PSG harming footballing ecosystem, says La Liga India MD Jose Cachaza

Express News Service

KOCHI: After La Liga president Javier Tebas hit out at Paris Saint-Germain and called them a danger to the footballing eco-system, Managing Director of La Liga Indi Jose Antonio Cachaza also expressed concerns over the spendthrift nature of the Qatari-owned club.

Cachaza felt that the Ligue 1 outfit was showing ‘no respect’ for the Financial Fair Play  rules in place for football clubs. The club signed some high profile players in the recent transfer window – with the biggest of them being Lionel Messi.

“I want to remember how much harm PSG is doing to football by not respecting the rules of Financial Fair Play,” said Jose during a virtual interaction on Wednesday.

PSG signed Messi, Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum and Gianluigi Donnarumma in the just-concluded transfer window. However, their wage bill is spilling into millions of Euros as they are some of the top earners in world football.

 “And as Javier Tebas mentioned, if you look closely at the numbers, they’ve increased their salary to more than hundreds of millions of Euros. They can destroy the ecosystem,” said Jose.

The departure of Messi from Barcelona leaves La Liga without the star appeal it once boasted when the best footballers in the world played in the Spanish League.

Without Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi and Real Madrid failing to capture Kylian Mbappé from PSG, the league is devoid of high profile names this season. And with the suspense of whether Messi will stay or leave, it remains to be seen how the league will sustain interest in markets like India.

“To lose Messi is not good news, but the explanation was given by Messi himself in his farewell press meeting. Clubs stay while players come and go. That doesn’t mean that we don’t need stars. Of course, we do. But Messi is 34 and let’s face it, it is still lovely to see him play, but he is far from his best right now. It was the same case with Cristiano Ronaldo,” he said while referring to how age was catching up with the Argentine maestro.

The India head also emphasized that the league was still home to some of the biggest clubs in the world.

“We are lucky to have two relevant, if not the biggest football clubs in the world which are Real Madrid and Barcelona, and one club which was one of the hottest teams internationally in the last year which is Atletico de Madrid,” said Jose.