La Liga wants Man City also to come under UEFA scanner

Bengaluru, September 4: Close on the heels of UEFA's decision to probe Paris Saint- Germain's huge money transfers, the game's governing body in Spain has asked for big-spending Premier League club Manchester City also to be investigated under Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

PSG are owned by Qatar Sports Investment fund while City are under the control of The Abu Dhabi United Group.

Spanish Football League (LFP) called for European football's premier governing body body to look into the two clubs' finances after they each splashed out over 200 million pounds in the last transfer window.

The French club signed Neymar from Barcelona for a world record fee of 222 million euros ($264 million) while Manchester City brought in players including Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy for a combined 215 million pounds, more than any other club has spent in a single transfer window.

"PSG and Man City's funding by state-aid distorts European competitions and creates an inflationary spiral that is irreparably harming the football industry," LFP president Javier Tebas was quoted as saying in the Spanish media on Monday.

La Liga requested that they be investigated in August, saying both clubs have sponsorships which "make no economic sense and lack fair value".

UEFA opened a formal investigation last week into PSG to see if their transfer spending has contravened the break-even rules of FFP.

"PSG is a habitual offender and has been violating UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations for years," Tebas added.

"It is important that UEFA doesn't just look at the most recent player transfers, but at PSG's history of non-compliance. The transfers are merely the result of years of financial doping at PSG," he said.

(With inputs from Agencies).