PSG spend big and have small losses

Since the Qatar Investment Authority became Paris Saint-Germain’s majority shareholder money has been no object in building up the club as one of the leading sides in Europe. £92m was spent in the first year of ownership and £128m this season.

It is therefore surprising that PSG made a loss of only £4.8m in the 2011-12 season which puts it on the right side of Uefa’s financial fair play rules. Media rights, commercial income and match day revenue add up to just £84.5m, well short of spending.

Since the Qatar Investment Authority became Paris Saint-Germain’s majority shareholder money has been no object in building up the club as one of the leading sides in Europe. £92m was spent in the first year of ownership and £128m this season.

It is therefore surprising that PSG made a loss of only £4.8m in the 2011-12 season which puts it on the right side of Uefa’s financial fair play rules. Media rights, commercial income and match day revenue add up to just £84.5m, well short of spending.

However, there is £109.2m of ‘other income’. It is not certain what there is, but there is a lot of speculation that it is some kind of massive sponsorship deal signed between the Qatar Tourism Authority and the club.

However, Uefa says that it will benchmark such deals against comparable arrangements between unrelated companies. So if PSG had a £100m deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority, only £20m-£30m would count for the purposes of financial fair play.