The president of Spanish football's top flight has sent a warning to Everton, Liverpool and other sides by claiming that the Premier League is unsustainable.
Javier Tebas, the outspoken president of La Liga who was fiercely opposed to the European Super League project that put him at odds with the two biggest teams in his league, Barcelona and Real Madrid, has expressed his belief that the Premier League is financially unsustainable in the long run.
Speaking at a conference on how European football can protect its eco-system, Tebas highlighted the consistent losses of clubs in English football's top flight, where only three of the 20 in the competition in 2021/22 posted a profit; Manchester City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley.
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"What I’m worried about is the Premier League, and I’ve been worried for many years now," said Tebas, via the Guardian.
"But now it’s converted into a competition that has losses all year. All clubs lose money. There is no sustainability in the Premier League. The Premier League is not a financially sustainable model.
"They’re financed by the owners but with enormous amounts of money and that is distorting the market. They get more revenues, OK. But you lose money. And you’re injecting one and a half billion every year. What does it mean? It means you’re not sustainable at all."
Tebas, who pointed to La Liga's model clubs being unable to register players if they are running at a loss, and required to spend within the means of their annual income when it comes to being active in the transfer market, wants to see more pressure applied to address rules which he claims "distort" the transfer market and make it an uneven playing field for the rest despite the fact that the clubs are run an huge losses.
"You need financial sustainability," he said. "We can compete with the Premier League without any problem at all. I’m not worried about the fact that the 15th position team in the Premier League signs a Spanish player. I’m worried about the fact that they sign them when they’re making losses. Because we don’t allow our clubs to do that.
"The only two leagues that are sustainable economically are the Bundesliga and La Liga. We need to fight so that financial sustainability is also applied to the Premier League."
The financial state of play of Liverpool's two clubs has been in stark contrast in recent years.
Everton have found themselves having to operate in the market while skirting close to breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules after owner Farhad Moshiri's heavy spend early in his tenure was not backed up by revenue growth at the club, meaning that over the last three financial periods the club have posted combined losses of more than £370m.
Liverpool have made a loss in the last two pandemic-impacted financial years but owners Fenway Sports Group have developed a reputation of having far greater control over costs, something that impacts their spending in the transfer market which has, in turn, incurred the ire of some sections of the fan base for not investing at the level of some of their rivals. Liverpool are expected to post record revenues of above £600m for the 2021/22 financial year when the accounts are published in the coming weeks, with a profit in excess of £65m also expected.
Chelsea's last set of accounts published in December 2021 showed a £145.6m loss. Since the club was acquired by the Todd Boehly/Clearlake Capital group in May for £2.5bn, the club has spent more than £250m and still has plans to add further to their squad having missed out on the £100m-plus rated Argentinian Enzo Fernandez.
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