PSG dismiss claims of Financial Fair Play breach as totally false
Preliminary investigation found value of sponsorship deals had been ‘overstated’
Paris St-Germain last night denied an inquiry into whether they breached Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules, after their world-record signings of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, had unearthed evidence that could result in them being banned from next season’s Champions League.
The Qatari-owned French champions dismissed a report in the Financial Times that a preliminary investigation had found the value of sponsorship deals at the club had been “significantly overstated” compared with their true worth. Were it true, it would put PSG on course to breach Uefa’s FFP rules for a second time, an offence for which they were fined £50 million four years ago.
Uefa opened an investigation -after PSG smashed the transfer world record to recruit Neymar from Barcelona for £200 million and sign Mbappe on a highly controversial £167 million loan-to-buy deal from Monaco last summer.
According to the Financial Times, the investigatory arm of Uefa appointed sports consultants Octagon to conduct an independent review of PSG’s sponsorship contracts amid concern some of the money had come from related parties. The report said Octagon was asked to determine the fair market value of these sponsorships and, according to two people with knowledge of the review, it found contracts in the region of pounds 175 million to have been “significantly overstated”.
The report also said Uefa’s investigatory team was due to meet next week to discuss the review’s findings and that PSG were planning to contest them by showing additional factors helped add value to its sponsorships, such as greater international interest in the club as a result of the Neymar signing.