May 22, 2022 thesundaytimes.co.uk/sportCaptionSPORT
LECLERC
ON POLE IN SPAIN,
WITH HAMILTON
SIXTH
PAGES 16-17
Rivals issue
warning to
Everton over
‘data kill’
Jonathan Northcroft
Football CorrespondentOne of this summer’s biggest transfer
sagas is over before the season has fin-
ished. Kylian Mbappé, the Paris Saint-
Germain forward, has rejected Real
Madrid’s bid to link him up with
Karim Benzema, his France interna-
tional team-mate. He informed Flor-
entino Pérez, the Real Madrid presi-
dent, of his decision yesterday.
The 23-year-old, who joined PSG in
2017, revealed his decision before the
Ligue 1 champions’ final game of the
campaign, in which he scored a hat-
trick in a 5-0 win over Metz. Mbappé
said: “I always said that Paris is my
home. I want to win titles here andhave fun together as always.” Ligue 1’s
player of the year seems to have made
a U-turn after courting Real over the
past year. Last week, his representa-
tives said he had reached an agree-
ment with both clubs.
Mbappé, whose contract with PSG
runs out this summer, signed a three-
year extension, which is expected to
make him the best-paid player in the
world, with wages of about £1 million
a week and a signing-on fee of more
than £100 million. He walked on to the
pitch before last night’s game with a
PSG shirt that read: “Mbappé 2025.”
There was an angry reaction from
Spain, with La Liga reporting PSG to
Uefa. The Spanish league’s rulingbody stated: “This type of agreement
attacks the economic stability of Euro-
pean football.” Javier Tebas, the presi-
dent of La Liga, said: “What PSG’s
doing by renewing Mbappé with large
amounts of money after giving losses
of €700 million in recent seasons and
having more than €600 million of sal-
ary bill, is an insult to football.”
His decision comes as a blow to
Real. The Champions League finalists
made little attempt to sign Erling
Haaland from Borussia Dortmund in
the expectation that they could prise
Mbappé away from PSG. The PSG
manager, Mauricio Pochettino, and
sporting director, Leonardo, are both
expected to leave the club.Mbappé
snubs Real
to stay for
£100m a
year at PSG
Peter WilsonMan City take one-point lead
into final day of Premier
League as Liverpool cling to
Quadruple dream, pages 2-7
grabs
Up for
Leeds United and Burnley have
written to the Premier League to
demand that Everton make a full
disclosure of their financial details, to
explain how they have managed to
comply with Premier League rules —
and asked specifically that Everton do
not delete any data or documents
relating to transfers, sponsorship,
stadium and commercial deals.
Leeds and Burnley are determined
to ensure that there can be no data
loss while they consider legal action
over the Merseyside club posting
losses totalling £371.8 million over the
past three years. Clubs are allowed to
lose a maximum of £105 million over
that period under Premier League
profit and sustainability rules.
The dissatisfied clubs want an inde-
pendent commission to determine
whether those regulations have been
breached, and for that commission to
have full access to relevant data and
details to do with Everton’s accounts.
They want the commission convened
immediately and to make a judgment
before the 2022-23 season begins.
Today, either Leeds or Burnley will
be relegated to the Sky Bet Champion-
ship. Everton were previously in
danger but are safe after a dramatic
comeback win against Crystal Palace
on Thursday.
Both clubs are particularly inter-
ested to know how a rival in such
apparent financial straits was able to
afford the fees and wages necessary to
sign Dele Alli, Vitaliy Mykolenko and
Nathan Patterson permanently and
Donny van de Beek and Anwar El
Ghazi on loan in January. In March,
Everton published accounts which
took their losses over three years to
£266.8 million more than the Premier
League would normally allow. Ever-
ton have put the excess deficit down
to Covid-related losses and stadium
spending, which they believe to be
permissible under league rules.
Any legal action taken would look
for compensation for relegation,
which could cost the club that drops
into the Championship in the region
of £200 million. The two clubs believe
they have significant support from
others in the Premier League.