Since the start of the World Cup in Qatar, the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser Al Khelaifi, has drastically increased his presence in the media.He does it all for a reason. First, to emphasize the quality of the organization of the World Cup and to defend the Qatari state regarding the violation of human rights and the death of workers during the construction of the stadiums and the rest of the infrastructure. Recently, he spoke to Bloomberg about the plans for the further development of the club and the stadium, and in the conversation with L’Equipe, he brought together all the most important topics…First of all, about the speculation that the Qatari investment fund (QSI) plans to sell the club in the foreseeable future…”I was recently asked about whether it is true that we are selling PSG after the World Cup. I replied with a smile that it was not true. Again, regarding further investments and development of the club, if we need to sell 5, 10 or 15 percent of the share, why not”, says the first man of the club and continues:”It is true that many are interested in our club. We look in two directions – towards a good investor and a strategic partner. This second thing is the most important to us. If there was someone who would help us to further raise the club, why not bring him”.##NAJAVA_MECA_6862161##Does this mean that QSI would invest less money in the future?”It is not a question of whether we will invest more or less money, but to further develop the brand, our profession and business”.What is the projection of the club’s future, in 10, 15 or 20 years?”We are here for the long haul. We are thinking about what is best to further develop the club? Deep in my heart, I would not like us to sell any percentage of the shares. But if there is a good investments, why not? We don’t want to bring in someone who will be there for two years and then sell his share. We want someone who would appreciate the values of this club”.How will the club fight with losses of 370,000,000 euros in the past year?”To answer this question, we have to go back a bit. Before covid, we had a plus of 50,000,000 euros in the 2017/18 season and another 30,000,000 for 2018/19. Then came the corona, in which all the clubs suffered a lot. It’s the same with us, maybe more than others. We had a drop in income from television rights, we didn’t have an audience in the stadium for months, we paid huge expenses, more than other clubs. Look at the situation in the Premier League with their clubs, their income from television rights increased, while in Ligue 1 it decreased. Now the value of television rights in the Premier League is three billion more than Ligue 1 per season,” says Al Khelaifi and adds:”We are trying to come back from everything that happened to us. If we don’t invest enough, the players will suffer. Look how it is with the others – Liverpool, Manchester City and other clubs, they all continue to invest. Otherwise, we would lose the next four to five years for development. It is not easy for us to work in France where incomes are limited. We are trying to push the boundaries”.##NAJAVA_MECA_6867616##The next important topic is related to the purchase of the Parc des Princes stadium. The desire of the Qatari owners is to further invest in the club and the stadium, to raise the quality to a higher level. Parc des Princes has a capacity of 48,000 seats, the idea of the club owner is to increase it to 80,000! However, according to Al Khelaifi’s confession, the city authorities have not allowed it for five years now and, as stated, they are forcing PSG out of the stadium. There was the option of moving to Saint-Denis, which has a capacity of more than 81,000 seats, as well as buying it. Also, QSI is even thinking about buying Saint-Denis, but also about two locations where a new stadium could be built…In recent days, there has been a lot of talk about PSG’s desire to buy Parc des Princes from the city authorities in Paris, who still persistently refuse to do so…”Purchasing Parc des Princes is a logical thing from an economic point of view. With the development of the stadium, we would raise the income additionally. It’s not the same whether you have your own stadium or not. They accuse me (people from the city government) of playing around with them, and I never play. I love Parc des Princes, I have always defended everything that has to do with the stadium and PSG. If they (the city government) were sensible, we would stay at Parc des Princes forever. But under these conditions it is not possible to cooperate”.Why?”Due to various problems, we had to close out 2,000 seats. Technically the stadium lags far behind the others. PSG does not have a stadium that can reach the highest financial and sporting level. I’ll give you an example – if the fans were closer to the field, right behind the goalkeeper, we would probably score six or seven goals just from their pressure (laughs). Look, we’ve sold out the last 100 games at home, which is why we’re driving people away from the club. There are not enough seats in the stadium to accept everyone who wants to come and watch the matches”.##NAJAVA_MECA_6869054##You know the fans don’t want you to leave the stadium?”We don’t want to either. But we have no other choice. That’s what I told the people from the city authorities. We cannot stay at Parc des Princes under these conditions. They should reconsider our offer. We have already invested more than 80,000,000 euros in the stadium. And, what have the people of the town done since we arrived?”.Mayor Anne Hidalgo says that you sent an offer of 40,000,000 euros for the purchase of the stadium, which she considers too low…”I have one question… What is the value of the stadium without PSG? Nothing! The city authorities must ask themselves what the club brings to Paris as a city. If they think that we will pay 500,000,000 euros, then we will go and build a new stadium”.What did you say at the meeting?”If they don’t accept our offer – we will leave. We are not threatening. We will just shake hands, say thank you for everything and say goodbye”.Nasser Al Khelaïfi: “We must have a better stadium for our fans. We are studying other alternatives because I think we are no longer welcome at the Parc des Princes.”(@marca) pic.twitter.com/kLMqA7j1cL— Fnews. (@FnewsFoot) November 29, 2022 How long have you been trying to buy Parc des Princes?“Five years. Every time we received the answer that it would be realized after the city or presidential elections. We lost five years in which we would have built a new stadium. And look at the other clubs. I don’t know how many people we have to agree with in order to reach an agreement, because we haven’t made any progress”.It seems that the city authorities are afraid to sell the stadium to Qatari investors. Would the stadium belong to the club or the investors?”Of course it would belong to the club. We invested money in PSG, which is a French club, right? PSG is not a Qatari club. Players play in France. Is Chelsea an American club? We raised the value of Ligue 1. I would like a study to be done on how much the club has brought to the city since our arrival. How many tourists came to Paris to watch PSG? We opened our museum, how many people passed through it? How much taxes do we pay? Seriously… We’re not stupid. We will no longer be exploited by anyone, we will stop being good to others”.Does Al-Khelaifi really think that buying Parc des Princes is cheaper than Paredes?WE DON’T NEED NEW SIGNINGSAre you planning to invest money in reinforcements this winter?”We’ll see. Honestly, I don’t we will. We don’t need anyone. We need and want to keep the same team. I believe that we have found the right collective spirit and that we are working well”.Christophe Galtier and sporting director Luis Campos still want to bring in a center defender…”They didn’t ask us anything, because they understand how things work. We all communicate together about important things. I have a lot of respect for the coach, I am grateful to him for everything he brought to the team. He is a very good coach”.##NAJAVA_MECA_6865806##But you didn’t want him in the summer?”That’s another crazy comment we’ve been reading for a long time. This is not true. Otherwise we wouldn’t have brought him. He is one of the two coaches I respect the most”.Apart from Vitinha, the other new signings are mostly reserves. Are you happy with the players you brought in?“Extremely. The players adapted very quickly to the team, the city, the level of quality. There are many games, injuries, but we are happy with how things are progressing. We brought young players, local. We are creating a good foundation for the future. We haven’t lost the last 15 games. The team is growing, playing better and better”.How different are the ways of work of Luis Campos and Antero Henrique?”I won’t hide it, there were certain disagreements. But nothing personal. They got into each other’s work a little bit, which is why we had to react. Antero was doing a good job selling players, Luis was doing his job on the other side. It’s hard when two heads are doing the same job. It’s a matter of communication. Antero remains at the club, but will no longer deal with the first team. He will help Braga more (QSI bought 22 percent of the Portuguese club), and we will also move to another club”.Teams focusing on World Cup, not politics, have excelled, says WengerLeo Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe have all been in excellent form in recent months. Is this the year PSG will finally win the Champions League?”We are going step by step. Let’s wait for the end of the World Cup, then we will return to Ligue 1. In February, we will have a double-header with Bayern”.Is it a mistake that you said earlier that you want to win the Champions League as soon as possible?“Maybe. I’m not ashamed to say I was wrong. Our club is bigger than that. We have great success in other sports sectors, which is also very important”.Have you opened negotiations with Messi on a new contract? If Mbappe doesn’t want to extend his contract again, does that mean you will sell him next summer?”This is the year of the World Cup. I hope both of them will play great in Qatar. After that we will talk…”THE IMAGE OF QATAR IS CHANGING SIGNIFICANTLYThe World Cup in Qatar is the subject of many controversies and speculations. Has the tournament changed the image of your country for the better so far?”Yes, a lot. Nobody is perfect, not even us. We have to look at things more broadly. Many journalists have changed their opinion about our country since they were in Doha. There are currently over 20,000 journalists from all over the world in Qatar. How many of them were in our country before the World Cup? Maybe two hundred of them. Many wrote bad things about us, without even being in the country. That wasn’t fair. I would think the same if that’s how they wrote about France, without someone coming to the country and seeing how things work”.Journalists wrote about the exploitation of workers, the violation of human rights…##NAJAVA_MECA_6862161##”People judge us like this because it’s Qatar. We are a small country, people still cannot accept that the World Cup is organized here. Today I am a very proud man. We are humble, we give out heart to everyone and into everything. We showed the world that we can do a lot. The infrastructure is amazing, the fans are great and everything is open to families. All cultures are welcome. Our goal is to promote peace, we accept people from all over the world. Qatar has changed”.And what do you say about already proven facts, such as the death of workers and violation of human rights?”Why wasn’t it talked about at some earlier championships or other events? I did not see that it was written, talked about and researched. I am not saying that we are the best, but neither are we as bad as it is being emphasized. Nobody is perfect. But we have grown more than any nation in history.”Are you saying that the public is tougher on Qatar than it was on Russia, Brazil, South Africa?“Definitely. No one in Qatar understands why this is so. We know we have to improve, that’s what we did. We read a lot about the stadiums, they were not built by Qatari companies. Already multinational corporations that make huge profits from it. Why isn’t that written about European companies that do the same? We take part of the responsibility, but it is not fair what is being done, honestly”.##NAJAVA_MECA_6862176##Several national teams, such as Denmark and Germany, have publicly protested these problems…”The Emir said nicely at the opening ceremony – everyone is welcome to Qatar. Regardless of nationality, religious affiliation, sexual orientation and beliefs. We asked everyone to respect our culture. I sincerely believe that politics and sports should not mix. If the magnifiying glass was broader, we would have protests about everything. I would like to thank Hugo Lloris, he was absolutely right. The World Cup is fun, football should unite, not divide”.
