Paris Saint-Germain’s exit from the Champions League, not only the French media made a comprehensive analysis, but also the European media summarized the Qataris’ investment in Paris for 10 years.
It is worth comparing that, although the history before the arrival of the gold owners was not brilliant enough, the new owners burned a lot of money and never achieved the Champions League goal (both lost the Champions League final), Manchester City invested by the UAE royal family seems to be able to avoid such a negative definition. Paris in Qatar is regarded as a failure and a joke, while Manchester City has gained more recognition. This may be related to the gold content of the Premier League champions, the football style cultivated by Guardiola, and the fact that Manchester City has no astronomical figures to sign superstars … Manchester City’s Champions League failure is usually more summarized as a competitive failure or Guardiola’s personal tragedy.
Some summaries have the smell of Monday morning quarterback. For example, L ‘Equipe mentioned that many members of the Paris first-team privately predicted that the team would be out of the Champions League early in the first half of the season. The criticism here is the new Sports director Campos of the club. The more people play in Paris this season, the less people there are. Only teenagers are left as substitutes in several important positions, so the dressing room points the finger at Campos. But no one raised a deeper question: Is the subtraction operation of Campos originally the idea of Qataris?
Valdano, an Argentine celebrity, mentioned in a column in Portuguese newspaper The Ball that Bayern Munich has a strong competitive culture. They eliminated Paris after losing lewandowski last summer and Neuer after the World Cup. Even the striker used in these two games was Schubo Mottin (Mane has only recently recovered). Kahn also talked about this in an interview with L ‘Equipe before the second leg, and Bayern’s most important thing is the results in the arena.
On the contrary, Paris Saint-Germain ruled by Qataris is unprecedented in their own history, and it is also rare for French teams in the past. The team is secondary, and people pay attention to just a few stars.
In fact, even the authoritative French media such as L ‘Equipe was largely influenced by the emotions of Qatar. Paris Saint-Germain lazily defeated the middle and lower reaches teams in the league, and sometimes played some tricks that were not in line with the sportsmanship, all of which were not fully criticized.
People are more concerned about superstar stories, such as whether Mbappé renewed his contract and whether he played happily. Whether Messi stays at the end of the season; Will Neymar be driven away, and will his nightlife affect his competitive level? Or, the second-class concern is whether the player’s home has been stolen again.
Qataris tried to transplant the Italian club culture in the early stage of their purchase of Paris, but what they transplanted was the worst and most backward side of the Italian club: for example, there was no powerful talent selection department that could use modern scientific and technological means, and everything depended on the mobile phone of the sports manager; For example, it doesn’t matter if the private life of the players becomes a hot news topic (icardi asks for leave to go back to Milan to chase his wife, various parties in Neymar, etc.); Or the competitive topic in the club season was completely overshadowed by the soap operas in which the stars renewed their contracts.
This seems to be a common disease. People without culture, who want to learn from others, often make the worst choice. It is precisely because the overall level of competition in Ligue 1 is too low that the worst choice can be tolerated and magnified by tolerance. The more French champions Paris has won in a variety of relaxed and suspense-free ways (or deliberately created suspense by itself), the more reluctant it will be to get rid of its own shortcomings.
To put it further, Qataris chose France as the first European base for investing in football, not because French football is the most modern and developed, but because French politics is corrupt and easy to handle. Sarkozy called Platini to the Elysee Palace, and Qatar’s bid to host the World Cup immediately took shape. If the money is not secure in Mbappé, please call Macron.
But these are not enough to make Paris Saint-Germain a strong competitive team in the Champions League. Power and money can provide added value to competition, but in the Champions League, which inspires everyone’s sense of honor, the added value provided by power and money is also limited.
At the same time, as local investors, Qataris are also lost in the contradiction between "making everyone cool" or "making themselves cool". At the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, letting Messi wear a black robe to accept the trophy was the ultimate performance of "making yourself feel good", but this decision damaged Messi and world football.
A black robe representing autocratic power covered the most sacred outfit of the historical superstar to win the supreme victory on the field-the blue and white Argentine jersey. Perhaps Qataris can interpret this black robe as "culture", but this precisely reflects their misplacement in understanding the essence of "culture" and understanding culture as an expression of power. Paris Saint-Germain’s absurd failure in the arena is like showing off your wealth and power in a sky-high black robe, but you don’t know that you have been wrapping yourself up.
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