Commentary
For weeks, the football world has been exposed to the fascinating story of 22-year-old France’s stunning Kylian Mbappe playing at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the prestigious club of France’s Top Tier League 1 football tournament. ..
The club is owned by Qatar stakeholders and is very expensive. With an astronomical salary, I was able to sign Barcelona FC’s international superstars Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos.
Mbappe’s contract in Paris Saint-Germain expired in June 2022, and unless he renews his contract, he will become a free agent on July 1st and will be able to join Real Madrid, a Spanish club dedicated to ensuring service. increase.
For Mbappe, this is a lifelong dream come true. For Real, it will make it a European power.
From January 2022, just a few months away, Mbappe was eligible to sign a pre-contract with Real and did not incur a large transfer fee.
Nonetheless, the club wants to secure service immediately during the recently completed summer transfer period, or “Mercato,” and has a € 200 million (US $ 236 million) transfer to PSG to free players. Provided.
But even if Mbappe was free to leave in just a few months, Parisians refused to be upset.
Why does the club forgo 200 million euros under these circumstances?
Two explanations are provided.
First, PSG may believe that in the coming months, Mbappe can be urged to renew his contract by offering a huge salary.
Second, the Paris Club is owned and funded by the strong and rich interests of Qatar, which has inexhaustible funds. This may explain PSG’s ability to abandon 200 million euros.
The story of Mbappe’s transfer confirmed that not everything can be bought with money. Indeed, if the player wants to leave, he is unlikely to be upset.
Despite an annual salary of € 18 million (US $ 21.25 million), Mbappe considers the privilege of playing Real to be the highest admiration for the sport.
PSG’s rejection of Real’s generous offer also warns the football community of the negative impact of money on sports.
Qatar is the country that will host the FIFA World Cup from November to December 2022.
Qatar is also suspected of bribing FIFA personnel to ensure that the cup is assigned to it. The various conspiracy theories that have emerged over the past few years have undoubtedly had a negative impact on the football world in the short term, but what is of concern is the long-term destructive impact of the power of money.
FIFA has financial fair play rules that limit the amount of money a club can spend on new players. But these don’t seem to stop PSG at all.
There is no doubt that competition can be distorted if a club has unlimited financial resources for any reason and gives it an unfair advantage over other clubs.
Such distortions have an anti-competitive effect and distort the game and competition.
Of course, the club’s financial position can be the result of sound financial management. In such cases, it would be unfair to deprive the club of the ability to sign world-class players. But as far as PSG is concerned, the ability to reject € 200 million is a large consequence of Qatar and probably has little to do with proper management.
Without a doubt, the club wants the best lineup of upcoming Champions League tournaments. Especially after signing Messi recently, Messi has been unable to pay from the financially difficult Barcelona FC. Messi paid 71 million euros (US $ 83) annually. a million).
It’s certainly uncertain that PSG has sacrificed transfer money to promote a moment of Champions League glory.
This is because there is no guarantee that Mbappe, who missed the dream transfer, is ready to do his best for the club in Paris.
He also knows that Real was willing to spend 200 million euros on him, even though he was free to rope him in just a few months.
Therefore, in the future it will be clear whether he will not get in the way of securing the Champions League glory for his current club under these circumstances.
In any case, clubs with the best and most talented players can still lose important games. After all, a football game lasts 90 minutes, during which something can happen.
Money affects what happens on the football field, but quality that cannot be easily evaluated or measured, such as patience, determination, consistency, fitness, and team effort, also plays an important role.
One thing is certain: Mbappe’s soap opera will surprise and entertain football lovers around the world and attract those who prefer sound financial management in sports.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Gabriël A. Professor MoensAM was an emeritus professor of law at the University of Queensland and was a vice president, dean, and professor of law at Murdoch University. He published the novel “A Swiss Choice” on the origin of COVID-19 disease and recently published the short story “The Greedy Prospector” in the anthology of the short story “The Outback” (Boolarong Press, 2021).