The price of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe combined will equal a ridiculous £364 million when Paris St Germain (PSG) hand over the £166 million they owe for Mbappe in the summer. But the real cost could be a place in the Champions League.
PSG’s answer to losing out to Monaco in the battle to win Ligue 1 last season was to go out and sign one of the best players in the world and the hottest property in football in the same window.
First the French side paid a world record fee £198 million to Barcelona to activate Neymar’s transfer release clause before jumping ahead of the queue for Mbappe, who had been expected to leave for Real Madrid.
But how could one team possibly spend so much money without selling the rest of their squad, after all we do live in a world of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play, hmmm quite.
Well it seems that they aren’t out of the woods. According to the Financial Times, via the Mirror, UEFA have started a probe into the French club’s finances and are looking at whether their sponsorship deals could be considered ‘fair value.’
In essence PSG may have spent more than they should have signing their two new attractive forwards for this season but may have been bailed out by how much they made on sponsorship.
Following on from that the European football governing body, with help from consultancy firm Octagon, reckon that someone may have spent more than they should have on sponsoring the Qatar state owned football team.
A source close to the investigation is meant to have said, “The big question, clearly, is UEFA going to be brave enough to enforce their own rules? If not for PSG, then frankly why bother?”
UEFA will reportedly meet next week to discuss the findings but would give PSG till June to secure extra revenues that would stop them from breaking Financial Fair Play rules.
FFP came into effect in 2012 and was supposed to protect teams from going into administration and folding by spending too much money but it also stops those with rich backers from spending too much money.
PSG caused alarm when they signed two massive names in the summer. They could get a fine or a ban from the Champions League. You can’t help but feel the former is most likely.