Neymar of Paris Saint-Germain (Photo by Manu Fernandez/Pool via Getty Images)
Paris Saint-Germain is in the Champions League final. Their performance in Europe’s biggest competition doesn’t change the moral bankruptcy of their owners.
Over the years, it has been challenging to take PSG seriously on the pitch. Their domestic league is derided as a lower-tiered competition. The club has imploded over and over in the Champions League, like a star turning into a supernova.
One of the world’s best players, Neymar, has a history of theatrical meme-inducing flops, rolling, and convulsing on the pitch. The Brazilian has also had a penchant for getting injured before the team’s biggest matches in Europe.
If you were to follow the PSG players’ social media accounts, then you will rarely find any of them shown training or preparing for the next match or competition.
What you will find is a treasure trove of parties, celebrations, and gatherings, which recently in this pandemic world, has been grossly absurd and tone-deaf.
However, in this Champions League competition, the Parisiens have approached winning with a determination and tenacity that has been rarely seen by this group.
It has appeared that getting over their mental hurdles against Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta has freed them to play matches in over-drive than in neutral.
Neymar and Angel Di Maria have been rehabilitated in the courts of public opinion by their professionalism, technical skills, football intelligence, and artistry through the re-start of the UCL tournament.
It’s almost enough to forget the ethical and moral issues behind PSG’s ownership.
Neymar, has a history of theatrical meme-inducing flops, rolling, and convulsing on the pitch. The Brazilian has also had a penchant for getting injured before the team’s biggest matches in Europe.</p>
<p>If you were to follow the PSG players’ social media accounts, then you will rarely find any of them shown training or preparing for the next match or competition.</p>
<p>What you will find is a treasure trove of parties, celebrations, and gatherings, which recently in this pandemic world, has been grossly absurd and tone-deaf.</p>
<p>However, in this Champions League competition, the <em>Parisiens</em> have approached winning with a determination and tenacity that has been rarely seen by this group.</p>
<p>It has appeared that getting over their mental hurdles against Borussia Dortmund and Atalanta has freed them to play matches in over-drive than in neutral.</p>
<p>Neymar and <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://fbref.com/en/players/19cda00b/Angel-Di-Maria">Angel Di Maria</a> have been rehabilitated in the courts of public opinion by their professionalism, technical skills, football intelligence, and artistry through the re-start of the UCL tournament.</p>
<p>It’s almost enough to forget the ethical and moral issues behind PSG’s ownership.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Who are PSG's owners? </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-483965 size-full" src=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2093,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fplayingfor90.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1126760416.jpeg" alt="Paris Saint-Germain" width="3200" height="2093" srcset="https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1126760416.jpeg 3200w, https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1126760416-768x502.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaifi (Photo credit should read FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>The nation-state of Qatar owns PSG.</h2>
<p>It may surprise people to know that PSG just turned 50 years old. There were no black balloons and ‘Over the hill’ cards at their birthday celebration last week.</p>
<p>It’s even more shocking to know that the club was once was fan-owned for its first three years of existence and had roughly 20,000 members.</p>
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<p>From 1973 through 2011, the ownership of the team changed hands multiple times.</p>
<p>In June of 2011, Oryx Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took the majority share ownership of Paris SG. QSI went on to take over full ownership the following year. Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the new ownership group’s chairman, has been president of the club since the takeover.</p>
<p>QSI is a branch of a much larger tree called the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the state of Qatar.</p>
<p>This takeover of a European football club by a Middle Eastern nation was the most overt example of state-owned ownership. Manchester City’s take over was termed by the United Arab Emirates as a “private investment” by Sheikh Mansour of the ruling royal family in 2008.</p>
<p>The explicit sporting goal for <em>Les Rouge et Bleu</em> for the last nine years has been to become the biggest club not just in France but in Europe by winning the Champions League. QSI has spent over €1 billion on transfers since their takeover.</p>
<p>Reaching the final of the UCL tournament must be seen as a success for the team and its Qatari owners despite the fact they have flaunted Financial Fair Play regulations multiple times in the process.</p>
<p>However, running up debts is the least worrisome of the lengthy list of transgressions committed by the state of Qatar.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> PSG's owners have a long list of transgressions </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-483964 size-full" src=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2188,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fplayingfor90.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1177130163.jpeg" alt="PSG" width="3200" height="2188" srcset="https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1177130163.jpeg 3200w, https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1177130163-768x525.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar and owner of PSG (Photo by Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>Paris Saint-Germain’s owners have a laundry list of ethical and moral failures.</h2>
<p>The Qatari state has been linked with funding extremist Islamic groups, playing a role in the FIFA bribery scandals that led to the country being awarded the 2022 World Cup, and violating the fundamental human rights of women, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and migrant workers.</p>
<p>For example, in his book, <em>The Billionaires Club</em>, James Montague wrote the following:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Like most other Gulf states, Qatar is a small but immensely rich absolute monarchy that has boomed in recent years. Its populationis far smaller than that of the nearby UAE – just 2.5 million people, of whom only 10 percent are Qatari.</p>
<p>The rest are migrant workers subject to an even stricter form of <em>kafala</em> that also requires an employer’s permission before any worker can even leave the country.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from India, Nepal, Bangaldesh and other south and southeast Asian states have complained of the same forms of abuse as elsewhere in the Gulf: non-payment of wages, awful conditions, a high fatality rate among young men working in the incredible heat.”</p>
<p>— <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-billionaires-club-9781472923103/">James Montague, <em>The Billionaires Club</em></a></p></blockquote>
<p>QIA has used its vast reserves of oil money to diversify its financial portfolio beyond its primary revenue stream. This investment strategy is incredibly sound.</p>
<p>The state investment fund has utilized QSI to create a niche in the sports and entertainment industry. Paris SG is the crown jewel of their efforts as they are, according to <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://www.forbes.com/soccer-valuations/list/#tab:overall">Forbes</a>, the 11th most valuable club in football.</p>
<p>However, with Qatar’s record of civil rights abuses and links to religious extremism, is QSI a fit and proper owner of Paris St. Germain or any club?</p>
<p>My answer is a resounding ‘no.’</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Victory for PSG is a victory for everything the UCL is against </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-483963 size-full" src=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2286,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fplayingfor90.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1266638470.jpeg" alt="Paris Saint-Germain" width="3200" height="2286" srcset="https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1266638470.jpeg 3200w, https://playingfor90.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1266638470-768x549.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">The Paris Saint-Germain club crest (Photo by Visionhaus)</p>
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<h2>UEFA needs to take a stronger stand.</h2>
<p>The <em>Parisiens </em>have been outstanding on the field, reaching their first Champions League final. The team has proved many critics wrong. Neymar, Di Maria, Kylian Mbappe, and others are 90 minutes from lifting the most coveted cup in club football.</p>
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<p>If they do, it will be a victory for the tiny and morally bankrupt country of Qatar, which has a list of allegations of corruption, civil rights violations, and foreign interference that is longer than <em>Les Miserables.</em></p>
<p>The fact that a country’s government or regime may be philosophically, morally, and ethically wrong is one primary reason why nation-states should never be involved in football club ownership.</p>
<p>Such ownership corrupts the sport by creating an untenable relationship between the game, its fans, and state-sponsored malfeasance.</p>
<p>The fact that these countries own sporting clubs illustrates the point that mixed economies where the state is directly involved in the private affairs of the economy are linked directly to authoritarianism, racism, extremism, and totalitarian regimes.</p>
<p>This situation is directly counter to UEFA’s efforts to eradicate these ills from the game and the world at large.</p>
<div class="fs-shortcode" data-type="StoryLink" data-theme="dark" data-text="Top 10 most humiliating defeats in UEFA Champions League" data-url="https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/18/10-humiliating-defeats-champions-league/" data-call-to-action="Next"> <div class="story-link-next"> <a class="story-link-next-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="story-link-next-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/21/champions-league-paris-win-qatar/"https://playingfor90.com/2020/08/18/10-humiliating-defeats-champions-league/"> <span class="call_to_action">Next:</span> Top 10 most humiliating defeats in UEFA Champions League </a> </div>
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<p>This perceived contradiction must not be allowed to continue. UEFA must take the bold step of abolishing any nation-states that own football clubs from all competitions. This unprecedented move will show the world that their words are backed up by decisive action.</p><!—pageview_candidate—>">