Thursday 7 September 2017 07:56, UK
La Liga president Javier Tebas has accused Manchester City and Girona of trying to "cook the books" by undervaluing five players loaned from City to their Spanish stablemate this summer.
Tebas made the comment to reporters at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester, where he also accused City and Paris St Germain of gaining an advantage through their state-backed spending.
He later went to Manchester to meet City chief executive Ferran Soriano to discuss the Girona situation, which has been the subject of ongoing discussions between City's parent company City Football Group and La Liga.
At that meeting, Tebas was warned that City would take legal action if he repeated the claims, although it is understood he denied making them.
Tebas made a series of controversial comments during an on-stage interview at Soccerex, accusing clubs such as City and PSG of 'financial doping'.
UEFA has since opened a case into PSG in the wake of their record-breaking moves for Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, but the governing body has confirmed there is "no investigation into Manchester City".
Tabas later spoke to reporters about City Football Group's purchase of a 44.3 per cent stake in Girona last month, the same stake as City manager Pep Guardiola's brother Pere.
The two clubs were already working together, with City loaning the newly-promoted side five players this summer, while they also played a friendly in Girona last month.
Unusually for Spanish football but in keeping with City's approach to loans, Girona paid no fees for these players - Aleix Garcia, Olarenwaju Kayode, Douglas Luiz, Pablo Maffeo and Marlos Moreno - although they do pay all of their wages.
This represents a problem for the Spanish league's own FFP rules, which control the amount clubs can spend on players by linking it to their declared revenues.
The arrival of five players, worth more than £10m combined but free to Girona, arguably gives them a competitive advantage and La Liga has queried the transaction.
"The problem here is not the owner, it is the practices of the owner. In the case of Girona, we have had to correct certain market values that City was reporting, via Girona, for players loaned to Girona," said Tebas.
"For our FFP purposes, we've had to increase the values of these players, so the loans did not represent unfair competition within our league. Girona has accepted it and there is no problem."
When asked if City and Girona were "trying to cook the books", Tebas added: "They were trying to but they didn't manage to do it."
In a statement, a spokeswoman said: "Mr. Tebas' statements are ill-informed and in parts pure fiction. As you would expect, Manchester City Football Club and the City Football Group are seeking appropriate legal counsel and will act accordingly on that advice."
Girona have not breached their Spanish spending limit, even after their City loan players were revalued.
But the Spanish league appears uneasy about the unusual ownership structure, leading to Tebas' controversial comments on the matter.
