UEFA call to close investigation into PSG appealed by FFP chief

UEFA’s recent decision to close an investigation into the accounts of French champions Paris St Germain has effectively been appealed by the chairman of the committee that oversees the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

The probe into PSG‘s finances between 2015-17 was closed last month by the chairman and chief investigator of the Club Financial Control Body’s (CFCB) investigatory chamber. 

This followed a long look at the Qatar-owned club’s sponsorship revenue from the Gulf state and its spending on players.

That decision was greeted with some surprise, however, and it is understood that the investigatory team was not unanimous in its verdict.

This split has now become public as the CFCB’s overall chairman, Jose Narciso da Cunha Rodrigues, has now referred the decision to the body’s adjudicatory chamber.

In a short statement, UEFA said: ‘In light of the recent decision of the Club Financial Control Body chief investigator to close the investigation into Paris Saint-Germain – which commenced on 1 September 2017 – the chairman of the CFCB has decided to send this decision for review by the adjudicatory chamber.’

A former general prosecutor in Portugal and judge at the European Union’s Court of Justice, Cunha Rodrigues has been in charge of UEFA’s financial watchdog since October 2012, while the CFCB’s chief investigor Yve Leterne is a former prime minister of Belgium. 

The UEFA statement added that this move to review the case does not prejudge it, which means PSG could simply be cleared again.

PSG have been under FFP scrutiny for their Qatar-financed spending for years and that only intensified last summer when they bought Brazilian superstar Neymar for a world-record £198million from Barcelona and then secured French teenager Kylian Mbappe from Monaco.

The latter deal was described as a season-long loan, followed by a £166million payment – a deal many viewed as a ruse to circumvent spending limits.