Tottenham Hotspur could become as rich as Newcastle United and Manchester City – thanks to PSG.
Last week, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of PSG and chairman of Qatar Sports Investments, reportedly met executive chairman of Tottenham Daniel Levy in a meeting that Spurs deny. QSI are apparently interested in investing in the Premier League, with the Lilywhites the big candidate.
So what does this mean for Spurs, for the Premier League and even for Paris Saint-Germain?
Why do PSG's owners want to buy Tottenham Hotspur?
If you thought that Qatar would slip into the background following the 2022 World Cup, never to be heard of again… you were mistaken.
QSI are doubling down on their input in football and want to be involved with the next World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, apparently. According to City A.M., PSG's owners are looking to sell minority stakes in the French champions along with Qatar's international broadcaster BeIN Sports, with US parties said to be interested.
Qatar likely sees the kind of network that Abu Dhabi's City Football Group have and want a piece of that. Red Bull's football success is also a good example. Having made a first investment of buying up a minority stake in Braga, QSI have apparently also enquired about Leeds United in the past.
Manchester United and Liverpool are both looking for investors. No news on either being on the radar, as yet.
QSI would only have a minority stake in Tottenham
Let's clear one thing up from the start: PSG are not buying 100% of Tottenham.
The ENIC Group owns 85.55% of the total issued share capital of Spurs. The public face of the club, Levy and his family own 29.4% of the share capital of ENIC, while Joe Lewis owns 70.6%.
That leaves almost 15% of the club that isn't owned by Lewis and Levy: the remaining shares are held by over 30,000 individuals. It isn't known yet whether an external investor would buy these shares or part of ENIC's slice of the club.
Would a Qatari investor make huge signings for Tottenham?
Why not? Over the summer, ENIC announced that they were pumping £150 million into the club to keep the promise to manager Antonio Conte that he would be backed in the transfer market. If QSI have a share, why shouldn't they use it?
In theory, a shareholder who wants to inject capital into Tottenham could do so if they wished, with only Financial Fair Play laws to circumnavigate. The extent of their investment may only be limited by their interest in the project – it may be easy to assume that they would be a silent partner for Levy and Lewis but having seen the likes of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia transform the Premier League with their wealth, perhaps Qatar would like to compete.
What seems realistic, however, is that the two would have a shared network when it comes to scouting talent and developing stars. As QSI build up a network of clubs that currently only includes Braga, it could well be feasible that Tottenham have a Portuguese satellite side to send young talent off to for development.
Should Tottenham wish to get rid of another Tanguy Ndombele in the future – and PSG are interested – a loan would be a lot easier to negotiate, right? Both sides have ambitious women's teams who could benefit from the partnership, too.
Would there be a conflict of interest between PSG and Spurs?
PSG and Tottenham have never met in the Champions League. Both have a relatively young history in Europe's top competition, after all – but it's not exactly a problem for the likes of RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg, is it?
Admittedly, there hasn't been two affiliated clubs as big as these two in the same competition – but given the precedence that UEFA has set in the past, there isn't much opposition they could put up against this kind of deal. Sure enough, multiple minority stakes are permitted by owners and that doesn't look like changing any time soon.
Likewise, the Premier League probably doesn't have a leg to stand on if it wishes to veto this deal, given that green-lighted Newcastle's takeover. QSI having fingers in two big pies surely only makes both parties stronger.
