Skip to main content

UEFA warns PSG 'tell us how you're going to pay for Neymar'

Uefa will demand to know how Paris Saint-Germain intend to finance their world-record £198 million transfer deal for Barcelona’s Brazilian superstar Neymar, with European football’s governing body reiterating its stance that financial fair play rules will be enforced.

On a dramatic day, Barcelona announced on Wednesday that Neymar, 25, had told them of his intention to leave and that in response had said he could only do so on payment of the £198 million (€222m) buy-out clause included in the new contract he signed last year.

It is anticipated that the Qatari-owned PSG will pay it in full although the structure of the deal, expected to be €450m in total, will have to pass Uefa’s financial fair play (FFP) rules.

Neymar is expected to earn around €55m a year before tax meaning that the total deal, spread over the course of a five-year contract, could cost €90m annually - almost a quarter of PSG’s current annual revenue of €389.6m.
In a statement to Telegraph Sport , Uefa reiterated its stance that FFP would be enforced, saying the organisation is “exceptionally serious” that clubs are not permitted to make losses in excess of €30 million over three years.

When the deal goes through it will more than double the current world-record transfer fee, the £89m paid by Manchester United to Juventus for Paul Pogba last summer, and it will make Neymar the world’s best-paid player.

Barcelona are expected to make a further offer for Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho although Jurgen Klopp has said once again that the club will not entertain offers at any level for the Brazilian. Barcelona may yet try to hit back by signing Monaco’s 18-year-old striker Kylian Mbappe, a target for Real Madrid this summer.

Uefa’s FFP chief, Andrea Traverso, head of club licensing, has repeated in recent weeks that the organisation will pursue the FFP measures brought in by former president Michel Platini. While Fifa are responsible for regulating football’s transfer market, Uefa is also confident that there is no loophole that can be exploited by PSG owner’s, Qatari Sports Investments, to circumvent rules.

There have been reports that the Qatari state might pay Neymar the buy-out fee which he would lodge personally to achieve free agency, thus ensuring that any transfer fee was not paid by PSG. There are suggestions he may also be paid separately as an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup finals. Article 72 of the FFP regulations is intended to mitigate against any attempts by clubs to circumvent legislation.

Telegraph UK



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Prof. Yemi Osinbajo - Abraham Ogbodo

Abraham Ogbodo I am trying to understand Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Often, he speaks out of character. That is, he talks as if he is Vice President before he is a professor of law, even when I know that the latter comes first. The man wasn’t like this when he was the attorney general of Lagos State and a teacher at the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos. Then, his statements were measured and as a seasoned lawyer, based on facts. But today, Osinbajo is sounding like Adams Oshiomhole, a union leader, who by the grace of God, became governor of Edo State for eight years. The revelations about big thefts in the economy had come more from Adams than even Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the EFCC. It was Adams who said former petroleum minister; Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke alone stole 13 billion British pounds from the national treasury. That is like saying she stole in raw cash almost twice as much as the entire fortune of Alhaj...

Much ado about the foreign reserves - Nonso Obikili

I have received a lot of questions about the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) foreign reserves recently. The CBN has of course been touting the reserves growing from a low of about $24bn to the approximately $42bn it is now. The questions typically centre around why we are keeping so much in reserve when the economy is struggling, and we have poor infrastructure? Why don’t we use the reserves to reduce the poverty that is rampant? The question typically betrays a little bit of misunderstanding over what the foreign reserves are and how the entire thing works. Hopefully, after reading this we will have a better understanding of what it is and what it can and can’t be used for. First, what is the “Foreign Reserves?” It is the amount of foreign exchange that the central bank has at its disposal at any point in time. Some of this is in cash and some in other liquid assets, that is assets that can quickly be turned to cash. Some of this is in US dollars but sometimes it’s in other c...

Boko Haram’s campaign against education and enlightenment - By Landry Signe

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Boko Haram, the Islamist terrorist group originating from Nigeria is frightened by this enlightening power of education. Unsurprisingly, on Monday, February 19, the group, whose name often translates to “Western education is a sin,” stormed a girls’ school in the village of Dapchi in northern Nigeria to abduct students. Of the 907 schoolgirls who were in the school the day of the attack, more than 100 are still missing as of Sunday. Since it became violent about a decade ago, Boko Haram’s actions, through these and other types of bloody attacks, have resulted in horrifying consequences. Human Rights Watch estimates that Boko Haram has left at least 7 million in need of humanitarian assistance, 2.1 million displaced, and 20,000 civilians dead. Local leaders claim the number is significantly higher. Despite such causalities, it took Boko Haram’s massive kidnapping of 276 sch...