Many European clubs offloaded players this summer transfer window to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. While clubs in the Middle East did purchase footballers still in their prime, they also secured talents ready to leave the grind of European football, such as Marco Verratti.
Verratti’s move to Qatar has resulted in La Liga president Javier Tebas taking a swipe at Paris Saint-Germain. The league chief believes that PSG and other clubs found teams in Qatar and Saudi Arabia to buy their players for a higher fee than a European club would pay.
Spanish clubs, which have been very controlled at the financial level, cannot make any splurges because they cannot offload a player they no longer want or a club from the Middle East overpay for them. As a result, Tebas sees this loophole that some have created as unfair.
“Otherwise, we can also do like France, which does not control PSG while they sell Marco Verratti to Qatar for more than 40 million euros, or I don’t know how much,” Tebas said (h/t Foot Mercato).
“We can do that too, find a satellite country that buys players from us to make big profits and then buy all the players we want. Is this the system we want? I do not believe.”
Nonetheless, PSG was able to use the Middle East to offload players like Julian Draxler, Verratti, Neymar Jr., Abdou Diallo, and Georginio Wijnaldum. Furthermore, not only was PSG able to secure a fee, but also offloaded their salaries.
It will be interesting to see how long this type of transfer window business occurs or whether it’s a bubble that will burst.
