It’s just as well Qatar’s investment in football isn’t to be measured in anything as tangible as silverware. In the 12 years since it took over Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar Sports Investment has spent a little over £1.5bn on players – or, to put it in terms Nicolas Sarkozy would understand, the equivalent of 16 Dassault Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets. It has inflated football’s transfer market, changed the landscape of the sport, brought the emirate to unprecedented prominence, and got past the quarter-finals of the Champions League twice.
You can see why a vocal contingent of Manchester United fans dream of something similar, of a Qatari takeover of their own. Who wouldn’t want this? Which fan, raised in a Salford terrace on stories of Eddie Colman and Paul Scholes, Ian Curtis and Albert Finney, on George Best v Benfica and Bryan Robson v Barcelona, hasn’t yearned in their heart of hearts to become a rabble of egos promoting a petrostate with a questionable human rights record?
There were about 20 minutes when PSG were on top against Bayern, at the end of the first leg, after Kylian Mbappé had come off the bench. That spell was enough to raise major doubts about Bayern’s capacity to win the Champions League as pressure brought panic. They too, it seemed, were a team unused to being tested. Their struggles in chasing an 11th successive Bundesliga title may paradoxically case-harden them but Bayern are still a side with a budget 1.8 times that of their closest rivals. They too have become fatted on the easy meat of domestic competition – just not as much as PSG have.
Bayern fans displayed a banner that depicted their honorary president Uli Hoeneß, middle finger of his right hand raised, left hand wielding a cleaver to lop off a forearm on which were tattooed the badge of PSG and the logo of Qatar Airways. “Our butcher,” read the slogan in French, “slaughters the long arm of Qatar.” Hoeneß, who was re-elected to the Bayern presidency in 2016 after being jailed for tax evasion, is the son of a butcher and owns a successful sausage factory in Nuremberg. He is an unlikely saviour, but modern football is not replete with heroes. Qatar’s long arm extends as far as Bayern; Qatar Airways’ five-year agreement to be their sleeve sponsor expires this summer. Bayern fans have made clear that they do not want the deal extended.
The football aspect of the operation was completed easily enough, although a more ruthless side than Bayern might have had the tie won in the first half in Paris. Christoph Galtier was supposed to be the hard man who would finally lick this PSG into shape. Good luck with that. A weirdly stretched 4-4-2 in Paris was not that shape and Bayern had total control of the centre as a result but, apparently distrustful of their superiority, failed to take full advantage.
The 3-5-2 in the second leg at least made PSG competitive but the sense was that Bayern were quite happy to be contained. They had the lead and could run the clock down before finishing the game off after half-time. PSG created only two decent chances: one after Yann Sommer had mysteriously decided to dribble out of his box and one a Sergio Ramos header from a corner. £1.5bn really doesn’t go very far these days.
By the end, and you’ll have heard this before, PSG were a shambles, the forwards disconnected from the midfield. Who knows what comes next? Ramos is 36. Lionel Messi is 35. Neymar is 31 but cannot stay fit. Mbappé in flight is one of the most exhilarating sights in the modern game, but he is a star who engages almost exclusively in cameos: on Wednesday he had only 33 touches. A modern, multifunctional leader of the press he is not. There is a sense of a profound talent being wasted – even if he has banged in hat-tricks in the past year against the full might of Metz, Clermont and Pays de Cassel.
But then waste characterises the project. The banlieues of Paris have become one of the great hotbeds of footballing talent: 11 of France’s World Cup squad were born there. That should give PSG have a huge advantage but it is one they have neglected. Perhaps Warren Zaïre-Emery and El Chadaille Bitshiabu represent a new future but for now the only first-team regular from the capital is Mbappé, who PSG bought for a reported £160m and then, when his contract had run down, paid a further £100m as a signing on fee. Perhaps when money is no object, spending wisely isn’t a consideration.
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More signings, no doubt, will arrive. Galtier will be replaced. But after 77 signings in 12 years – David Beckham! Neymar! Mbappé! Messi! Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting! – and six managers – Carlo Ancelotti! Unai Emery! Thomas Tuchel! – it may be worth asking whether it’s really about the personnel. Nor is it really about shape or tactics. At some level it’s about discipline and heart – and those are qualities that perhaps cannot simply be bought.
It may be that just gathering some egos at the Parc des Princes, some on the pitch, some in the stands, more guest list than squad list, isn’t actually the best way of winning football matches. But then maybe Qatar are more concerned about image and influence than silverware. Failing to win the Champions League after all this investment should be an embarrassment, but maybe it’s not really about that.
