Paris St. Germain's multi-million deal with star striker Kylian Mbappé continues to cause trouble. Spain's league boss even senses fraud and criminals at work. DFL supervisory boss Watzke recognizes a special trick with which state-controlled clubs "hit properly".
Javier Tebas now even sees criminals at work. "It is impossible that there was no cheating," said the head of the Spanish league association LFP, who still cannot calm down almost two weeks after Kylian Mbappé's multi-million deal was completed: "We will not allow any club to damage the ecosystem of the club destroying European football."
Which club Tebas accuses of cheating is an open secret. After all, the LFP letter of complaint to the European Football Union (UEFA), which Tebas says is as good as written, is about the business conduct of his new favorite Paris St. Germain enemies. The French champions surprisingly outperformed the Spanish Champions League winners Real Madrid in the bidding war for their world champion Mbappé. The star striker's signature on the contract extension until 2025 is said to have cost around 300 million euros.
The LFP and Real therefore accuse the Qatari owners of PSG of violating UEFA's financial sustainability rules. From the Spaniards' point of view, after a loss of more than 220 million euros in the 2020/21 season, twelve months later the French capital club cannot be able to handle the volume of the Mbappé contract in the permitted manner.
"Deep down, we don't care who the owner is, whether it's a state or not, the problem is the attitude of the owners," Tebas said. "There's no limit for them, losses don't matter. They cheat with sponsorship contracts with state-related companies - that's the problem." Tebas, Real and Spanish media had already accused UEFA of a lack of consistency in enforcing their financial regulations shortly after Mbappé's contract extension on the Seine was announced. However, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin recently rejected this.
"Whoever breaks the rules will be punished," the Slovenian told the BBC last week. "Neither Real Madrid nor anyone else can dictate to UEFA what to do." At the same time, Čeferin vented his anger at the stigmatization of state-sponsored clubs: "Give me an argument why you can't own a club. I'm tired of baseless accusations."
The different viewpoints in the Mbappé Zoff are hardly surprising. Čeferin still resents Real for being one of the initiators of the initially failed Super League. Unlike the Spaniards, PSG were not involved. Tebas, on the other hand, would have loved to see Mbappé in Spain to further push the marketing of his league.
Meanwhile, the protagonists of the German Football League (DFL) can only watch in disbelief. "Such sums, if they are correct, are difficult for many people to bear," said DFL supervisor Hans-Joachim Watzke about the Mbappé deal. According to Watzke, the corona status still applies with regard to finances, “in which every club can do almost whatever it wants”. The so-called "sustainability" runs "without waiting with sanctions again until 2025". But then there are "crystal clear penalties". Until then, however, it would be "tempting for state-controlled clubs to really strike again". Much to Tebas' annoyance.
