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Neymar close to fulfilling his dream

Major Isewater

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Mr Popodopolous

Mr Popodopolous

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Excellent news:

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GABRIELE MARCOTTI

august 14 2017, 12:01am, the times

Paris Saint-Germain will be punished by Uefa for Neymar deal - but not until next year

gabriele marcotti, european football correspondent

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Having spent £199 million on Neymar, Paris Saint-Germain are pursuing Kylian Mbappé for a similar amount and will likely present the sternest test thus far of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

One of the problems with FFP, which limits the losses a club can sustain, is that far too many people don’t seem to understand how it works. Crucially, they fail to grasp two aspects of FFP.

The sanction could extend to a transfer ban and being thrown out of the Champions League

One, is that you cannot say that PSG have breached FFP for the simple reason that there is no way it could have happened — not yet anyway. FFP covers profit and loss over a three-year period. Neymar (and Mbappé, should he be signed) fall into the 2017-18 season, which has only just begun. The earliest we will know whether Uefa believes a breach has occurred is in the autumn of 2018, when PSG will be assessed on 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

It’s hugely unlikely that PSG will find enough new and legitimate revenue streams between now and the end of the season. Tonnes of pie-in-the-sky nonsense has been spewed about how shirts sales and Qatari-related workarounds can make it happen. Even a superstar such as Neymar, given how royalties and clothing deals work, will move the needle by only a few million when it comes to the former. As for the latter, as we’ve seen in the past, Uefa assesses related-party transactions — ie sponsorship from Qatari companies or entities associated with the club owners — at “fair market” value. There is very little scope for cooking the books there.

Still, until the 2017-18 accounting period is over, we simply will not be able to make a definitive conclusion either way.

The other point has to do with how FFP works and addresses whether PSG will get away with the proverbial “slap on the wrist”. In 2014, PSG (and Manchester City) were found to be in breach of FFP and were sanctioned with fines, spending restrictions and limits on squad registrations. What many fail to remember though is that this punishment was not handed out by Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), whose job it is to patrol and enforce FFP. Rather, it was a “settlement agreement” — effectively, a plea bargain — negotiated by PSG and Uefa, led by Gianni Infantino, who is now the Fifa president and was then Uefa’s general secretary.

The deal for Neymar, left, could come back to bite PSG, but not until next seasonETIENNE LAURENT/EPA

By agreeing the settlement, PSG avoided the case being sent to the CFCB’s adjudicatory chamber, which is composed of independent judges. This is where the cynics will conclude that Uefa will simply let PSG off easily just as it did in 2014. But there is one key difference. Any affected club, which is to say any club in European competition, is free to challenge the settlement. And if this happens, it goes to the adjudicatory chamber. In 2014, nobody appealed against the sanctions imposed on PSG, arguing they were too soft. This time, should PSG be in breach, there is good reason to believe that Barcelona and others will oppose any settlement and force the case to go to the adjudicatory chamber.

If that happens, and PSG are found to be in breach, there is every reason to believe they would have the book thrown at them, mainly because they’d be reoffending. At that point, the sanction could go beyond a fine and spending restrictions and extend to a transfer ban and being thrown out of the Champions League.

Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, has hinted at devices like wage caps and luxury taxes to level the playing field. Uefa and the European Clubs Association (which is heavily weighted towards the bigger clubs) are 50/50 partners in a new company that will market Champions League rights. That means the game’s traditional blue-bloods — including Barcelona and others with an axe to grind with PSG — are effectively Uefa’s business partners.

All of this suggests that if PSG fail to come up with a credible explanation as to how they can afford Neymar, Uefa will take them to task. If they don’t, there will be hell to pay.

Looks like PSG will get the book thrown at them over this- eventually. No Qatari workarounds will do the job here. 

Personally, I think it's a really important case, precedent for football that they do. Key caveat, unknown I guess is whether UEFA have the balls.

The highlighted bits are quite interesting too.

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Nibor

Nibor

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6 minutes ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Excellent news:

Looks like PSG will get the book thrown at them over this- eventually. No Qatari workarounds will do the job here. 

Personally, I think it's a really important case, precedent for football that they do. Key caveat, unknown I guess is whether UEFA have the balls.

The highlighted bits are quite interesting too.

PSG have a ~600m Euro income and a wage spend of about 50% and their income is growing quickly from TV and global merchandising.  Neymar is costing them about 75m Euro a season all told.  Mbappe will be a bit lower.  There's plenty of fat to play with there and last time they only got a fine of 60m Euro, or if you like 4/5 of a Neymar season.  Despite the spanish tears, if anything they will get a relatively small fine again and may not even be in breach.

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Mr Popodopolous

Mr Popodopolous

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22 minutes ago, Nibor said:

PSG have a ~600m Euro income and a wage spend of about 50% and their income is growing quickly from TV and global merchandising.  Neymar is costing them about 75m Euro a season all told.  Mbappe will be a bit lower.  There's plenty of fat to play with there and last time they only got a fine of 60m Euro, or if you like 4/5 of a Neymar season.  Despite the spanish tears, if anything they will get a relatively small fine again and may not even be in breach.

A proportion of that income maybe from Qatar- which means it could be disallowed or discounted if it doesn't fit market rates, fair value. UEFA would be across that.

You maybe right, it may in fact be affordable under FFP- but the pricetag of the buyout clause purportedly scared off both Man Utd and Chelsea so I hardly see how PSG can afford it.

If it breaches FFP- and time will tell on it- and they don't get the book thrown, it's a bad day for football tbh.

By the way, the fine was like first offence, plea bargain- this time we're talking potential transfer bans or kicked out CL- assuming they are guilty of course!

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Nibor

Nibor

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Just now, Mr Popodopolous said:

A section of that income maybe from Qatar- which means it could be disallowed or discounted.

You maybe right, it may in fact be affordable under FFP- but the pricetag of the buyout clause purportedly scared off both Man Utd and Chelsea so I hardly see how PSG can afford it.

If it breaches FFP- and time will tell on it- and they don't get the book thrown, it's a bad day for football of course.

Man Utd and Chelsea are in a different position to PSG, and don't need to establish themselves as big clubs in Europe.  Man City is probably a better comparison.  They spent almost as much this summer too (on several players yes, but that means more wages), and they've spent the best part of £200m in each of the two seasons prior as well.

All we're seeing here is the transfer fees have taken a big jump because there's lots of new TV deals, some chinese transfer money floating about and a few ultra wealthy oil family owners are over investing to catch up.  It's a big jump in the record fee in absolute terms but this happens every time there's a special player who moves.  £46m for Zidane became £80m for Ronaldo for example.  Messi would likely have put 50% on that if he'd moved but he came through at Barca.  

I don't necessarily agree this is bad for football.  If you think about what FFP does, in a lot of ways it is just pulling the ladder up after the already established clubs.  Why should that be ok?  I agree FFP might be helpful when stopping lower tier clubs from overspending because they're actually at risk, but PSG aren't in any danger are they?  Why shouldn't they try and catch up with Barcelona, Real etc?  It doesn't really matter to the grass roots game what these clubs do, they're already so far removed.

Nothing about football finances will change for the good through FIFA, UEFA or national FA regulation.  The associations are all completely controlled by the big clubs, and they will continue to use them for their benefit at the expense of all others.  The only real change that can possibly happen is if fans walk away from the game and take their money with them.

 

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