Pascal Ferré, during a Marseille-PSG match, at the Stade-Vélodrome, February 26, 2023. REAU ALEXIS / PRESSE SPORTS
It is a strange mixture of genres that is highlighted by the judicial investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office, in 2022, on the “affairs” surrounding Paris Saint-Germain and its Qatari president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, alias “NAK “. This sprawling investigation resulted in six protagonists being indicted, foremost among whom are the Franco-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane, the former anti-terrorist police officer turned PSG employee Malik Nait-Liman, and Jean-Martial Ribes, the ex-director of communications for the club (2017-2022) and its owner, the Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) fund.
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The investigation recently focused on the activities of Mr. Ribes, indicted on December 1, 2023, among other things for “active corruption and influence peddling”. “Ribes is asked to obtain tickets for PSG football matches by journalists, politicians, elected officials, members of ministerial cabinets or the presidency, artistswe can read in a report from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) dated November 2023. He sometimes obtains services from them, particularly on a private basis. Services that he requests or that are offered to him. »
According to this same document, already cited by Liberation, The Team et Mediapart and consulted by The worldthe investigators interested in the case of Pascal Ferré, former editor-in-chief of the magazine France Football (FF), a title belonging, like The team, to the Amaury group. Mr. Ferré was in particular responsible for organizing the Ballon d’Or trophy, a prestigious award awarded by the magazine to the best player of the year following a vote by specialized journalists from around the world. For clubs too, the issue is crucial in terms of marketing and image.
In this context, the investigators studied the evolution of relations between Mr. Ferré and the leaders of PSG, Mr. Ribes and its president, NAK, while the relationships between The teamthe other title of the Amaury group, and the club had deteriorated. Thus, according to the IGPN, it appears that Mr. Ferré agreed, on July 15, 2019, at the request of Mr. Ribes, to withdraw « you file info » from the site of FF a recovery by The team of information of Mediapart implicating NAK for an irregular commission of 2 million euros paid to a players’ agent.
“Tennis stay” in the emirate
According to investigators, Mr. Ferré subsequently received several gifts from the PSG staff. If, for scheduling reasons, he cannot honor all-expense-paid invitations (“hotel, business from A to Z”says Mr. Ribes) in Qatar for the Club World Cup, in December 2019 then in January 2020, the editor-in-chief of FF is invited, in February 2020, to a “tennis stay” in the emirate in order to attend, in particular, a tournament. Mr. Ribes then obtains the agreement of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi “so that the plane, hotel and tennis are paid for by the Qatar government communications office.”
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2024-01-06 06:57:00
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