Record signing’s delay

THE star was missing but the party went ahead successfully at the Parc des Princes as Paris Saint-Germain won its French league season-opener.

Without Neymar on the pitch, Edinson Cavani and Javier Pastore took on the scoring responsibilities to ensure PSG got a winning start by beating promoted Amiens 2-0.

It was only PSG’s fourth win in its last 12 season-opening games in Ligue 1.

World-record signing Neymar was ineligible to play because of paperwork issues, said PSG coach Unai Emery.

Just like the fans, Neymar watched from the stands.

The French league did not receive his international transfer certificate from the Spanish federation before Friday night’s deadline, despite his 222 million euro ($262 million) move from Barcelona being completed the previous day.

“All I know is that the club did everything to have the player’s transfer ratified,” Emery said. “He prepared for the game with the group, we waited until the very end. I don’t know if Spain did everything, but PSG did all it could.”