PSG
How PSG will be affected by Financial Fair Play
Financial Fair Play, which comes into play in June, will force PSG to drastically reduce its wage bill.
PSG’s losses have increased exponentially in recent years, to the point of having a wage bill this season amounting to €728m. The Ligue 1 club also lost €370m last season, being directly affected by the new Financial Fair Play, which comes into play in June. This will force the club to drastically reduce its wage bill.
In France, L’Équipe report that the club has seen a 45 per cent increase in wages over the last two financial years, triggered by the signing of Lionel Messi. With the Argentine, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé in the squad, the current Ligue 1 leaders have significant wage bill burdens that help to understand the deficit that has been accumulated.
UEFA sanctioned PSG in August with a €65m fine, of which €10m was paid up front and the other €55m is under suspension should PSG breach financial rules again. Both sporting advisor Luis Campos and club president Nasser Al Khelaïfi must now work meticulously in the summer to avoid spending 90 per cent of their income - which will be 70 per cent in two years - and to reduce the wage bill by selling members of the current squad.
PSG investigated
L’Équipe also report that the Paris prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation in January, following a complaint filed by Hachim Bouajila, a Tunisian businessman who allegedly worked for PSG between 2015 and 2018. The 47-year-old allegedly helped Al Khelaïfi both at BeIN Sports, the channel owned by the French club’s president, and at PSG.
According to Bouajilla, the remuneration he received for his services was as a member of a tennis academy and not as a PSG employee, an offence under the French criminal code. His lawyer, Bertrand Repolt, admitted to L’Équipe that it was “a fraud” of an employment contract, as at no point in the contractual relationship was it stated that Bouajilla was working for PSG.
PSG said that Bouajilla “never worked for PSG or BeIN Sports”. The preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office was referred to the central police station of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, where PSG’s headquarters are located and whose mayor is Francis Spizner, Nasser Al Khelaïfi’s lawyer.