Some collect stamps, champagne capsules or vintage football shirts, preferring manager caps. A matter of taste. President of Paris-Saint-Germain, of BeIN Media Groupe, of the Qatari and Asian tennis federations and even minister without portfolio in his country, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi (47 years old) has just put on a new one: president of the Association European Club (ECA), the representative body of the clubs of the Old Continent. But no voice is raised to denounce him as a horrible cumulator. Lately, man has like a halo above his head.
By a mixture of interests and intuition, Mr. Al-Khelaïfi is the one who said no. No to this poorly fomented putsch by twelve super-rich people, no to this Super League which went up in smoke in forty-eight hours. And here is the Qatari repainted as a defender of sporting meritocracy before facing Manchester City (one of the first mutineers to unwind), in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League, Wednesday April 28, at the Parc des Princes.
“With your help we will save football”, even launched the president of the UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, lyric, during an exceptional congress, on April 20. The Parisian club – long criticized for its deviations from the financial fair play imposed by the European body – now occupies the role of main support for UEFA to save its beloved Champions League. As well as the very respectable Bayern Munich. “Football must be built on communities, not on mutinies”, affirms to World the president of PSG since 2011 and intimate of the reigning prince of Qatar, Tamim Ben Hamad Al Thani.
Insensitive to the coup d’etat putschists
For Doha, the Super League episode is timely, a year and a half before its World Cup. In the media, he has already had the merit of extinguishing a less favorable streak, marked by recent calls for boycott or, more consensually, by these T-shirts worn by certain teams to denounce the working conditions on the stadiums under construction. . “PSG did not embark on this premature adventure and thus avoided unnecessary clashes with UEFA and FIFA, which are key partners of the next World Cup “, observes Mahfoud Amara, Algerian-British professor in politics and sports management at the University of Qatar.
However, the double play of Gianni Infantino, prince of Florentine maneuvers, could have misled him. In its edition of April 24, The world reveals that the FIFA president is suspected of having participated in secessionist meetings, with the idea of swapping possible support for favors granted to his beloved Club World Cup. Vintage 995e ATP world tennis player, “NAK” preferred to stay on the baseline. Above all, he manages to resist repeated foot calls from his counterparts in Juventus Turin (Andrea Agnelli) and Real Madrid (Florentino Perez).
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