Nadal admits surprise

Tennis ace and Real Mallorca shareholder Rafael Nadal has admitted his surprise at the club being ejected from the Europa League. He stated that if teams who played with debt weren’t allowed in European competitions, “you wouldn’t have any European competitions to play”.

Nadal told IB3 TV that Mallorca’s debt “is not the worst in the Spanish leagues” and so he doesn’t understand why this club was picked on.

FC Barcelona picked the perfect comedic timing to announce debts of £369.5 million just days after UEFA excluded Real Mallorca from their competition. And with UEFA stating that Mallorca were wrongly given the UEFA Licence by the RFEF, the club’s lawyers are working on if it can be proven that clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia were also wrongly given the UEFA Licence.

Outside of Spain, Manchester United’s parent company announced debts of over £700 million back in January. These debts have now been confirmed at £1.1 billion. So were Manchester United also wrongly given a UEFA Licence?

Edit

Since this article was published, it has been confirmed that Villarreal, who will replace Mallorca in the Europa League, are currently carrying £150m of debt. That is three times the amount Mallorca are carrying.