebas called the “financial doping.”

“Teams that use financial doping play for an entire year and can win their league or a European trophy, although some have lost as well.

“So it is not fair to the victims, which are the teams playing by the rules. We have to get a system that is fair to the victims.

“The rules are there on the books, and those rules must be respected.”

Tebas said he was not pushing for PSG or City to be practice banned from European competition.

“We are not looking to kick them out, but if we don’t do anything it will be PSG and Manchester City and then in the future it will be a sheikh from Bahrain, or a Malaysian businessman who will deform the industry.”

He said he took some hope from the fact Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich has “settled down” in his spending.

Tebas said the Spanish league dealt severely with clubs that contravened rules regarding financing.

“We have relegated teams to the second tier for some of those practices and kicked teams out of competitions,” he said.

Barcelona faced criticism for carrying sponsorship from the Qatar Foundation and later Qatar Airways on its shirts, but Tebas argued he was not being “hypocritical” in defending that deal.

“They paid a market price because a non-state company, a Japanese one, then came along and paid more.

“When contracts are not reflecting real market incomes — as in money not derived directly from football — then we take action.”