LaLiga president Javier Tebas has defended the importance of 'equal rules for all' in football after Manchester City were found guilty on 114 of 115 Premier League financial breaches, with the sanction still to be determined.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas maintains reports Manchester City have been found guilty on virtually all counts of breaching Premier League financial regulations shows why “equal rules for all” are essential to protect football’s integrity and sustainability.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas(Handout from The Playbook/PA)placeholder image
LaLiga president Javier Tebas(Handout from The Playbook/PA)
News broke on Friday that City had been found guilty on all but one of the 115 charges laid by the Premier League in February 2023, charges the club have always strenuously denied.
Some of the charges date back to the 2009-10 season, since which time City have won multiple major trophies – including the 2023 Champions League.
In 2020, Man City succeeded in overturning a two-year European competition ban from UEFA at the Court of Arbitration, after being found to have breached the governing body’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rule.
Tebas had previously spoken out against “so-called financial doping in European football”.
In a lengthy post on X, Tebas reflected on those statements he had given during the Soccerex event, which had been held in Manchester during September 2017.
Tebas also called the CAS ruling a “deeply misguided decision” which was “extraordinarily damaging to the credibility of European football’s economic control system” and again stressed the same rules must apply to all clubs.
“Economic sustainability is not bureaucracy. Financial control is not a whim,” he said.
“And arguing that clubs should compete fundamentally with the resources they are able to generate doesn’t mean being against any specific club either. It’s about defending a model.
“A model in which sporting success doesn’t depend on who has the most powerful financial backing behind them, but on who manages best, generates more resources, builds better teams, and respects the same rules as everyone else.
“Defending this position has cost me a lot of criticism and not a few headaches. But I still think exactly the same as I did in Manchester in 2017.
“There are principles worth defending, even if they come at a cost. And this one, for me, is one of them.
“Now, almost nine years after those words at Soccerex, an independent Premier League commission has deemed 114 of the 115 financial breaches charged against Manchester City proven, according to the published reports.
“There’s still a way to go. The sanction remains to be known, and the process isn’t over. But what’s happened once again shows why economic control, transparency, and equal rules for all are essential to protect the integrity and sustainability of football.”
“We will keep defending those principles. Just like in 2017.”
Manchester City fan and Oasis star Liam Gallagher posted on X that a source had told him any eventual sanction would amount to a fine and transfer ban.
He wrote: “Just been told by someone in a very, very high position if we lose our appeal which we won’t we’ll be getting a fine and transfer ban and that’s it.”