Photo credit: Christophe Pelletier
I have a fear.
It’s a sentiment that few can acknowledge, but I’m carefully looking into it.
I’m afraid that the game that I love will consume forever. However, its apocalypse won’t be on a football pitch, and everything will occur in the commodity of an office by people wearing a suit and tie, with the argument that their actions would be for the benefit of the sport.
The first flag rose when Swiss authorities arrested several FIFA officials on corruption charges. The second call to attention came after my tax fraud story. The conclusion: Money is now an essential part of the sport. A team that doesn’t inject an insane amount of money, won’t succeed.
However, there was a new development that raised some questions regarding the integrity of the game, and the future of it.
Last week, UEFA announced PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi as a new member of the Executive Committee for the top European organism. What struck me was that PSG is in an investigation process by the same UEFA for breaking one of the most common-sense rules, Financial Fair Play.
According to UEFA, the Financial Fair Play was created to “improve the overall financial health of European club football” by requiring that every club that qualifies for a UEFA competition does not have overdue payables toward other clubs, its players and social/tax authorities throughout the season.
Also, the same rule determines that all the clubs “balance their spending with their revenues and restricts clubs from accumulating debt.” PSG violated that aspect abruptly.
When UEFA began with the investigation, I always doubted that there was going to be a positive outcome from it. Instead of punishing a club that is far away from breaking even, European football’s governing body gave a chair to Al-Khelaifi so that he can discuss the future of the game.
PSG brought fans to the Ligue 1, and started a new economic and marketing movement. However, the club from Paris didn’t follow one of the most straightforward rules of soccer: spending millions without any discretion.
According to Transfermarkt, during the current season PSG signed Mbappe, Paredes, Kehrer and Bernat. They spent €217 million for buying players and generated €115.5 million selling assets. Even last year, PSG’s total balance was negative €144.6 million in player transactions.
Punishing giants shouldn’t be merciful, because they might collapse the sport. The inequality between the wealthiest clubs and the rest has increased in the last 10 years exponentially.
UEFA’s move was a low punch to the fans. It is another call to attention by undermining the justice of the game.
Marcelo Bielsa once said, don’t you notice that the soccer world seems less like the fan and more like the business owner? The designation of Nasser Al-Khelaifi is proof of it.
Follow Luis on Twitter: @LFulloa.
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