What Barcelona did this summer is not fair and I’m not sure if it is legal, claims Nasser Al-Khelaifi
Nasser Al-Khelaifi
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Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has hit out at Barcelona for their business during the summer window and believes that it is neither legal nor is it fair. The La Liga giants sold several in-house assets in mega-million deals in order to fund a rebuild of their current squad.
After being on the brink of financial collapse, it shocked more than a few fans and critics when Barcelona signed not one but seven players this summer. That included mega-money moves for Raphinha, Jules Kounde and Robert Lewandowski while Andreas Christensen, Franck Kessie, Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso signed on free transfers. However, that came only after the La Liga giants sold several in-house assets including future TV rights to fund their summer rebuild while also ensuring that they could register the players.
Yet that move hasn’t gone down well with many football clubs who believe that Barcelona has circumvented the financial fair play laws that UEFA and FIFA have put in place. That was reiterated by Nasser Al-Khelaifi who confessed that he believes it’s neither fair nor legal to do what Barcelona did but admitted that UEFA will “look at everything”. He also praised the new financial fair play laws but hit out at Barcelona as he added that what they did isn’t a “sustainable path”.
“Is this fair? No, it’s not fair … Is it legal? I’m not sure. If they allow them, others will do the same. UEFA of course have their own regulations. For sure they’re going to look at everything,” Al-Khelaifi said, reported Politico.
“The new financial sustainability rules are a positive development. But we need to be careful. Dangerous levels of debt and magical equity deals are not a sustainable path.”
The PSG president is also the Chairman of the European Club Association (ECA) and in a recent gathering of all the heads, Al-Khelaifi admitted that football needs to use F1’s success with Netflix and the Drive to Survive series in order to move into the future. The popularity of the racing sport exploded after the docu-series was released and Al-Khelaifi believes that football needs to tap into that.
“We have the best and the biggest and most popular sport in the world and we need to think outside the box. For example, European football could leverage its most prestigious matches to create a multi-day “holiday destination that people would love to go to,” complete with music and conferences as part of a wider entertainment product,” he added.
