Tebas Reacts to Manchester City Verdict: 114 of 115 Breaches Proven

Javier Tebas has responded to the ruling shaking the Premier League. The LaLiga president took to social media to address the verdict in which an independent commission found 114 of the 115 financial breaches brought against Manchester City to be proven, a case that has shaped his message on the sustainability of European football for almost a decade.

• An independent Premier League commission has reportedly proven 114 of 115 financial breaches by Manchester City.
• Tebas recalls his September 2017 warnings about the model used by Manchester City and PSG at Soccerex in Manchester.
• He criticizes the 2020 CAS ruling that overturned UEFA's European ban on the English club.
• Manchester City once dismissed his 2017 comments as "ill-informed" and "pure fiction" and threatened legal action.
• The final sanction has not yet been announced and the process remains ongoing.

What Tebas Said About Manchester City and PSG in 2017

The president of Spain's football association traces this battle back to September 2017, during an appearance at Soccerex in Manchester. There he spoke for the first time about what he called financial doping in European football, focusing on clubs whose economic capacity did not come solely from their ordinary activity but from the backing of enormous external resources.

Tebas pointed directly at Manchester City and PSG, highlighting sponsorship deals whose valuation he considered far removed from market reality. His warning included the consequences that model could have across the entire ecosystem: inflated wages, transfer fees and costs that other clubs would ultimately have to bear as well.

That speech came at a price. Manchester City publicly dismissed his comments as "ill-informed" and "pure fiction", and even announced it was considering legal action against him. Tebas admits it was unpleasant and that it would not be the last time defending certain positions brought him threats, criticism and trouble.

The 2020 UEFA Sanction and the CAS Decision

The next chapter came in 2020, when UEFA banned Manchester City from its competitions for two seasons and fined the club 30 million euros. European football's governing body concluded that serious breaches of financial control rules had occurred, including issues related to the reporting of certain sponsorship income.

However, in July of that year the Court of Arbitration for Sport lifted the exclusion. Some of the conduct was considered time-barred and other elements were not sufficiently proven to the required standard. The court did maintain that the club had breached its duty to cooperate with UEFA's investigation and confirmed a financial penalty, reduced to 10 million euros.

I never shared that strange ruling. For me it marked a before and after in the credibility of CAS as an independent arbitration body in sport.

For Tebas, that decision was profoundly wrong and extraordinarily damaging to the credibility of European football's economic control system. He also considers it difficult to reconcile with an essential principle: the same rules must apply to everyone.

Why Financial Control Is Not Bureaucracy for LaLiga

The Spanish executive insists that recalling his 2017 intervention is not about saying "I told you so". He argues that this story explains a battle he has been fighting for many years. Economic sustainability is not bureaucracy, financial control is not a whim, and defending the idea that clubs should compete mainly with the resources they can generate does not mean being against any particular club.

Tebas frames his position as the defense of a model. A system in which sporting success does not depend on who has the most powerful financial backing behind them, but on who manages better, generates more resources, builds better teams and respects the same rules as everyone else. It is a stance that, he acknowledges, has cost him plenty of criticism and more than a few headaches.

What the Premier League Ruling Means for Manchester City

Almost nine years after those words at Soccerex, an independent Premier League commission has reportedly found 114 of the 115 financial breaches brought against Manchester City to be proven. There is still a long road ahead: the sanction has yet to be announced and the process is not over.

For Javier Tebas, what has happened once again demonstrates why economic control, transparency and equal rules for all are essential to protect the integrity and sustainability of football. Principles he says he will continue to defend, just as he did in 2017.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Manchester City Case and Tebas