La Liga president Javier Tebas has launched a fresh attack on English Premier League champions Manchester City.
The Spanish league chief has accused City of ‘financial doping’ in recent years in order to achieve their success – back-to-back Premier League titles and they won all four domestic trophies in England last season.
The outspoken Tebas has been a long-term critic of both City and French champions Paris Saint-Germain – the clubs are owned by individuals with power in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar respectively.
“Manchester City is not competitive exclusively because of audiovisual rights, there's been financial doping in the last few years,” Tebas told reporters, in quotes cited by ESPN.
“I don't see doping with Liverpool, it's not a team with money from a state.”
In an interview with L’Equipe back in 2017, Tebas said: “In the last five years, we've seen PSG and Manchester City have been the clubs that have invested most in players.
“As their real revenues don't allow them to make such investments, they have invented fictitious sponsors, linked to states, with amounts that don't correspond to the market.
“We compared the revenues of PSG and City with those of Real Madrid, Barca, Manchester United and Bayern. They're superior…
“At PSG, the sponsorship revenue is linked to Qatar, directly or indirectly, and is superior to those of Manchester United. PSG is continuing to cheat economically.
“If we let someone who cheats compete, it'll hurt other clubs, if PSG reach the Champions League final and is then punished, it will have harmed other clubs. Those PSG have knocked out will have been cheated.”
Tebas usually courts controversy and is rarely withdrawn in his comments – he is behind the league’s attempts to play a fixture in the United States and has had a long-running feud with the Spanish FA over that issue and several other matters.
