PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN PRESIDENT Nasser Al-Khelaifi has dismissed allegations made against the club in light of documents released by whistleblowers Football Leaks.
The Ligue 1 champions issued a forthright denial last week following claims made via Mediapart that they engaged in a fraudulent attempt to avoid severe Financial Fair Play (FFP) punishments from Uefa.
PSG and Manchester City reached settlements with the Uefa Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) in May 2014 following respective breaches.
The club statement insisted PSG “always acted in absolute compliance with the laws and regulations issued by sports institutions”, and Al-Khelaifi told RMC Sport in the aftermath of last night’s 1-1 Champions League draw against Napoli that he was more concerned with Sunday’s top-flight clash against Monaco.
“Honestly, I do not look at that,” he said, when asked about the Football Leaks revelations. “It’s complete rubbish. Winning our next games is the most important.”
PSG’s quest for victory against Napoli was hindered as contentious refereeing decisions went against them and Al-Khelaifi is pleased Uefa will introduce the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system in its flagship competition next season.
Jose Callejon appeared to be offside in the build-up to the incident that saw Napoli awarded a 62nd-minute penalty, from which Lorenzo Insigne cancelled out Juan Bernat’s first-half goal.
Bernat also felt he should have had a penalty and Al-Khelaifi added: “We will have to win our last two games to qualify. Of course there is, there is certainly a penalty. But we will accept. VAR is needed as quickly as possible. We lost two points for two errors of the referee.”
Napoli are top of Group C but level on six points with Liverpool, with PSG a point further back with two rounds of fixtures remaining. PSG host Jurgen Klopp’s side on 28 November in a key game in the context of the group, and Al-Khelaifi has backed Thomas Tuchel’s side to prevail.
“Now we will play against Liverpool at home, it will be a great match,” he added. “We have to focus on it. The coach is doing a very good job, I am very happy. We had no luck tonight. We did what we wanted and we cannot change the result.”
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Brilliant article, really insightful.
The GAA should have something like this. Thousands of coaches around the country but the coaching awards path is quite thin. Foundation, award 1, award 2.