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La Liga president Javier Tebas said the overpowering financial strength of the English Premier League means it could end up like basketball's NBA -- able to bring in all the best players from every other country. Tebas was speaking at seminar in Madrid on third-party investment -- at which Doyen Sports chief executive Nelio Lucas said that the Premier League's wish to maintain its financial supremacy was a driver behind the push to remove all such funding from football. That move by FIFA to outright ban third-party ownership of players has been challenged by the La Liga and Portuguese League authorities -- who are bringing a joint case to the European Union authorities claiming it is illegal to stop clubs choosing their own sources of finance. #INSERT type:image caption:The Premier League banned third-party ownership in the wake of revelations over the transfers of Argentinian stars Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano in 2006.END# The La Liga chief told reporters at Thursday's event that if some way was not found to deal with the financial advantage given to English teams by their huge broadcasting deal, then clubs from other leagues would no longer be able to compete for players. "If professional football doesn't react, the Premier League will be like the NBA, and the rest of the leagues will be unable to compete on the international stage," Tebas said. "The same people have been in power in football for 30 years, and they just see things in black and white. If we don't make our leagues stronger, we risk the emergence of a European league." Tebas went so far as to suggest that if third-party investment [TPI] and third-party ownership [TPO] were banned outright, then the very future of the professional game in Spain would be in doubt. "We need investors, people that want to share their wealth, so that other leagues don't take talent from our clubs," he said. "If that happens, we'll be as good as dead. If we don't fight for our clubs to have this capacity to access systems of financing, we will kill off professional football." Echoing an argument made by Doyen's Lucas at the event, TPO funds can be regulated successfully, Tebas said. "La Liga supports regulation because it attracts capital -- we will able to lower the interest rates and create accessible conditions," he said. "Regulation of TPO will contribute further stability to football. This is the business world, and if someone earns money, we will all earn it." Portuguese League executive Joao Martins said TPO had been key to allowing clubs like Porto and Benfica to punch above their weight in European competitions through recent years. "We have to urgently make the arguments for these systems of financing," Martins said. "We need to defend our ideas together in order to debate UEFA's decision. Third-party ownership has helped four Portuguese clubs make it to four European finals in the 14 years."
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