People linked to the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain, informed Kylian Mbappé in January that they were studying his transfer to Manchester United, as long as he approved it and the English club was acquired by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, president of the club. Islamic Bank of Qatar (BIQ). According to sources from the Parisian club, the French striker did not commit to anything, but he stated that the idea seemed interesting to him. On Monday, Mbappé, who ends his contract with PSG in June 2024, conveyed to the club through a letter that he is not interested in extending his relationship until 2025, a possibility that provided for the wording of the renewal agreement signed a year ago.
Mbappé’s letter to PSG coincided with the publication, this Monday, that Sheikh Jassim had reached an agreement for the purchase of United. The Qatari Daily Al Watan, owned by the family of Sheikh Jassim, reported that the sale was practically closed, after a Qatari delegation completed the negotiation with the representatives of the six Glazer brothers, American owners of the English club. The reaction of the New York Stock Exchange was immediate. United shares were up as much as 10% in the afternoon session on Tuesday.
“All the news points to the success of Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim in the acquisition of Manchester United and the deal will be announced very soon,” said Fahad al-Emadi, director of the Al Watan.
Pending the official purchase of United by BIQ, the daily L’Equipe reported on Monday that PSG had decided to sell Mbappé this summer if the player chose not to renew the contract until 2025. Until now, Real Madrid has been the club that has shown the greatest interest in acquiring the footballer’s services in case that he left Paris. The striker, however, preferred not to accept the offer made to him by the Spanish club last year, citing affective reasons: Paris is his city and PSG, his lifelong club. After Mbappé’s letter, the newspaper le parisien assured that the player wants to sign for Real Madrid this summer, something that the attacker himself denied shortly after in a tweet in which he cited the information from the French media outlet: “Lies. I have already said that I will continue next season at PSG, where I am very happy”.
MESSENGES…❌
In même temps plus c’est gros plus ça passe. J’ai déjà say that I’m going to continue the season prochaine au PSG où je suis très heureux. https://t.co/QTsoBQvZKU— Kylian Mbappé (@KMbappe) June 13, 2023
The sources consulted at PSG warn that it is very unlikely that Mbappé sent the letter announcing that he would not renew without first having a buying club. “Mbappé knows that after that letter, his coexistence for a year with the ultras in Paris will be very difficult,” they say at PSG. They also indicate that Mbappé is aware that his transfer to Real Madrid is practically impossible as long as he has a current contract with PSG. In the Paris club they take it for granted that relations between the Qatari owners and Florentino Pérez, president of Madrid, broke two years ago. Negotiating a sale of this size would be exhausting at best.
Today, PSG’s intention, as observed by officials very close to the club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, only involves retaining the player or selling him to a friendly society. The staging of a fight between PSG and Mbappé could just be a smokescreen. The possible prelude to his departure to United, they say, in an operation endorsed by the Government of Qatar. The princes of the Persian Gulf country are very concerned about showing the soccer industry that both clubs are independent, contrary to appearances that point to joint ownership coordinated from Qatar. Last week the Web The Athletic reported that Al-Khelaifi has been a key player in the negotiations between Sheikh Jassim and the Glazers.
UEFA’s position
People close to Al-Khelaifi indicate that the Qatari agents involved in the purchase of United proposed to Mbappé a win-win exit for all parties: he will play in the richest team in the Premier, the strongest league in the world, and leave a minimum of 200 million to PSG as a transfer, a circumstance that compensates the club of origin. If Mbappé were to run out of his current contract until 2024, PSG would get no financial benefit in exchange for the loss of his star. This Tuesday, Mbappé positioned himself against the Parisian club in a statement to the AFP news agency, in which he assures that in the summer he already warned the French entity that he would not renew in 2024. The player affirms that the email sent on Monday PSG “had the sole objective of confirming what had already been clarified previously.”
The Qataris insist that both PSG and United will formally belong to different owners. While United would fall to BIQ, PSG is owned by the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar. Now UEFA must pronounce itself. In anticipation of conflicts of interest, Article 5.01 of the UEFA Competition Regulations prohibits two clubs from having the same owner or being directly or indirectly controlled by the same people, under penalty of expelling one of the two. clubs from European tournaments. Sources with knowledge of the operation within PSG indicate that UEFA has told them that it will allow both United and PSG to participate in the Champions League next year. In this regard, Aleksander Çeferin, president of UEFA, expressed himself during an interview with Gary Neville in March. “It’s not about just saying ‘no’ to club timeshare,” he observed. “We need to review the rules.”
The start of the formal sale process for United was announced on November 22, when the Glazer family announced that it would begin to “explore alternatives” to transfer ownership of the club. On Wednesday, Sheikh Jassim transferred to the American owners his final offer, 6,000 million euros for total control of United, an amount that exceeded the last bid of Jim Rattclife, owner of the chemical Ineos. Until now, the record sale of a football club corresponds to Chelsea, sold by the Russian Roman Abramovich to the American Todd Boehly for around 4,700 million euros, under the supervision of the British Government.
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