Neymar Jr’s €500m+ move to Paris Saint-Germain might as well be paid for in Monopoly money. It’s made a mockery of UEFA’s already beleaguered Financial Fair Play rules. It’s shown that owners can still attempt to buy their way to Champions League success. It’s shown, more importantly, that money talks louder than league prestige, with the Brazilian seemingly all too happy to swap the history of Barcelona for the new money of the Parc des Princes. The fees which have caused all this are so unfathomably huge that Neymar will collect plenty of cash as he passes GO each year – £40m, to be exact. But while the transfer may shakeup European football, its scale means the deal will have a major impact off the pitch as well.
For a start it seems PSG’s billionaire Qatari owners are getting more than just a pretty good footballer. As the Guardian pointed out, Neymar seems to have mysteriously become a representative for the Qatar World Cup for a fee of around £200m – around the £200m that allowed him to buy out his own release clause and help PSG circumnavigate small-print transfer technicalities.
Content from our partners
