The vaunted economic model of the English Premier League is beginning to be questioned. A report published by Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper claims that Manchester City, thanks to a partnership with 12 clubs from more than 13 countries called the City Football Group (CFG), have 36 players on their staff that they cost. £100m and they have only played 6 times since signing for City.

This situation, added to the large sum of money that City have been investing year after year in building up their squad, currently valued at €605m according to the CIES Football Observatory, is already under the scrutiny of the British government.

In this sense, last February the British government published a white paper with the aim of reforming English football in order to avoid future economic problems and possible new fortune clubs in the Premier League. A document that is in line with what La Liga has been promoting in Spain since 2013, that is, the creation of an economic control that prevents teams from falling into debt and guarantees the sustainability and competitiveness of the competition. Something that is currently not happening in Premiere as there is no control and clubs sign at a loss, as shown in the case of City, and which causes a violation of the so-called financial fair play.

The investigative report points out that the City Football Group has a large number of players around the world, and that they are exchanged by teams on the same network, which is a big controversy in the world of football. The article gives an example of Troyes in France, one of those owned by CFG. Last summer market there were 4 City players who became part of the French Ligue 1 side, players who spent over 18 years together at an English club and never played a single minute in a sky blue shirt. All this happened at a time when FIFA was discussing the introduction of a rule restricting international rental transfers.

The Troyes case is not unique to Europe. In Spain, Girona took similar steps in 2017, but La Liga reacted by applying its economic control rules. According to a La Liga spokesperson who contributed to the report, “since 2017, La Liga President Javier Tebas has condemned Manchester City’s actions. He believes this is contrary to financial fair play and could be classified as “financial dope” and adds that “La Liga is now making its own assessments of the value that can be attributed to loan players for cost cap purposes, and we are preventing that from happening.” that more than one player on loan be from an associated club.”

Recently, modest Belgian club Lommel SK also joined the La Liga “crusade” against this kind of practice, as it could violate the principle of equality and competition in football, by filing a formal complaint with the European Commission against the financial management of one of its rivals, Royal Excelsior Virton. The club’s methods, according to Lommel, violate new EU rules that stop “foreign aid that distorts the domestic market,” the team from the Belgian province of Limburg said in a statement.

It is assumed that Royal Excelsior Virton will receive foreign external assistance and reach a budget of 15 million euros, while the budget of Lommel SK barely reaches 4 million. The article points out that La Liga has contacted the Belgian club to offer help in combating these practices that “distort” the competition. Lommel, like La Liga, defends that this type of situation does not happen, and both, apart from other clubs on the continent, are hoping that FIFA will find a way to regulate the spread of high-net-worth owners in world football.