MADRID – Spain’s La Liga president Javier Tebas said teams in the English Premier League are “financially doped” after they spent a record US$1 billion (S$1.3 billion) in the January transfer window and outspent the rest of Europe’s “big five” leagues by almost four to one.

According to Tebas, the teams in English football’s top division make multi-million dollar losses and Uefa should intervene to enforce financial fair play rules.

When contacted by Reuters, the Premier League said that the figures presented by La Liga were not correct.

Said Tebas: “The British market is a doped market. You can see it clearly in this winter market, where Chelsea have made almost half of the signings in the Premier League.

“Following the history of the last few seasons, we have done some work at La Liga, because the Premier League is a competition that loses billions of pounds in the last few years. And this is financed with contributions from the patrons, in this case large American investors who finance at a loss.”

He pointed out that La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga operated differently.

Said Tebas: “This (clubs making big losses) does not happen in the Spanish league and neither does it happen in the German league, especially those two.

“In our control of economic sustainability, we do not allow contributions to cover losses in these barbaric amounts that are occurring. It is quite dangerous that the markets are doped, inflated, as has been happening in recent years in Europe, because that can jeopardise the sustainability of European football.”

Not that Real Madrid’s former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti is too worried. He said: “I don’t think this will end the competitiveness of European competitions.

“Last year, the Champions League was not won by an English side, nor the Europa League... (but) it’s true, internally, the Premier League will be more competitive and entertaining.”

On Twitter, Tebas shared a video where La Liga’s corporate director Javier Gomez discussed the issue.

“In La Liga, what we are looking for is that clubs spend what they can generate autonomously. Shareholders are allowed to support within certain limits,” said Gomez.

“In the Premier League, it is the opposite. Until June 2021, the Premiership and the Championship had lost €3,000 million (S$4.31 billion), the Spanish La Liga lost €250 million.

“In the same period, the Premier League and Championship shareholders put in €3,500 million, in Spain they put in €450 million.

“They are doping the clubs, they are injecting money that is not generated by the clubs.

“In our opinion, this is cheating because it drags down the rest of the leagues.”

Gomez added that the Spanish league will “fight” for Uefa to restrict shareholders and sanction clubs no matter what league or country they are from.

A Premier League spokesman said that, in the period in question, the losses were around £1 billion (S$1.61 billion), mainly caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with equity injected accounting for £1.6 billion.

In addition, the league’s spokesman said that £10.5 billion in commercial and broadcasting revenue are secured for the next three seasons and the clubs, who adhere to Uefa-aligned controls, show long-term profitability.

A report issued by Fifa in January had highlighted that EPL clubs spent £1.78 billion in the calendar year, with Italian clubs a distant second at £543.6 million.

“While Europe is wondering about the dangers of the Super League, we need to acknowledge that there is already a super league and it makes the rules,” said an editorial in Italy’s Corriere dello Sport. REUTERS, AFP