Live broadcast on August 27 according to the Daily Mail, the European Commission has confirmed that it has received several complaints against Manchester City and Newcastle, which involve the violation of the “state aid” rules by the two clubs.
The complaint is based on the EU foreign subsidy regulations (FSR), the regulation is mainly to solve the unfair competition caused by non-EU governments providing financial support to companies engaged in economic activities within the EU. The regulation became law in January and came into effect from June. Although Britain left the EU, the Premier League club is still under the jurisdiction of FSR.
Manchester City has always insisted that the club is a private enterprise of UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour, while Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) owns 80% of Newcastle. Since Newcastle was acquired by PIF in 2021, it has always been one of the teams with the highest spending in Europe.
A spokesman for the European Commission said in an interview with The Daily Mail: “We can confirm that we have received opinions on football clubs, including the British clubs we are evaluating.”
At present, it has not been confirmed who filed a complaint against Manchester City and Newcastle. Previously, the president of La Liga, Havel-Tebas, has been criticizing the “state-funded club” behavior including Manchester City. However, La Liga declined to comment on this, although they recently confirmed that they had formally complained to the European Commission that “state aid” unfairly helped Paris Saint Germain because the Qatar Sports Investment Fund was owned and funded by the Qatar government.
(Sonnytime)