PSG: what future without financial fair play?

In the wake of the announcement by the Gazzetta dello Sport of the upcoming abandonment by UEFA of financial fair play in favor of a new system of financial regulation for European clubs, many were pleased to envision a bright future for PSG.

The club of the capital has indeed often been constrained by the European body in its freedom of enterprise.

However, no question this Wednesday at the club to ignite or get excited more than reason when commenting on this news.

In any case at PSG, we know that it will always be necessary to control deficits.

Parisian leaders have also chosen a loan of 80 million euros rather than increasing the capital.

And, moreover, according to our information, it seems that Qatar is not in the optics to put back to the pot.

The goal for PSG today is to regain balance.

Trying to align Neymar, Mbappé and Messi in the Parisian jersey on the pretext that the current constraint to “spend as much as we earn” would disappear is not on the agenda.

“I don't really believe in it,” underlines Thierry Granturco, a lawyer specializing in sports law.

Somewhere, Parisians would saw off the branch they're sitting on.

Today, if we still have a minimum of interest in the Champions League, it is because there are 16 in contention to win.

You have to be very careful about that.

They should not end up at 2 or 3 as is the case in some championships.

Because what makes interest is uncertainty.

If you kill the uncertainty, you kill the product.

I believe in the intelligence of these leaders to say to themselves:

yes we want to be among the strongest but, no, we are not going to kill the competition and the uncertainty

.

"

Financial constraints not so embarrassing for Paris

Another argument according to the lawyer not to see the big clubs like the PSG indulge in crazy spending overnight "political aspects which mean that, like City, the Parisians must move forward resolutely but reasonably.

It should not be seen too much in fact.

We must give the impression that the rise in power is almost natural rather than imposed from Doha ”.

In addition, it should not be considered either that the PSG is today particularly strangled by the financial rules.

“They already have Mbappé and Neymar, all the same, smiles Master Granturco.

While below, Atalanta Bergamo, which also qualifies for the Champions League, it can not do anything.

Nothing at all.

When we strictly apply the rules of financial fair play, we restrict the very rich a little, but in the end they still make crazy transfers.

For the others, the criteria are such that they can do nothing.

"

Thierry Granturco believes that a club like Paris will ultimately hardly have been hampered by financial fair play.

"The way in which PSG or Manchester City emerged on the European scene was still extremely fast," he said.

It could have been much more, stronger and more violent for European football, but these are not the most to be pitied.

Because they had the financial means to hijack the system.

"

"Financial fair play has prevented clubs from igniting"

In general, the lawyer who has always been a fervent opponent of this regulatory system considers its disappearance inevitable.

“At the time,” he recalls, “UEFA sold to the European Commission that the effects of financial fair play, in the medium and long term, would be beneficial to football.

But the more we advance the more we see in reality that we have constituted an oligopoly: the richest have become richer and that there are clubs which will no longer manage to have access to this part of the European top, except for UFOs. like Manchester City and PSG because they suddenly had different means from others.

In any case, moving upmarket in the market is almost no longer possible.

And this is something that we see every night of the Champions League.

And then I have not seen Real, Barça or City being annoyed by the rules on spending or transfers.

Every year, except for Covid, they have spent an insane amount of money on transfers.

"

For Thierry Granturco, Covid or not Covid, UEFA would also have necessarily been forced to change its system.

"She has already known for three or four seasons that she will have to change her rules, he says, because at one point there is a club that would have ended up bringing the matter before the European Court of Justice to establish that they have had a negative effect on the football economy and that they must evolve.

And this, all the more so, as there are also rich clubs which are also starting to get fed up.

"

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However, the lawyer recognizes at least one virtue of financial fair play: “Without him, there would have been at least one bankruptcy. That is certain. He prevented clubs from igniting and ultimately filing for bankruptcy. On the other hand, we would have clubs which would have taken risks and which today would be competitors. We would have the very rich but also real challengers. Because ultimately the mechanics are quite simple: the more you perform sportingly, the more you perform economically. And the more you perform economically, the more you continue to perform sportingly ... But for that at the start you still have to take a risk! And today that is not possible since you cannot spend more than what you earn. So without financial fair play we would have had a greater density of competitors. "