When it comes to murky water, Spain’s big two make a splash

Complaints about PSG and City from the La Liga president ring rather hollow when compared to Real Madrid and Barcelona’s financial practices

Given that Neymar has rented the former Paris home of the bibulous actor Gerard Depardieu, who once relieved himself in a bottle on a flight to that same city, the phrase “peeing in the swimming pool” seemed apposite for Spanish football’s latest onslaught on the new money in the European game.

This was the Spanish league president Javier Tebas, at Soccerex in Manchester, turning his guns upon Paris St-germain and Manchester City in the righteous rage of a man who feels the transfer window pre-eminence of his two biggest paymasters slipping for the first time. On this occasion he was talking about PSG and their Financial Fair Playbusting summer and one supposes that the pool he had in mind was of the infinity variety, with Paris’s skyline shimmering in the distance and an attendant on hand to change the water immediately.

Rattled? Tebas certainly sounded it, with a promise to pursue a civil case against City and PSG should Uefa fall short. Of course, there is the matter of the two illegal state-aid decisions adopted against Real Madrid by the European Commission in the past five years, and another against Barcelona last summer but this, Tebas decided, was a sideshow compared to the despoiling of the water by the new boys.

The fine for the illegal state-aid case found against the big two by the Commission over a 1990 Spanish law that gave them tax privileges has not yet been set, although there are independent audits seen by The Daily Telegraph that it could rise as high as €100million (£91million) for Real Madrid. The corrupt land deal that saw Real Madrid have to pay back €18.4million to the Madrid city council has also been welldocumented, but what else is bothering Tebas?

For Real Madrid, the first team to defend the Champions League title, and out on their own with 12 all-time European Cups, the problems on the pitch look less pressing. They have the best team in Europe but they, and Barcelona, have been usurped as the major players in a transfer market they have dominated for most of the 21st century, the long-term consequences of which are not yet clear. Madrid have shrewdly built a team of the best young Spanish talent and have a manager, Zinedine Zidane, who has found a way of blending it as harmoniously as any of his recent predecessors. Even so, Madrid, Europe’s biggest spenders in the past, emerged from the transfer window with a net profit of about €30million having gone into it as the favourites to break the world transfer record for Kylian Mbappe.

As for Barcelona, the summer has been disastrous, combining the sale of Neymar, missed transfer targets and an alarming disconnect with the senior players in the dressing room. It is remarkable that in an English summer which centred upon Arsenal’s contract mismanagement that left so many with a single year on their deals, Barcelona find themselves in the same position with the world’s greatest footballer.

Lionel Messi will, in all likelihood, never leave Barcelona but equally he seems in no rush to sign a new contract. To do so now would be to endorse the board, which appears to be completely at odds with its leading players.

While Barcelona threatened to sue Neymar over his PSG move, the players appeared to be holding a barbecue in his honour, and their heartfelt, social media tributes contrasted starkly with the attitude of the president, Josep Bartomeu.

Yesterday, Andres Iniesta flatly denied Bartomeu’s claim that he had signed a new deal, a claim similar to the president’s insistence that Messi’s deal was virtually agreed. It is hard to see these two leaving the club of their lives now even if, at 30, Messi is still young enough to do so. Nonetheless, if the transfer window felt like a shambles for Barcelona, then the next five months could be even more painful. It is remarkable that Messi would be free to negotiate with another club come January.

The Daily Telegraph has seen EC documents with a case file number that detail “a pending anti-trust investigation” into Real Madrid and Barcelona related to their lossmaking basketball teams that operate under the clubs’ multisport brand. As shareholders in basketball’s Euroleague, the two clubs have voted for an FFP system that permits the funding of clubs with 65 per cent non-basketball generated income. Their clubs had won the Spanish league three times each in the last six years and the run was only broken last season when Valencia, with no