LIGUE 1
PSG are laughing at Uefa's FFP fines, says Dortmund chief
Hans-Joachim Watzk, chief executive at Borussia Dortmund has said that the only way to make a difference to the big-spending Qataris would be to deduct points.
Paris Saint Germain blew away the already inflated norms of the football transfer market in the summer with their signings of Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappé for 222 and 180 million euros respectively. And this business is expected to fall foul of the Financial Fair Play rules set out by Uefa, however, the sanctions that could be imposed on the club are being questioned by a club that indirectly felt the effects of these dealings.
The huge investment in Neymar from the Qatari-backed PSG allowed selling club Barcelona to offer an incredible 105 million euros for Borussia Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele - with an additonal 40 million euros in additonal payments likely to follow - and the German club's chief executive, Hans-Joachim Watzk, has been speaking to T-online about fines being a laughable punishment for a club where money is easy to come by.
Uefa fines have no effect on PSG
When asked how Europe's governing body could prevent teams from spending vast sums for players he replied:
"I don't know. But that's UEFA's job and they could hire highly-qualified lawyers for it. But what you should not do: Fine them. It's the biggest nonsense ever to impose a fine on Paris. They laugh at it in Qatar."
But the director did have an idea about how it may work:
"Deduct points. The world would look different then. But that's UEFA's business."
"Uefa sponsorship rules shouldn't be easy to bypass"
When the question was raised about sponsorship deals, Watzke said:
"You could tell clubs they can only get so much money from their main sponsor or owner. But look at Qatar, for instance. They can activate one of their many industry shares they hold. And in case of doubt all of them become sponsors at Paris. They'd still collect over €100m.
"That's why I don't think a political regulation is feasible. But in spite of that it's important that UEFA tries to create regulations which are so tight that it's at least no longer that easy to bypass them."
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