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The European Court of Justice is deciding whether a group of Barcelona fans in France can ask the European Commission to investigate whether Paris Saint-Germain unfairly signed Lionel Messi and endangered Barcelona’s finances.
A Luxembourg court heard demands from Lyon fans on Tuesday, arguing that clubs with an unfair advantage have violated their rights as Barcelona members due to ineffective Financial Fair Play rules in places like France.
The European Court of Justice will decide whether the European Commission must accept the group as an interested party and open an investigation into its allegations of illegal state aid to Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG has been owned since 2011 by Qatar Sports Investments, a subsidiary of Qatar’s state-run sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority. Paris Saint-Germain have signed Messi on a free transfer in 2021 after Barcelona were prevented from re-signing him by Spanish league financial rules.
The fan group hopes the investigation will push the European Commission to take charge of the European-wide Financial Fair Play rules to regulate football leagues and prevent state-owned clubs like Paris Saint-Germain from overspending.
“We’re asking the committee to completely change the system,” Issam Abdelmouine, one of the parties to the case, who is part of the fan group, told The Associated Press . “Clubs like Barcelona are facing unfaithful competition, losing a lot of money and risking privatisation and then membership disappears.”
The group’s goals are similar to the Spanish league’s efforts to curb free spending by state-owned clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain and United Arab Emirates-backed Manchester City.
The league has lodged a complaint with UEFA against Paris Saint-Germain for breaching Financial Fair Play rules after it gave Kylian Mbappe a new contract to persuade him to turn down a move to Real Madrid.
The league also plans to take its case to the European Court of Justice, arguing that unfair practices alter the ecosystem and the sustainability of football, harm all European clubs and leagues, and will only artificially inflate the market with funds not generated by football itself.
Juan Blanco, a lawyer for the Barcelona fan group, was the league’s lawyer in the case against Mbappe against Paris Saint-Germain.
The European Court of Justice is expected to rule in a few months. The parties will be able to appeal the ruling.
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