Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has criticised Neymar’s world record transfer move from Barcelona to Paris St Germain, saying it will become increasingly difficult to respect financial fair play (FFP) rules when “a country owns a football club”.
PSG, backed by majority shareholder Qatar Sports Investments, signed the Brazil striker on a five-year deal on Thursday after they triggered his 222 million euros (200 million pounds) release clause.
“For me, it is the consequence of the ownerships and that has completely changed the whole landscape of football in the last 15 years,” Wenger told reporters.
“Once a country owns a club, everything is possible. It becomes very difficult to respect the financial fair play because you can have different ways or different interests for a country to have such a big player to represent a country.”
Neymar’s transfer more than doubled the previous world record fee Manchester United paid for Paul Pogba when they paid Juventus 105 million euros for the midfielder last August.
