The owners of Paris Saint-Germain are looking to purchase another European team and have set their sights squarely on the Premier League.
According to CBS’s Ben Jacobs, the club’s executive committee, Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), is “ramping up efforts” to acquire a new team.
A number of Premier League teams, most notably Tottenham Hotspur, are in conversation with them. According to reports, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chairman and CEO, met with Daniel Levy, the head of Spurs, last week in London for an “exploratory meeting.”
After purchasing PSG in 2011, QSI completely turned around the club’s fortunes, winning eight of the last ten Ligue One championships during a time when French football was completely dominated.
They’ve since acquired a 26 per cent stake in Portuguese side Braga and have been linked with both Roma and Espanyol in Italy and Spain respectively.
It’s claimed QSI, who own beIN Media, are actively looking to step up their expansion with minority club investments. Europe is a priority region, while there is also strong interest to become involved with a South American club.
They appear to be following the model adopted by Manchester City’s owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group. They’ve overseen monumental success with City since completing a takeover in 2008 but in recent years have created the City Football Group and expanded globally.
In July, they completed an £11.2 million takeover of Italian side Palermo, who became the 12th club to be under the CFG umbrella.
They also have Troyes (France), Girona (Spain), Melbourne City (Australia), Lommel (Belgium), Montevideo City Torque (Uruguay), New York City (United States), Mumbai City (India), Yokohama F. Marinos (Japan), Sichuan Jiuniu (China) and Club Bolivar (Bolivia).
However, issues can arise if two clubs who share owners compete in the same European competition as UEFA rules state that no two clubs or more participating may be directly or indirectly controlled by the same entity.
RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg are both able to participate as there is not deemed to be a “decisive influence” over more than one club.