Tears streamed down Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) star Neymar’s face following the team’s on Sunday defeat to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) final.
Following the 1-0 victory for the German club, Neymar’s tears were not only an admission of his disappointment at the defeat, but an indication of a failed project, despite the huge amount of money pumped in. This is also the sixth time out of seven previous games that a French team has lost the UCL final.
Qatari businessperson and PSG President, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, has spent a staggering €1.3bn on the French team over the last nine years. The thinking has, so far been, that the more that is spent, the more likely the team would be to win the European trophy for the first time in its history. Sunday’s failure, however, proved that a seemingly endless inflow of money is not necessarily the answer.
That money alone does not make a hero as proven by Bayern Munich’s approach, with the German team boasting a marketing value far less than that of PSG. Despite their lesser finances, the Bavarian team still succeeded in settling the title due to its worthy previous European experiences.
The Qatari project in Paris has continued the series of failures, despite huge financial deals and lavish spending on players and the club in recent years.
The Paris team paid a staggering €222m for Neymar’s transfer from Spain’s Barcelona, and then bought the French star Kylian Mbappé for €180m. Despite these expensive purchases, the club has yet to see any results on the international stage, having so far only achieved local titles.
The UCL loss was poorly timed for Al-Khelaifi, as he is set to appear at a 14 September trial before Swiss judiciary on corruption charges related to obtaining television broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup finals.
The interesting thing in the case is that he was summoned as a witness in 2017, after suspicions were raised of corruption in the transferral of the 2026 and 2030 World Cups to the Middle East and North Africa region. This was before he became the main suspect in his alleged involvement in manipulating broadcasting rights and bribing officials of the tournament.
