CITY CASH FURY
Club threaten to sue La Liga chief for ‘cooking books’ slur
MANCHESTER CITY have threatened to sue the president of the Spanish league following incendiary claims that included accusations of ‘cooking the books’.
City have five players on loan at La Liga club Girona, in which they have a 44 per cent stake. La Liga chief Javier Tebas claimed the five, signed for more than £20million, had been valued at far less by Girona to get round financial rules.
Asked whether the books had been cooked, Tebas replied: ‘They were trying to but they didn’t manage to do it.’
Furious City responded by calling Tebas ‘ill-informed’ and speaking ‘ pure fiction’ in a strongly worded statement. They have already contacted their lawyers and ‘will act accordingly’.
Tebas bracketed City along with Paris SaintGermain for allegedly breaching Financial Fair Play regulations and accepting unfair state aid. He intends to take both clubs to court if UEFA don’t take appropriate action.
He said PSG and Neymar, whom they signed for £198m, had been caught ‘peeing in the swimming pool’. He added: ‘They’re laughing at the system. Neymar’s gone on the diving board and he’s peed from the diving board.’
MANCHESTER City hit back last night at accusations by the president of La Liga that they had been helping cook the books at Spanish club Girona.
A bizarre day of claim and counter-claim was sparked by Spanish football chief Javier Tebas shooting from the hip through an interpreter over alleged breaches of finance rules by City and Paris Saint-Germain.
Much to City’s fury, Tebas bracketed them with the Qatar-backed French club, who signed Neymar for £198million.
Tebas, who claims he will take both clubs to court if UEFA don’t instigate action against them, said: ‘They are laughing at the system, aren’t they? With Neymar to PSG, what we have done is caught them peeing in the bed or in the swimming pool. Neymar’s gone on the diving board and now he’s peed from the diving board. We can’t accept this.’
But the biggest waves were made by Tebas himself with his claims of malpractice by City at Girona, where they have five players on loan after recently taking a 44 per cent stake in the La Liga club.
Tebas claimed thatt the five — Douglas Luiz, Larry Kayode, Marlos Moreno, Aleix Garcia and Pablo Maffeo — whoo were bought for a total of over £20m, had been valued at far less on Girona’s books regarding their salaries and loan fees.
La Liga clubs are restricted in what they can spend, depending on the total worth of the players on their books, their salaries and associated expenses.
City say Girona paid no loan fees for the players and the Spanish club were paying their wages.
Tebas said: ‘We’re closely monitoring the books of Girona and their financial reporting. Girona put the five players who were being loaned from Manchester City on the books for a certain amount of money, which we didn’t believe was a real amount of money in terms of their salaries.
‘So we made them put them on the books for a higher value. On the books, it looked like these players were essentially almost free. They were too low and we increased them.
‘It would be unfaithful competition within the Spanish league if Girona were able to report these players in such a way. If the five players from Manchester City are worth one euro each, they can put in a whole bunch of those players.’
Asked whether the books had been cooked, Tebas replied: ‘They were trying to but they didn’t manage to do it.’
The wording of City’s statement and the treat of immediate legal action — both unusual for the club — demonstrated the strength of feeling at the club over the claims and the comparison to PSG.
It read: ‘We note the public comments made by Mr Tebas today and earlier this week. UEFA’s statement of September 4 [saying City are not under investigation] is clear and based on accurate information. By contrast, Mr Tebas’s statements are ill-informed and in parts pure fiction. As you would expect, Manchester City are seeking appropriate legal counsel and will act accordingly.’
The suggestion that Tebas couldn’t be relied on to tell the truth was supported by the fact that the Spaniard went to the Etihad Stadium to have a scheduled meeting with City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano despite having announced at the Soccerex Global Convention that they would be meeting in a ‘few days or weeks’. He said: ‘I had a meeting planned with Ferran Soriano in June in New York. The meeting didn’t happen because of a family issue but I’m going back to talk to him and state everything clearly to him in the next few days or weeks.’
Instead, there was a frosty summit with Soriano just a couple of hours later.
And with the City chief already armed with Tebas’s comments at Soccerex, the Spaniard fell back on the excuse that he had been misquoted by the press.
City insist that they are not under investigation, as UEFA have officially stated, but Tebas said: ‘Not at the moment, but we are expecting they should start looking into it shortly.
‘We are taking this as far as possible because we fear that this can have a really bad impact on football and the structure of football. There has to be a fundamental change within UEFA so it doesn’t happen in the future.’
Tebas says he will be going to the competition authorities in Brussels and then the courts. City believe he has already made a complaint to the European Parliament and got nowhere.
Like everything to do with Javier Tebas, nothing is quite what it seems. And on this occasion City, despite their previous FFP violation, look to have more of a legal case against Tebas than he has against them.