By John Essien
Spanish La Liga has filed a complaint to UEFA against Paris St Germain and Manchester City over alleged Financial Fair Play violations.
It is understood that the Spanish league lodged the complaint following City’s purchase of Norwegian forward Erling Haaland from Dortmund.
The English champions signed Haaland on a contract that reportedly could cost them over 300 million euros ($313 million), including his salary, agent fees and bonuses.
Last month, La Liga President Javier Tebas had reacted angrily and threatened to take legal action against PSG after Kylian Mbappe snubbed a move to Real Madrid at the 11th hour.
“It is scandalous that a club like PSG, which last season reported losses of more than 220 million euros ($232.32 million) after accumulating losses of more than 700 million euros in prior seasons … with a squad cost around 650 million for this season, can close such an agreement,” La Liga said at the time.
This is not the first time that La Liga has filed complaints against “state owned clubs” PSG and Manchester City.
In 2017 and 2018, La Liga had also filed complaints against the two clubs over breach of financial fair play rules, leading to sanctions by UEFA. However, City and PSG lodged appeals with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who ruled in the two clubs’ favour, a decision the Spanish league called “strange”.
PSG is owned by the state-run Qatar Sports Investments, while City is under Abu Dhabi ownership.
