PSG’s Qatari owners have informed the club to “aggressively” slash their wage budget amid their interest in buying Man Utd.
Sheikh Jassim, chair of the Qatari Islamic Bank (QIB), has lodged an offiical bid to the Glazer family which United’s owners are currently mulling over alongside Sir Jim Ractliffe’s takeover offer.
The English club are up for sale. However, recent reports suggest that United’s executive co-chairmen, brothers Joel and Avram Glazer are both reluctant to selling their family’s entire majority stake in the club.
Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) owns PSG. For this reason, multi-club models are frowned upon by the European football governing body when it comes to sides being involved in the same competitions.
It’s now beeing claimed QSI wants to slash the club’s wage budget by 30% come the end of the summer transfer window.
Lionel Messi is out of contract at the end of the season. The Ligue 1 champions are yet o agree a new deal amid talk of a reutn to Barcelona. Messi currently pockets an outstanding after-tax salary of of €35million (£31m).
As for Kylian Mbappe, his eported £650,000-a-week contract hasn’t silenced rumours of a move to the Spanish capital, Real Madrid. With PSG needing to come from behind in their Champions League round-of-16 second leg away to Bayern Munich next month, French talisman Mbappe could seek new pastures.
Finally, Neymar is tipped to leave the French side after six years following a series of alleged bust-ups behind the scenes. The 31-year-old Brazilian recently picked up a serious ankle injury which could spell the end of his time in Paris.
Neymar is entitled to the same basic wage as Messi until 2025. He also holds an option to extend for a further year. PSG made the Brazil international available for a transfer last summer, and plan to do so again this year, but didn’t receive an offer for his services.
QSI are so desperate to keep Mbappe that they rejected a €200m (£171m) bid from Real Madrid in the final days of the 2021 summer transfer window. The Paris-born forward, still only 24 years old, committed his short-term future to PSG by signing his new deal last May which delighted the club hierarchy. But for how long they’ll be pleased remains uncertain.
PSG have accepted a fine from UEFA of up to €65m (£57m) over the next three seasons. If they fail to meet agreed targets on reducing financial deficits until the end of 2025-26 season, PSG face the prospect of having a reduced squad size for European club competitions. This is a ban on any net spend for registering new players, and potential exclusion from the Champions League.