Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City “continually breach current Financial Fair Play regulations”, according to La Liga. Via a press release published on Wednesday, the organization chaired by Javier Tebas confirmed that it had filed a complaint against the Parisian club “this week”.
To plead its case, the Spanish league hired Juan Branco who had linked up with Barça socios last summer to prevent Lionel Messi from coming to Paris. He already denounced a non-compliance of the club of the capital with regard to the financial constraints established by UEFA. During his career, the 32-year-old lawyer notably defended Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and yellow vest activists. Also an author, Branco is known for an anti-Emmanuel Macron book, “Twilight”, published in 2019.
He was also the defender of the Russian activist Piotr Pavlenski in the case of the sextape of Benjamin Griveaux, former government spokesman. Finally, the Franco-Spanish was indicted for rape at the end of 2021.
Tebas at war with state-backed clubs
La Liga asked the Franco-Spanish lawyer “to take administrative and legal action before the competent French authorities and the European Union as soon as possible”.
In Switzerland, La Liga is studying several “representation options” to investigate “possible conflicts of interest” of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. The latter combines the roles of president of PSG, head of BeIN Sports, leader of the European Club Association and member of the executive committee of UEFA.
Regularly, Javier Tebas stands out with criticism sent to clubs supported by States. According to him, Paris, under the Qatari flag, and Manchester City, owned by a fund from the United Arab Emirates, would divert financial fair play and unbalance sporting and economic competition. La Liga is however towed by highly indebted clubs like Barça or Real Madrid.
