LYON CLUB PRESIDENT Jean-Michel Aulas believes Paris Saint-Germain’s record-breaking signing of Neymar has upset the balance of French football, and suggests the deal could wind up costing €1bn.
Lyon is a club famously prudent with their spending, but still managed to win six league titles on the spin between 2002 and 2008 while retaining their status as a ‘selling club’. PSG and, to a lesser extent, Monaco, have since changed the game in France.
Aulas is concerned about the source of funding used by the Parisians to recruit Neymar, and in an interview with France Football, went as far as to suggest that the French State may be forced to intervene should UEFA’s Financial Fair Play continue to fail Ligue 1 clubs with shallower cash reserves.
“If Financial Fair Play does not fulfil its role at a European level then it could be necessary for the French State to take over,” he said.
“These type of transfers must be regulated. Since Michel Platini left UEFA, FFP has lost one of its biggest defenders because we must verify and control where financing comes from.
When we are faced with investors from Qatar, which generates huge revenues through gas and oil production, we can’t fight against that. It is completely disproportionate. The club can’t generate revenue to match their expenses and it will unbalance an economy which is already suffering problems.
PSG’s budget reportedly stood at €700m prior to the Neymar deal, and Aulas reckons they’ll wind up spending closer to €1bn on the Brazilian’s signing across the next five years.
He’s concerned that is sets an unsustainable precedent, particularly in France where such sums were, until recently, unheard of.
“I wonder if that deal is compatible with the life of a club in a balanced economy. In the short term it may be good for everyone but it can create big problems,” he said.
“These kind of signings can create a bubble which is capable of bursting at any time.”
He’s the second president of a high profile European club to blast Financial Fair Play in as many weeks; last month, his AS Roma equivalent described the regulation as “complete shit-show,” this following AC Milan’s lavish spending throughout the summer.
Financial Fair Play dictates that clubs can spend up to €5m more than they earn within a three-year assessment period. They can however exceed that limit by €30m (previously €45m), if it is entirely covered by a direct contribution from either the club’s owner or a related party.
Investment in stadiums, training facilities, youth development and women’s football are excluded from what UEFA describe as ‘the break-even calculation’.
However, FFP also allows for transfer fees to be paid in installments over the length of the player’s contract, meaning PSG retain the right to sell players and earn further revenue in order to balance their books in the eyes of UEFA. Neymar has signed a five-year contract with the 2015/16 French champions.
In 2014, PSG were sanctioned by UEFA after a sponsorship deal with Qatar’s tourism board was deemed to have been of insufficient value to match the £167m the club received for it.
