Former FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique has made a brutal admission about FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Earlier last year, Pique announced his retirement from FC Barcelona after spending 14 years at the club. While he also spent a brief time at Manchester United and Real Zaragoza, he has spent almost his entire career at FC Barcelona. However, Pique has admitted that there are tough times ahead for his boyhood club.
According to Marca, Gerard Pique has raised questions about La Liga‘s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. The FFP rules are rules initiated by UEFA that help keep a check on the legality of the club’s expenditure. Pique explained how various European leagues have their different methods of exercising FFP rules on the clubs. However, Pique admitted that among all of the European leagues, La Liga’s rules are the most strict.
🗣️ Gerard Piqué: “La Liga has a very strict FFP rules and other leagues have another system. Then in Europe you are exposed to these clubs paying more through other ways.
We are on the road that in five years, Barça and Madrid will not be able to compete in Europe.”
✍️ @marca pic.twitter.com/v5mfxIKSA9
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) November 30, 2023
He said, “La Liga has very strict FFP rules and other leagues have another system.” Pique explained how the other European leagues allow their clubs to have more than one channel for making payments. In La Liga, the rules are very fair and strict which forces all Spanish clubs to be governed by the same rules. However, what Pique fears is that when in European competition, Spanish clubs would eventually lag.
He even stated that the biggest Spanish clubs like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid would find it difficult to compete against other European clubs. He also went on to praise the league system in the United States. The former FC Barcelona defender admitted that the MLS’ rule of distributing money equally amongst all clubs should be followed by all European leagues.
Manchester City have a date set for the trial over their alleged FFP breaches
In the meantime, the date has been set for probably the biggest trial in soccer history. Manchester City and the Premier League have reportedly agreed to a date for the trial over City’s FFP breaches. After the Premier League investigated in 2018, City was found guilty of breaching 115 FFP rules. City, however, has denied these charges.
The Premier League and Manchester City have agreed a date at which they will face off in front of an independent panel.
The trial is expected to be in Autumn 2024. pic.twitter.com/eK9ZPgw9KH
— mcfc lads (@mcfc_lads) November 30, 2023
According to the Daily Mail, the trial is set to be held next year in autumn. If City is found guilty, they would face a massive point deduction or even relegation. However, the fans shouldn’t expect the verdict any time soon. Even if the trial starts on time, the verdict wouldn’t be announced any time before 2025. In addition to this, either City or Premier League would likely appeal if they don’t find the verdict satisfactory.