By choosing not to be associated with the creation of the European Super League, Paris Saint-Germain, in consultation with Bayern Munich, hoped to weaken the project of the twelve founding fathers.
While this competition project reserved for a continental elite is almost dead, the PSG is granted beyond its expectations.
And especially at a speed he dared not imagine.
This morning, the reigning French champion like his German counterpart come out grown and strengthened from this inglorious episode for European football.
Read alsoSuper League: how the project turned into a fiasco in 48 hours
Paris and its president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, by playing the card of legitimacy and loyalty to UEFA, have adopted the right strategy. In this period of pandemic, they have managed to correctly apprehend the deepest aspirations of football fans, attached to a sport open to equity and universalism, and, above all, not yet ready to pay into Americanization. forced march.
For the Qatari leader, reelected Tuesday to the UEFA executive committee for three years, it is undoubtedly a big victory.
By approaching Aleksander Ceferin, the president of the European body, and by obtaining an easy re-election, the Qatari is consolidating his positions within a continental body which has not always opened its arms to him.
On the contrary.
The president of PSG has often been perceived as a leader guilty of deregulating the transfer market with his colossal investments and his lack of respect for the rules of financial fair play.
Taking a stand for football ... and for Qatar
Al-Khelaïfi redeemed himself a virginity, even if for him, we are tempted to say that a second phase is underway. Indeed, after having driven a wedge in the Super League project, it remains for him to pick up the pieces and to bring the positions between the dissidents and the officials of UEFA closer together. If he succeeds in bringing the different parties back to the table, the president of PSG will have largely worked for the good of football, but also for his country, Qatar, regularly attacked for its failure to respect human rights in the country. framework of the organization of the 2022 World Cup.
Not to mention that the boss of Paris Saint-Germain will increasingly influence the decisions of UEFA, an entity which has sold the rights to its competitions to BeIN Media Group, which broadcasts its competitions on five continents, and of which he is the president. For Al-Khelaïfi, we could almost speak of a blessed Tuesday, if it had not been for the revelations of the World on the reasoned judgment of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, evoking “a corruptive arrangement” between Jérôme Valcke, former secretary of Fifa, and the Qatari leader, as part of the allocation of rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.