Neymar could become the most expensive football player in world history once his move to PSG is complete for a reported fee of €222m with his wages understood to be around €30m a year after tax which is an equivalent of £520,000 a week. This almost doubles his current salary at Barcelona.
Neymar’s potential world record move to PSG was nudged further as he was at Barca training ground on Wednesday to inform his teammates that he is leaving. He has also been given permission by his coach not to train with the rest of the squad temporarily until his future is sorted out. By all indications, Neymar to PSG is an almost done deal. PSG is said to be willing to take advantage of Neymar’s willingness to step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow, and make a name for himself, and ultimately win the ballon d’or.
Neymar is said to be eager to step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow and find his own path
However, what does this move mean for football? La Liga boss Javier Tebas strongly believes that PSG is breaking the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules with income from their Qatari owners. According to a statement he made to Sport, “They cannot make a number in which their commercial rights are greater than those of Real Madrid and Barcelona.”
Tebas has also threatened to report them to UEFA when he explained to Marca, “Even if they don’t pay the release clause we will report them.
“Nobody believes that, which means that the state of Qatar is injecting money and that violates Financial Fair Play.”
Tebas’ belief is that a deal like that could weaken the league. In an interview with Mundo Deportivo during the weekend which as also reported by TheGuardiand, Javier Tebas said, “We will [complain about PSG] because they infringe UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules and also the European Union’s competition rules. We will make a complaint to UEFA and if they don’t do anything, we will take it to the competition tribunals in Switzerland and Brussels. And, from there, we don’t rule out going through the courts in France and Spain.
“Two months ago I met the president of PSG at La Liga’s offices and I told him what we were going to do and the reasons why. He was angry with me and said that he did not understand. WE have a relationship [through the Qatari sports channel BeIn] for Spanish football but La Liga must defend our clubs in these situations.”
Even though sources have suggested that La Liga can’t act because the transfer is an issue for the clubs, not the league.
In reaction, a UEFA spokesman said: “PSG must respect Financial Fair Play rules as do all other clubs in Europe. They must demonstrate that they do not have losses of more than €30m over three years.
“The impact of a potential transfer of Neymar to PSG would have an effect on club finances over several years.
“It is very difficult to judge this type of operation in advance as we do not know the plans of the French club. They could well sell a few players for a similar or even superior amount.
“We shall therefore only make calculations at the end and make sure that they respect the rules.”
In a reaction to rumours that Barcelona may come for Coutinho as a replacement for Neymar should he finally leave for PSG, Liverpool boss said after Liverpool’s penalty shootout to Atletico Madrid after a 1-1 draw in the Audi Cup on Wednesday night: “There are clubs that can pay fees like that – Manchester City and PSG.
“Everybody knows that. I thought Financial Fair Play was introduced to situations like this could not happen but it seems to be more of a suggestion than a real rule.
“I don’t understand how it happens but I hope this is not the next step. I hope it will stay the exception but you never know.”
UEFA needs to take their financial fair play policy a bit more seriously. Yes, it is true that PSG can comfortably afford to pay €222m for Neymar (an amount big enough to buy an entire football squad with extra change for a reserve team), but the effect it’d have on football is far more drastic.
Players like Messi and Ronaldo won’t be worth anything less than €500m.
I think that player prices should be capped. Perhaps, the maximum should be €120m. That way, sanity would be maintained because the market is getting increasingly crazy in a very scary way, and it won’t stop if nothing is done.
Sincerely, thank you for reading.
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