PSG working in the shadows?
The speculation surrounding Neymar's future has been mounting day by day, but one question that has always remained is whether Paris Saint-Germain could afford the 222 million euro buyout clause on the Barcelona star's contract while staying on the right side of UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) model.
Most believed that they could not, but that they would take another 60 million euro fine -- they incurred one for breaching FFP in 2014 and paid it without hesitation -- and move on. After all they are backed by one of the wealthiest persons in the world in Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari billionare.
However La Liga chief Javier Tebas told reporters that he would personally bring up the issue with UEFA if PSG paid the buyout clause for one of his league's biggest stars.
"La Liga will file this complaint because it's a problem for La Liga's competitiveness. Today it's happened to Barca, tomorrow it could happen to Real Madrid, it's happened to Atletico Madrid," Tebas said.
The Qatar tourism board have signed a massive sponsorship with PSG, but even then they would not be able to cope with the expense of the signing and subsequent wages, meaning that would struggle to meet FFP conditions that limit a team to losses of no more than 30 million euros over a three-year cycle.
"PSG cannot have figures in which PSG's commercial rights exceed those of Real Madrid and Barcelona," said Tebas. "No one believes that. We've carried out economic studies and it's impossible.
"It means that the Qatari state is injecting money and that violates UEFA's financial fair play rules and the European Union's norms of economic competition, and we're going to file a complaint."
That spurned PSG into action and reports emerged yesterday that Neymar would be given a role as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar. The payment for this agreement? 300 million euros.
That would enable Neymar to take the money, pay his buy-out clause using his 'personal funds' and leave him free to join any club that he pleases. It would also mean that PSG would not have to show an extra 222 million euros plus taxes on their balance sheet when it came time to measure up for FFP.
PSG would also be able to deny any involvement in the deal.
Neymar is one of the world's biggest, most marketable stars and a 300 million euro contract and is one of has some of the most lucrative sponsorships in the world. If it is deemed that he is worth that amount of money then there is little anyone can do about it.
UEFA and Tebas would have their hands tied and watch FFP be reduced to a farce.
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