Football
John Brewin, ESPN FC 7y

PSG, Neymar 'peeing' in the 'swimming pool' - La Liga president Javier Tebas

MANCHESTER -- La Liga president Javier Tebas has continued his attack on Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City for what he called "financial doping," saying Neymar and PSG were "peeing" in the "swimming pool" by completing a world-record €222 million move from Barcelona.

Speaking in Manchester at the Soccerex conference, Tebas suggested that PSG had mocked UEFA's financial fair play (FFP) regulations by completing that deal and the loan of Kylian Mbappe from Monaco, which is set to become a €180m deal next summer.

Tebas said: "PSG are laughing at FFP, aren't they? What we have done is caught them peeing in the bed, or the swimming pool. Neymar's gone on the diving board and now he's peed. We cannot accept this.

"This is when the football clubs have competitive advantage not coming from the club itself. PSG and Manchester City and in the past from Chelsea."

Tebas last month requested to UEFA that both PSG and Manchester City be investigated for benefiting from "state-aid" from Qatar and Abu Dhabi respectively.

An investigation into PSG has been announced, but UEFA confirmed this week that no investigation is being carried out into Manchester City.

"They have not said they will never have one," Tebas said. "We still have hope. They [UEFA] have created the financial fair play rules and we think these rules have been infringed.

"We believed UEFA need to carry out investigations. We believed the EU need to investigate, too. We are not hiding what we want to do.

"It's not that I don't like PSG. If Neymar had gone to Man United, it wouldn't have been as important to take this to the courts. They are not financial doping.

"What happens when this money coming into PSG and Man City comes into European football, there is an inflation of salaries and transfer fees. This is what we need to talk about."

Tebas' remarks prompted a strong response from City, a club not known for conducting arguments in public.

In a statement, a City spokeswoman said: "We note the public comments made by Mr. Tebas today and earlier this week.

"UEFA's statement of the 4th of September is clear and based on accurate information. By contrast, Mr. Tebas' statements are ill-informed and in parts pure fiction.

"As you would expect, Manchester City Football Club and the City Football Group are seeking appropriate legal counsel and will act accordingly on that advice.''

The comment about UEFA is a reference to the governing body's statement that City, unlike PSG, are not under an FFP investigation.

Both clubs were sanctioned for breaching the spending rules in 2014, when UEFA hit them with fines and placed limits on the size of their squads for European football in subsequent seasons.

The main issue for City at the time was that some of their commercial deals were found to be above market value but they are widely believed to have complied with FFP fairly comfortably since then, largely thanks to their rising status in the game and the Premier League's huge TV deals.

The French Professional Football League (LFP) has also criticised Tebas for his outspoken comments on Neymar's world-record transfer to PSG.

"The Ligue de Football Professionnel strongly condemns the insulting remarks made by the president of LaLiga, Mr Javier Tebas, concerning Paris Saint-Germain," the statement read.

"These unworthy remarks do not live up to an institution as respectable and efficient as La Liga.

"The LFP recalls that only UEFA is empowered to rule on compliance with the rules of Financial Fair Play by PSG.

"The Bureau of the LFP has reaffirmed its support for Paris Saint-Germain in the face of the campaign of denigration that has been going on for several weeks by some major European clubs."

Press Association contributed to this report.

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