Barcelona director of football slams PSG and UEFA for not complying with financial rules

Speaking at the ‘Football Day’ event organised by the Catalan Football Federation (h/t SPORT), Barcelona sporting director Mateu Alemany has hit out at Paris Saint-Germain for flouting Financial Fair Play rules.

There have been a lot of question marks raised over the transfer dealings made by PSG this past summer as they recruited a host of superstars including the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarumma along with top young players like Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes, among various others.

While a number of these signings were free transfers, the fact that all these players are on massive wages does not have any bearing on the club’s spending powers. In contrast, clubs in La Liga are tied down by the division’s salary cap rules, which hurt Barcelona this past summer, as they were unable to tie down Messi to a new contract because of these regulations.

Alemany has now hit out at PSG over their relentless spending and the lack of control on their wage bills. He has also taken aim at UEFA for not establishing uniform Fair Play rules which would allow clubs to compete on equal footing.

“PSG can get their petroleum chequebook and sign whoever they want. We can’t do that. That’s a problem, we are asked to compete with teams who have no restrictions, not even with UEFA. The Super League was created to have a balance, and avoid these situations,” the Barca sporting director said.

During the interview, Alemany also spoke about how he would not try and change the ‘Barcelona way’ and the manner in which things are approached at the club, saying: “Going against a proven style is always going to go badly. Changing the club’s vision and culture would be absurd. I can adapt some things and control the market, mostly.”

Alemany also opened up on the recent appointment of Xavi Hernandez as the new Barcelona manager, indicating he was very pleased with the 41-year-old taking over the reins of the club. “The hardest part about my job is choosing a manager. If it’s already hard in some clubs, it’s even harder at Barcelona. That’s why I’m so happy right now,” he added.