Manchester City are at the centre of allegations likened to an “Enron” style financial conspiracy. La Liga’s chief executive, Javier Tebas, has taken the Premier League heavyweights to the European Commission and says they are under investigation.
According to Tebas, City have disguised their losses and concealed them within various associated marketing and scouting firms to skew their financial fair play records.
The notorious Enron scandal sent shockwaves through the US as a result of extensive accounting fabrications and bankruptcy filings worth billions.
Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football summit, Tebas exclaimed: “All they do is they think about how they can avoid the rules and regulations. We have reported this to the European Union with facts and figures.
“The UK might not be part of the EU but City have commercial activities in Europe and in July 2023 the EU ruling said that they could look at state-aided companies, whether they are based in the EU or not.
“So we asked for City to be checked. It’s very important that all clubs are subject to the same transparency rules and governance on both the sporting and financial side.
“We haven’t had a reply so it must be under the investigation phase. The City case is one where we believe they have put the losses on the companies that are not officially part of City Football Group.
“You remember the case in the USA, the Enron case. They put losses into different companies. These are similar cases. We also reported City about sponsorship and capital contributions.
“They have a scouting company, a marketing company. That’s where they have very high expenses. They invoice City for less money. City have costs that are less than if they didn’t have this circle of companies around.”
Man City say Tebas has a long history of attacking the club and refused to comment further.
However, they vehemently deny the allegations and point to their publicly available accounts as evidence of their innocence.
This controversy is just the latest in a series of challenges for City, who are currently awaiting the outcome of a Premier League investigation into 115 charges of alleged financial rule breaches. The verdict from the Premier League is expected any day now.
City maintain their innocence and are confident they will clear the club’s name. Should they be found guilty, the Etihad Stadium outfit could face severe sanctions, including a substantial points deduction.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk