Tebas hits out at City and PSG’s funding

JAVIER Tebas has spoken publicly again about the European Super League and the financial state of European football.

So, naturally, he’s taken another swipe at City and Paris SaintGermain’s ownership, describing their financial model as ‘economic doping.’

Tebas is a long-term critic of the Blues ever since their takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008 and their rapid rise in European football since. Similarly, he directs plenty of criticism at Qatari-owned PSG, and was a vocal supporter of UEFA’s charges against City for ‘serious breaches’ of Financial Fair Play regulations in 2020 that were later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

City’s involvement in the failed European Super League plot was, therefore, bound to draw criticism from Tebas, with the plan a direct threat to Spanish football.

Although City and most other teams quickly withdrew, some are still trying to make it happen.

Tebas, though, has made his feelings quite clear on the subject, and spoke about the ESL at the Social Football Summit in Rome this week.

“It’s stupid. It would have fuelled the problems of European football and would not have solved anything,” he said.

“It would have worsened the economic consequences by reducing the income of national competitions. In Spain alone, we would have lost 1.9bn euros because of the Superleague.”

He continued: “It is not normal that a sovereign fund, such as that of Qatar, can act in an unlimited way in continually injecting money.

“This creates market inflation and allows clubs in debt to compete with others despite significant losses.

“What PSG and City are doing is economic doping.”