La Liga President accuses Chelsea of 'clearly cheating' in tense press conference

The President of La Liga has launched a scathing attack on Chelsea's lavish spending, accusing the West London club of 'clearly cheating'.

In a tense press conference on Friday (17 March), Javier Tebas took aim at Chelsea in particular, highlighting how much the club have spent this season on new players.

The spree was triggered by Todd Boehly's purchase of Chelsea for a reported $5.4 billion, from which the American - and his consortium - have invested a further £323 million on players.

In January alone, Enzo Fernandez, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Benoit Badiashile all arrived at Stamford Bridge - all on suspiciously long contracts.

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This is where Tebas' accusations of cheating stem from, as the action of tying the players down to eight or nine year deals spreads the cost of the transfers over the duration of their contracts.

It's a strategy that was quickly noticed by the wider footballing community, and now the La Liga chief has directly called it out.

As the Daily Star reports, in a recent press conference Tebas made his feelings crystal clear about the contract tactic: "Chelsea are clearly cheating by signing players on eight or nine-year contracts."

However, despite Tebas' claims, it appears that the Blues have conjured up a way to stay within FFP's strict guidelines in spite of their care-free spending.

Speaking to Sky Sports, financial expert Kevin Maguire stated: "What Chelsea have decided to do is to spread the cost of the players by signing them on very long contracts.

"So, by signing Mykhailo Mudryk on an eight-and-a-half-year contract, the way it is dealt with for accounting and FFP purposes is you take that £88m cost and you divide that over eight-and-a-half-years, and it works out as just over £10m-a-year.

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"That appears to be the Chelsea strategy that they have employed over the last couple of windows."

Chelsea wasn't the only club on Tebas' mind, as the President was also quizzed on Barcelona - and alleged corruption that could see the Catalan giants relegated to the second tier.

As per the Daily Star, last month several former Barca officials were indicted in court on charges of corruption, accused of paying the former vice-president of Spain's referee's committee £7.4 million between 2001 and 2018.

Regarding the accusations, as well as possible consequences for Xavi's side, Tebas said: "The sanction for buying referees? Very serious. Relegation to the second division, multimillion fines.

"The reputational damage done to Barcelona and La Liga is very important."