A lot has been said about Neymar’s £198 million pound move from Barcelona to Paris St-Germain but I thought I would throw in my two-penneth as well. I cannot think of any printable words to express my disgust other than obscene and disgraceful. It will be a massive game changer not on the field but off it as every parasitical agent will be considering asking for more money for their players and jacking up transfer fees for any Premier League and Championship player. I thought Manchester United’s 89 million pounds for Pogba was crazy but this Neymar deal has taken crazy to a new level.
As I understand it the Financial Fair Play rules don’t apply to teams in the Champions League in terms of wages as they do to every other team. So how is that fair play? And anyway I am sure the Qatari owners will find new sponsorship deals to offset the cost of Neymar and balance things in terms of the Financial Fair Play rules.
I read that Neymar said the move was nothing to do with money! Are you sure? He might as well have started his interview with “Once upon a time”. Of course it’s about the money and I for one don’t blame him. No one would turn down half a million pounds a week net of tax! However I would have more respect if he said of course it’s about money I couldn’t turn it down. Moving from Barcelona to PSG cannot be for reasons to do with ambition and wanting to win trophies.
Having said that I am sure the club are already renegotiating their commercial deals and consequently will increase their commercial revenue by a significant percentage with Neymar at the club. In fact I understand that they sold half a million shirts worldwide last season and with Neymar in the squad that could increase to 2 million this season. So I get that the deal might make financial sense to PSG but in my opinion it’s to the detriment of the game overall.
To me it looks nothing more than mega rich owners having a private ego battle along the lines of “my wallets bigger than your wallet”.
I also wonder what part Neymar’s dad played in driving the transfer. As his sons agent I am sure he was very well rewarded and unlike us he will not be worrying about the rising cost of living.
However one thing is without question-Neymar is a brilliant footballer and a world class goal scorer while his Christian charity work in his native Brazil is well publicised. My anger at the transfer is nothing to do with him as a person but more about the ripple effect it will most certainly have on the game over the coming seasons.