LaLiga president Javier Tebas admits he has “denounced” Manchester City to UEFA and is now keenly observing whether an independent panel will find the club guilty following 115 charges for breaches of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules.
Tebas was one of the most vocal critics of Manchester City when they were banned from Europe in 2020 for what UEFA called “serious breaches” of Financial Fair Play for the period 2012-2016. But City, who have always stressed their innocence, quickly went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and got this overturned, and their €30m fine was also reduced to €10m.
The appeals panel overturned the ban because the alleged breaches were either “not established” or time-barred. However, CAS said City showed a “blatant disregard” for UEFA’s investigation, something that irked Tebas.
“There is no denying there have been many irregularities,” said Tebas, speaking to Caught Offside in Saudi Arabia where he is visiting for the Club World Cup which Manchester City are favourites to win. “We already denounced these to UEFA. We don’t yet know what the decision from the Premier League’s case against the club will be, but Manchester City were already sanctioned by UEFA once, yet due to a formal defect they appealed at CAS.
“I don’t know the Premier League rules exactly so I can’t comment on how Manchester City should be punished if found guilty, but we already said what we think to UEFA.”
Tebas is currently in Jeddah and working closely with Saudi authorities. LaLiga recently announced Visit Saudi as a partner and they are exploring opening a new Saudi office in 2024.
Yet back in 2020 Tebas told reporters in London that Saudi’s sports project is “whitewashing” and accused the government of being part of the pirate network channel ‘beoutQ’, which stole LaLiga games along with other high-profile sports rights from Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports.
“The Saudi Arabian government has a policy whereby they improve the image of the government through sport, whitewashing their image,” said Tebas back then. “European football rights – including Newcastle rights – were stolen systematically by beoutQ for three years. Now the Saudis want a seat at the top table – forgetting the damage they have done through BeoutQ.”
Yet Tebas has now been won over, having visited Saudi and met with senior officials at the Ministry of Sport to further understand the strategy in place.
“I said that [Saudi Arabia was using sport to ‘whitewash’] three years ago in London and back then I didn’t know enough about Saudi Arabia and their plans,” he said. “Now, I have changed my mind and seen great progress in Saudi. I have changed my mind generally about Saudi because the country has been changing a lot. It’s more open now and it would be a huge error not to change my opinion about Saudi as a result.”
Tebas doesn’t view the ambitious Saudi Pro League as a threat, even though LaLiga lost some high-profile names last summer, including Karim Benzema, Franck Kessie, Yassine Bono, Yannick Carrasco and Gabri Veiga.
Instead, the 61-year-old, who was re-elected as LaLiga president this week for a fourth term after standing unopposed, wants to foster a two-way relationship with Saudi Arabia in the lead up to the 2034 World Cup in the Kingdom.
“In the future there will be more Spanish footballers playing in Saudi Arabia because the league is becoming more competitive,” predicted Tebas. “And that will also help improve the standard of local players. And there will eventually be Saudi players in LaLiga, but this won’t happen overnight.
“There are many Saudi players of a high level that can one day come to Spain, and by playing in LaLiga they will further improve their level and that will also be of benefit to the Saudi national team. We are already working with the Saudi Ministry of Sport.”
Tebas argues the Saudi Pro League project is working with not against FIFA and can thus benefit other leagues and clubs. That’s in stark contrast to the proposed European Super League which he remains fiercely critical of.
On December 21, 15 judges from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will release their ruling on whether FIFA and UEFA’s ‘monopoly’ of European club competitions is anti-competitive. Should the European Super League organisers win the case they argue they will have a legal mandate to proceed with the project and several clubs will come forward in support. But Tebas, who is also a lawyer, doesn’t think next week’s ruling will be entirely black and white.
Real Madrid and Barcelona both remain firmly in favour of the European Super League and, interestingly, A22 Sports Management (promoters of the project) are founded by Anas Laghrari and John Hahn – two bankers with links to both clubs.
“Regarding the decision, one way or another [Real Madrid president] Florentino Perez always wins, and he started working on this project in 2003,” said Tebas, who also revealed he is a Real Madrid fan. “The result might be very good for him. For me, depending on the verdict, it may not be a very good result, but it will always be fine for Mr. Perez because he never loses. He will probably make a positive statement regardless of what the ruling says.
“As a lawyer, I think the sentence will be long. Yet regardless of the result, and if it’s not 100 percent beneficial for Mr. Perez, he will find something favourable in the long ruling. But my own view on the European Super League hasn’t changed. Before I have said it was created in a bar on the back of a napkin at four in the morning… now I think maybe they did it at six in the morning!”
Tebas is certainly never afraid to share his opinion, and at 61 is still enjoying championing innovation and financial sustainability within LaLiga, whose financial controls are far stricter than the Premier League. He remains invested in LaLiga, and is now guaranteed four more years as president, but with Saudi dealmakers recruiting top stars both on and off the field, is Tebas tempted by a move to the Middle East?
“Yes,” he laughed. “I like challenging projects. LaLiga is also a challenging project. I would accept a job to be the Saudi Pro League president!”
