La Liga president demands 'strictest punishment' for Man City if guilty of 115 charges

La Liga president Javier Tebas has demanded Manchester City receive the severest punishment permitted under Premier League regulations if the club are confirmed guilty of financial breaches, following reports that City have been found guilty of most of the 115 charges brought against them.

City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has said he remains “confident” of proving the club’s innocence, but the potential penalties are severe. The harshest sanction available is expulsion from the Premier League, a step that would require approval from at least 15 of the 20 member clubs at a general meeting.

Tebas, a long-standing campaigner against what he calls “financial doping” in European football, spoke at London’s Fifpro performance summit. “I don’t know the exact rules, but I believe it should be the strictest punishment in the Premier League regulations regarding this matter,” he said. “It should be a punishment intended to set an example. This isn’t a matter of a father and his children — it is a punishment to ensure rules are followed.”

The La Liga chief argued that the duration of the alleged misconduct made leniency impossible. “Violating the rules for over 10 years — no matter how minor the infractions — is a very serious matter. Therefore it has to be a severe punishment for the non-compliance. Not just to set an example, but because the rules were broken.”

Tebas also widened his criticism to European football’s governing bodies, calling for the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that overturned Uefa’s two-year ban on City in 2020 to be revisited. Cas had reduced a 30 million euro fine to 10 million euros at the time, clearing City of “disguising equity funds as sponsorship contributions” and finding Uefa’s allegations were “either not established or time-barred”.

“In my opinion, the Cas decisions should be re-examined, specifically when they cleared City, or rather lifted the sanction Uefa had imposed, because those sanctions were lifted in a very questionable manner,” Tebas said. “And now it has been proven that Uefa was right regarding the sanctions against Manchester City.”

Tebas framed the case as a watershed moment for the integrity of football across the continent. “We have to decide whether we strive for sustainable, clean football across all competitions or, as many clubs are now saying, we accept that championships were lost to other clubs when they shouldn’t have been,” he said. “What’s happened is hugely significant and hopefully marks a turning point, not just for the Premier League but for European football as a whole because the ‘Manchester effect’ was felt right across Europe.”