La Liga director laments Premier League clubs 'cheated' after 'barbaric' winter spending

LaLiga business director Javier Gomez has accused the Premier League of 'cheating' after clubs spent $1bn (£815m) in January.

Chelsea were the busiest side in world football during the winter transfer window, spending £296.3million on eight players.

Their deadline to sign Enzo Fernandez was a British record £106.8million, eclipsing Jack Grealish's £100million transfer from Aston Villa to Manchester City in 2021.

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This type of spending has not gone down well with La Liga President Javier Tebas as well as league CEO Javier Gomez.

Tebas has had a lot to say about Premier League club spending over the years, saying last September he would go to UEFA to talk.

And after the conclusion of the January transfer window, Tebas went on another rant.

"The UK market is a boosted market. You can clearly see that in this winter market where Chelsea have made almost half of Premier League signings," Tebas said, as reported by Ben Jacobs.< /p>

"Following the history of the last seasons, we have been working on La Liga because [the Premier League] has lost billions of pounds over the last few years.

"And this is financed by contributions from patrons, in this case large American investors who finance at a loss.

"That doesn't happen in the Spanish league and it doesn't happen in the German league either.

"In our control of economic sustainability, we do not allow contributions to cover losses of these barbaric amounts that occur, and that is what makes the difference in the market.

"We have to recognize that commercially they have a higher turnover than us, but not in the volume of this difference.

"It is quite dangerous that the markets are boosted, inflated, as has happened in recent years...it can jeopardize the sustainability of European football.

"We shouldn't be really obsessed with whether the Premier League is paying much more.

"You have to know the cause, it's a problem. But I'm happy because our clubs are economically viable and that means we have a future for many years to come."

Tebas saying La Liga clubs are 'economically viable' and 'will have a future for many years to come' is quite funny, to be fair. Did he just decide to ignore everything that happened at Barcelona in the last three years?

Gomez went further, accusing the Premier League of 'cheating'.

He said: "We are aware that there is a lot of talk about how the economic control of La Liga means that Spanish clubs sign less than Premier League clubs.

"The reality is that in La Liga we want clubs to spend what they can afford and generate themselves, that is, their own income.

"It is true that shareholders are also allowed to support the club and invest money to spend more than the club itself can generate, but within certain limits.

"Essentially, [in England] they are 'boosting' the club. They are pumping in money not generated by the club to be spent, which jeopardizes the viability of the club should the club leave. shareholder.

"In our opinion, this is cheating, as it drags the rest of the leagues down.

“It is our fight, to demand that UEFA put in place new economic regulations that prevent a club shareholder from paying more than a certain amount and that it enforces this rule and sanctions the non-compliant clubs."

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