Uefa says Paris Saint-Germain are not under investigation over sales to Qatari clubs
Uefa says it is not currently investigating Paris Saint-Germain over the sale of three first-team players to Qatari clubs during the summer transfer window.
The deals for Marco Verratti, Julian Draxler and Abdou Diallo attracted scrutiny as French champions PSG are also owned by the Gulf state through Qatari Sports Investments.
French outlet L’Equipe reported that Uefa would assess whether the transfers were at fair market value, amid suggestions that PSG could be using related-party transactions to inflate their income and comply with financial fair play rules.
But a spokesperson for the governing body told City PM: “The Uefa Club Financial Control Body has not yet started to look into these matters since it waits for the clubs to submit their final accounts by mid-October. The CFCB will then analyse each club situation and decide how to proceed.”
PSG insiders insist that the sales of Draxler to Al Ahli and Verratti and Diallo to Al-Arabi were all done at market value, and that some of the fees had been mis-reported.
They said the club had received less than the suggested €20m (£17m) for Draxler, and that Saudi Pro League sides bid more than the €45m (£39m) Al-Arabi paid for Verratti, only for the deal to collapse due to a disagreement with an agent. Diallo cost €15m (£13m).
Uefa placed PSG under greater scrutiny last year after finding them guilty of breaching financial fair play rules, for which they received a fine of €65m (£56m). The sum will be reduced to €10m if they comply with a set of spending restrictions, but if they fail to meet their targets they could be banned from the Champions League.
The £69m received from the sales of Verratti, Draxler and Diallo will help the Parisians to balance the books, although their biggest incoming fee was the €90m (£78m) they received from Saudi club Al Hilal for Neymar.