LONDON: Paris Saint-Germain’s president has been accused of misusing his connection with Qatar’s government to bring Argentine Javier Pastore to the Parisian club in 2011, according to a report in the UK’s Guardian newspaper.
The Parisian club’s chief executive Nasser Al-Khelaifi allegedly sought help from the Qatari leadership to pay €2 million ($2.25 million) to the player’s agent Marcelo Simonian during transfer proceedings.
According to an email in a large tranche of documents seen by the Guardian and France’s Mediapart, Al-Khelaifi asked the Emir of Qatar to pay the sum to ensure the player’s transfer to the current French champions would go through.
The documents also allege that Al-Khelaifi gave false information to a French judge, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, during the transfer of Pastore from Italian club Palermo to PSG for €40 million in the summer of 2011.
PSG’s Qatari chief is also accused of paying €200,000 to Qatar-based company Oryx QSI, a private company run by his brother.
The alleged actions break FIFA rules — article 7 of its regulations for intermediaries — which stipulate that it is forbidden for club owners to personally make payments to agents.
Meanwhile, the French Football Federation (FFF) told the Guardian and website Mediapart that such a payment would also “violate its regulations.”
The Guardian report said the letter in question from Al-Khelaifi apparently shows instructions for payments to be made to the “agent in charge of the player Javier Pastore and expenses of the company Oryx QSI” and is addressed to “His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani, chief of staff of His Highness the Crown Prince,” a reference to the current emir of Qatar before he was head of state.
PSG’s Qatari owner accused of misusing government connections for payments to Pastore agent
PSG’s Qatari owner accused of misusing government connections for payments to Pastore agent
- Nasser Al-Khelaifi allegedly sought help from the Qatari leadership to pay €2 million
- The alleged actions break FIFA rules
Postecoglou admits taking Nottingham Forest post a ‘bad decision’
- Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September
- “There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou
LONDON: Ange Postecoglou has said he has only himself to blame for an extraordinarily brief reign as Nottingham Forest manager, with the Australian accepting he made “a bad decision” taking on the job with the Premier League strugglers.
Postecoglou, 60, was appointed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor in September.
But infamously impatient Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis sacked Postecoglou just 39 days later, after the experienced manager lost six of his eight games in charge.
Postecoglou, reflecting on his time at Forest for the Overlap podcast, said an over-eagerness to get back into management after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur three months earlier, had been the root cause of his troubles at the City Ground.
“There’s no point me blaming it on ‘I didn’t get time’ or anything,” said Postecoglou. “I should never have gone in there. That was on me. That was a bad decision by me to go in there. I’ve got to take ownership of that.
“It was too soon after Tottenham. I was taking over at a time where they were kind of used to doing things a certain way and I’m obviously going to do things differently. I’ve got to cop that, that was my mistake. It’s no-one else’s fault.”
Postecoglou remains without a club but he has ruled out returning to Celtic, where he enjoyed a successful two-year stint from 2021-23, with the 73-year-old Martin O’Neill currently in caretaker charge of the Scottish champions until the end of the season.
“I loved Celtic, it’s a wonderful football club,” said Postecoglou, who left the Glasgow giants to join Spurs. “If I was younger, I probably would have stayed there longer. I probably would have stayed there three, four years.
“I think I could have made progress with them in Europe but at the time, it had taken me a long time to get to this sort of space, and the opportunity to join Tottenham was too good.
“In terms of going back, I don’t go back. I just don’t think that’s kind of been my career.
“Whatever the next step is, it’ll be something new, somewhere I can make an impact in, somewhere I can win things, but it doesn’t diminish the affection I have for Celtic.”
