Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi on Monday expressed “proud” for the French club’s ties to Portugal and pledged that the relationship between the institution he governs and the country will continue to strengthen.
The businessman, CEO of QSI, an investment fund affiliated with the government of Qatar, his country of origin, participated as a videoconference speaker in the Football Talks forum organized by the Portuguese Football Federation in Cidade do Futebol, in Oeiras, showing optimistic about the future of sports.
“We are very optimistic, the future of football is bright. I think football itself has its culture, it is something traditional, but we have to think outside the box. We have to be more creative. The matches were a great success,” recalls All himself. -Khelaifi.
The leader of the Paris club showed his deep respect for Portugal and its football: “PSG has always included Portugal and the Portuguese – one of our legends is present at the conference with you, Pauleta, one of the great strikers in the history of our club. We have Danilo and several other Portuguese players, there is a strong connection with Portugal and we are proud of that,” he said.
“Portugal has an impressive number of talents. You won the Euro 2016, you went to the Euro 2004 final… you are without a doubt one of the best countries in Europe and the bond will get stronger,” promised Nasser Al-Kelaifi .
The PSG head also emphasized his stance against the European Superleague project, which he called “Non-Superliga”, and expressed satisfaction with the new model presented by the Champions League, whose “formula has already shown that it will increase the number of supporters and is a huge success even before the competition starts”.
“We have to respect the fans, including the media, the football ecosystem is much bigger than some clubs. My colleagues at the European Club Association and I are not in favor of the Superliga and that helps to protect medium and small clubs. It is important that they continue to develop, that they can play in the Champions League and become big clubs. A medium or small club can suddenly become big,” said Al-Khelaifi.
PSG chairman defends investment in football and calls debt ‘danger’
French PSG president Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi on Monday defended the importance of investment in European football and said some clubs’ debts “a danger” to the future of the sport.
As part of his videoconferencing intervention at the Football Talks forum, which takes place in Cidade do Futebol, in Oeiras, the Qatar-born businessman also warned that “the threat of covid-19 still exists”, not least because ” not all clubs have fully recovered from Covid-19.”
“Of course the effect was greater with the smaller clubs, but we are all learning from it. Sustainability is important and football is changing quickly, everyone is working on investing in football,” he said.
The French club leader was clear: “We invest, we don’t buy, we invest in football because we love football, PSG and our fans.”
“Football has to have investment and grow because other sports invest a lot and if we don’t invest in football the investment will go to other sports. The new sports model we have to pursue includes the ability to invest,” recalls the PSG owner. .
Nasser Al-Khelaifi defended that “during the covid-19 period, football survived thanks to investment” and was also critical of the business model used by other clubs, which he believes could harm the future of the sport.
“Many clubs have huge debts. Is it healthy? There are clubs deeply in debt and that is a danger to football,” he characterized.
The Paris leader explained that “at PSG, social networks have grown from hundreds of thousands to more than 100 million”, and that “the French league is being shown in many countries”.
“I’m proud of that. I go to Los Angeles or Miami, I see the PSG shirt and that’s projecting France. If we have a small business and we want it to become global, we have to invest. If we don’t, “Clubs don’t grow. We want to grow medium-sized clubs and that benefits the competition,” predicted the investor and businessman.
Finally, Nasser Al-Khelaifi encouraged betting on women’s football.
“Diversity is extremely important to us. We were one of the first clubs to invest in and believe in women’s football — we started investing in 2011 and entered competitions in 2012. We have seen the tremendous success of the Women’s European Championship and this year we will be very important as well. We had 43,000 fans watching the games,” he recalls enthusiastically.
When asked whether he believes women’s football can be profitable, the PSG chairman and owner of the association that leads the French club (QSI) has no doubts.
“No doubt. It will take some time, but the clubs are investing. We need a competitive women’s Champions League and a Europa League. We need to focus more, that’s where the future lies, although there is still a lot to do.” do, namely in the youth ranks. We will definitely get there,” he assured.
Source: DN
