La Liga president Javier Tebas has confirmed that he will criticise Manchester United in the same way that he has previously criticised Paris Saint-Germain if Qatari banking Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani is successful in his quest to takeover the club from the Glazer family.
Al Thani, who is a relatively unknown character, submitted a bid to purchase the sale of Manchester United almost a fortnight ago. A decision has yet to be made by the Glazers, although it is believed that they will demand as much as £6bn for a complete sale.
The prospect of United becoming a state-owned football club has created a split reaction among the fanbase. A Qatari takeover will also raise questions about multi-club ownership, which is something the powers within football wanted to prevent not long ago.
La Liga chief Tebas has been an outspoken critic of PSG’s model and he has admitted that he will repeat everything he has previously said if United are taken over by Al Thani this year.
“Everything I have always said about PSG I will have to repeat,” Tebas told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, as per The Express. “What shouldn’t really happen is they come up with fake sponsorships or structures over the clubs so expenses can be dealt with creatively – not within the arena of football.
“We have seen inflated sponsorship, then you create a structure. This is a little bit dangerous and we have to pay attention. In the case of Manchester United, the purchaser knows that it has to pay for the takeover and the losses.”
This will not only cause a stir in the football world, but also within our very own fanbase. It brings up the uncomfortable conversation that is sportswashing, but the Premier League has played a blind eye to that in the past, so why would it be any different now?
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questions should be asked due to the nature of a state owning a football club – as tebas says, they get creative and the powers that be do nothing about it – lets see what the Premier League really does to Man City after their many years of ‘creative accounting’ – cheating.
also i hate to be that guy but the term sportswashing is pretty racist. Apparently only white americans are allowed to see the investment opportunities of owning premier league football clubs.
If PL clubs end up being owned by majority americans (which it certainly is on trend to be) – can that not be considered sportswashing by the americans – and I dont want to get into a political debate but the USA isn’t exactly loved globally either. How come muslims sportswash but white americans are investors?
Interesting that the La Liga president raises questions about other leagues financial controls whilst remaining totally silent about the “creative accounting” practiced by Barcelona and Real Madrid. For many years Real Madrid were backed by the Spanish royal family and state owned banks without any questions.
La liga is the worst in terms of creative accounting, we all remember Real Madrid selling their stadium to the municipality to get funds to finance transfers, all of 200 million which was huge them day’s