Arsenal v PSG. The opposition’s debts and the Arsenal team

 

 

 

• Arsenal v PSG – a club built on money, money, money and then… money
• Revealed: how PSG are funding their attempt to buy the Champions League

By Tony Attwood

Of course, it can be argued that football is an industry that is all about debt, and that is true, but it has to end sometime.  And when it does end there is going to be a big bang.    As Swiss Ramble points out (and I refer to him yet again because he is the man who really understands how the money flows, in my view), football is all about debt, debt and then just for good measure, debt

Yet the PSG debt is on the low side for European clubs that like to think of themselves as being in the elite mix.  Clubs like Barcelona €1.8bn debt, Real Madrid €1.4bn debt, Tottenham Hots €990m debt and Manchester United €636m debt.  But for PSG the debt is a mere €160m.  But there is still a question here: where does it end?  Supposing one club suddenly went bust and couldn’t pay its debts.  Then the next club to which it owed money wouldn’t be able to pay its debts, and quickly the whole pack of cards crumbles.

And we are forced to remember, thanks to Swiss Ramble’s analysis, that these debts are rising very quickly.   PSG’s debt has doubled in the last few years.   And let us not forget the debts of those non-Champions League clubs like Chelsea (€579m), Tottenham Hots (€392m) and Manchester U (€385m).  It is all very well having very rich owners, but even so…  

Plus here’s another little snippet, from the same reliable source.   Two years ago PSG had €160m in the bank.   Now it is around €36m.  That is to say, it has less than a quarter of the money available to it to spend now, than it had two years ago, and yet at the same time it has much, much, much higher debts.

Will PSG go on like this?   Presumably yes, as long as moneylenders believe that their money is safe and they will get it back.  But if one day, suddenly one big club feels it is a bit inconvenient to pay back a debt when it is due, the whole pack of cards will tumble into the ground.  I mean, supposing there was a family feud in Qatar, and one part of the family overthrew another, and the new bunch didn’t give a toss for football.  What then?  Or indeed what if the whole of Europe went electric?  Or…

Until now, like Manchester City and PSG have been able to rely on the extraordinarily strange rulings of the Court for Arbitration of Sport – although I am not sure PSG were as creative as ManC in delaying their hearing until just after the allotted time ran out, and were then cleared because the case had not been brought to court quickly enough.

But I doubt any club is going to be allowed to get away with that one again.   And we should be clear that as Swiss Ramble says, “PSG were nowhere near being compliant in 2022, so they had to accept a settlement with Uefa, which included a €65m fine, the highest in Europe.”   But even then the French club pulled a wangle and got a deal that said that “only €10m had to be paid upfront,”!!!!! 

As a result, PSG have got away with their mega-losses of 2020/21 and 2021/22.  It is not as if there is no level playing field in terms of finances.  Better put, we should say, “There is no playing field”.   For clearly the very poor performance PSG put in against Arsenal in the group stages was in part due to their fire sale of players as they tried to ensure they were compliant for this season’s Champs League.  So clearly they haven’t quite got the notion of this arithmetic lark right, just yet.

Meanwhile, we haven’t even got to the legal case that Mbappé is running against PSG after he managed to extract €55m from PSG’s bank (how on earth did he do that?) claiming it was money he was owed in unpaid salary and the like.   Where that case goes, and indeed when it goes, are big questions, but it is sure going to be a lot of fun when it happens.  And if history teaches us anything it is that when there is one skeleton in the cupboard it is normally the case that there are a few others as well.  Although to be quite clear, I have no evidence to back up that thought.

PSG talk now of relying on young players and bringing up their own young team to play in the big games, and maybe that is right.  But there must be a slight doubt that in doing this they are going to end up panicking if they start to drop out of cups earlier than they want, or, to think the unthinkable, not win the French League each season as Winter turns to Spring.

And so we can turn away from the horror show that football has become and contemplate Arsenal for a moment.

Arsenal have never ever ever lost to PSG.   There have been three draws (two in the Champions League and one in the Cup Winners Cup) and two victories (one in the Cup Winners Cup in 1994 and that one back in October at Arsenal where the PSG fans sang all the way through the match as Arsenal won 2-0).

So the PSG owners will be looking to continue the myth of PSG, by winning this round and going to the final.

They have had 24 wins, six draws and one defeat this season, and have a goal difference of +53.   Arsenal can’t match that, having 18 victories, 13 draws and three defeats with a resultant goal difference of +34.  But then the French league does lack a certain strength in depth.

For tonight Arsenal’s team is expected by the Standard to be

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly;

Odegaard, Rice, Merino;

Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.

Pain in the Arsenal go with the same team players but a different arrangement in midfield.

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly;

Odegaard, Rice, Merino;

Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.

The Metro is on the same track and so it goes on.  That seems to be the agreed team.  Anything else will be something of a surprise.   Do add your comments, before, during or after the game.