LaLiga will try to prevent Mbappe’s new contract from coming into force

LaLiga will file a lawsuit with the French courts through lawyer Juan Branco to prevent Kylian Mbappe‘s new contract with Paris Saint-Germain from being validated.

Spanish football’s governing body considers the new deal to be ‘illegal’ because it violates UEFA’s financial fair play rules. In the event the French courts do not rule in favour of LaLiga, action will be sought from the European Commission and it is not ruled out filing a lawsuit at the Court of Justice of the European Union.

“We are looking for a new decision like the Bosman [law], which liberalised the market [in 1995],” Branco told a press conference at a Paris hotel on Friday.

“Now what we want is for the market to be regulated and the [financial] rules of the [Spanish] League, which are very strict, to be expanded throughout Europe.”

The 32-year-old lawyer explained that they will ask the French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera to revoke the validation of all PSG players’ contracts signed after June 25, 2021, the date of the last inspection carried out by the French authorities.

This would include both Mbappe‘s new contract, valued at 500 million euros over three years according to the lawyer’s figures, and that of Lionel Messi, who signed for PSG in August 2021. Messi’s deal is also the subject of legal proceedings led by Branco following the request of a group of Barcelona members.

Branco announced that he is also preparing an appeal at an administrative level for Ligue 1 to carry out an inspection on PSG’s accounts through the National Directorate of Control and Management (DNCG), a body which oversees the financial health of sports entities in France.

“Today, Mbappe cannot play for PSG,” noted the lawyer.

“We know it will be difficult [to win in the French courts], considering that President Emmanuel Macron has asked him to stay.”

Branco said he was confident that their initiative would eventually be successful in European courts, considering that a club such as PSG, which is owned by a Qatari sovereign wealth fund for the last 11 years, violates the rules of free competition that govern the EU’s single market.

He will therefore ask the European Commission (EC) to rule on the matter, also taking into account that PSG do not comply with the rules about the balance between income and spending, established by Ligue 1, thanks to successive moratoriums granted to the club.

“It was expected that this season they would earn 180m euros in player sales [in order] to have financial balance, and they have only sold one player for seven million euros, and on top of that they have renewed Mbappe’s contract,” he declared.

The lawyer reported “a conflict of interests” between the French league and Qatar, accusing the French authorities of favouring PSG by postponing the application of the rules of financial fair play. In his opinion, the French league depends on Qatari money.

Meanwhile, he also accused “state clubs or clubs [owned by] oligarchs” such as PSG or Manchester City of undermining European football by forcing clubs such as Real Madrid or Barcelona, who do respect the rules, to increase revenue from stadium tickets or shirt sales in order to compete on an equal footing.

The lawyer representing the Spanish league made another, more complex and indirect accusation. He argued that Qatar’s heavy investment in PSG forces the emirate to raise the price of the gas it sells to Europe.

“Qatar’s money is not magic as you might think,” he claimed. “What is spent on Mbappe is paid by all of us, as electricity consumers.”