August 12 – Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has insisted that his club are complying with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations after signing Lionel Messi.
The club’s wage bill has skyrocketed this summer but Al-Khelaifi is adamant they can afford the wage bill without breaking any rules. The Argentine superstar will be paid a sign-on fee of €25 million, receive a two-year contract on a net salary of €35 million per-year, wioth the option to extend his contract a further year.
The arrival of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner follows the signings of Achraf Hakimi from Inter for €60 million as well as Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum and Gianluigi Donnarumma this summer. With Neymar and Mbappe still on the books, how can PSG possibly comply with FFP?
“I was waiting for this question,” said Al-Khelaifi at a news conference on Wednesday. “For us, always, as we said, we follow the FFP regulation from day one that we started. We will always fulfill the regulation.
“We always look at things with our commercial people and our financial people, we saw we had the capacity to sign him. If not, we wouldn’t have signed him. What Leo will bring to the club, that is huge.”
“Later we will give you some numbers and you will be shocked. I hope Leo will not ask for more salary, but always we will fulfil the financial fair play regulation.”
In fact, Khelaifi boasted that the rest of Ligue 1 was grateful to PSG for bringing the Argentine to France with the domestic game expected to benefit from Messi’s presence.
“In terms of the impact on Ligue 1, I think the championship is going up a level,” said the PSG president. “In TV rights, too, I hope, or in commercial partnerships. Everyone now wants to see Messi’s PSG, which increases the value of other clubs.
“The other presidents thanked me for the arrival of Leo. We are not only doing this for the club, but also for France and Ligue 1.”
Part of Messi’s sign-on fee has been paid on Fan Token cryptocurrency via PSG’s deal with blockchain provider Chiliz and its fan engagement platform Socios.com. $PSG Fan Token trading volumes exceeded $1.2 billion in the days preceding the confirmation of Messi’s move.
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