But how could Manchester City go from a Champions League ban for violating financial fair play to recruiting the world’s most expensive player, Lionel Messi? It is this strange challenge that the club from the north of England, held by an investment fund in Abu Dhabi, is currently trying to achieve.
“The main constraint in this negotiation is financial fair play,” confirms economist Luc Arrondel, researcher at CNRS. Otherwise, Manchester City and PSG would have a blast. In England as in France, it will be necessary to leave between 100 and 120 million euros (M €), at least, just to ensure the salary. We will have to be cunning. The fact that City are a global club can help. With its American franchise (Editor’s note: the New York City club), there may be the possibility of spreading the salary over several years… ”
On the fair play side, Manchester City has yet come close to disaster. But the suspension imposed by UEFA and annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) relates to facts dating back to before 2016 and relating to contracts signed before 2014.
An envelope of 170 million euros
These are the elements brought to light by the Football Leaks which had led to the investigation and the sanction, by demonstrating a system of inflating the amounts collected by sponsorship. The CAS considered that most of the facts were time-barred. City had already signed an agreement for breaches of the regulation relating to the balance of its accounts in 2014.
But since then, the financial policeman has found nothing to complain about with his accounts, nor those of PSG, after a procedure on the 2017-2018 accounts canceled by the CAS, there too. Manchester City have even posted profits of over 11 million euros each of the past two years, according to the specialist Twitter account SwissRamble.
His intention to spend the money this summer is not new. As soon as the sanction was lifted, an envelope of at least 170 million euros was mentioned. A surprising amount but which can be explained by a relative sobriety in recent seasons. The balance of the transfer window of City had accumulated “only” 122 M € of deficit in the last two seasons, against 406 M € in the two previous years (source Transfermarkt).
No prospect of added value
On the Paris side, in public as well as in private, the club has played soberly in recent years and this is the line presented by Leonardo to all his interlocutors for the current transfer window, despite the profits of recent seasons. A figure that can be explained by the coronavirus crisis and by the end of the “Nation branding” contract with the Qatari tourist office which brought in € 145 million per season for PSG, reduced to € 58 million by financial fair play . The sensational increase in its sponsorship income (Nike, Accor, Rwanda…), the good run in the Champions League and the departures of Thiago Silva, Edinson Cavani and a few others have offered PSG possibilities.
VIDEO. “It would take a miracle to see Messi at PSG”
“Perhaps with these elements, Paris can reach the level, but we must also ask the question of the interest for these clubs to hire a 33-year-old player, explains Luc Arrondel. It is a one-shot pistol, because it will have to be made profitable at the sporting and economic level over one season, two at most. At this age, the player’s human capital, his salary, is much more important than his human heritage, because it will be difficult to generate income for a long time with a 33-year-old player. And there is no prospect of capital gain on resale. “
