When Paris Saint-Germain lifted the Champions League trophy on 31 May in Munich, the win was about more than football – it was the culmination of a carefully orchestrated geopolitical strategy launched more than a decade ago by Qatar, owners of the club since 2011.
In beating Inter Milan 5-0, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) secured its first Champions League win since the club was founded in 1970.
It was a demonstration of football prowess that would not have been possible without the state-owned Qatar Sports Investments.
The players recognised as much, lifting PSG's president Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi high in the air as soon as they’d received the trophy.
The following day President Emmanuel Macron praised Al-Khelaïfi as a representative of Qatar, noting that the victory "also owes much to you".
"PSG owes it completely to Qatar," says Raphaël Le Magoariec, a specialist on the Gulf states. "PSG is an extension of Qatar, it’s not a French team."
A gamble that paid off
Under Qatari ownership, PSG have gone from perennial underachievers to one of Europe’s most glamorous and successful clubs.
"Qatar bought the club in 2011 for just over €70 million. The PSG brand is currently valued at over €4 billion," says sports economist Pierre Rondeau. "It proves the gamble was a sucess for Qatar."
The Gulf state has since injected a lot of money into the club – an estimated €2bn on transfers and player purchases, buying superstars such as Thiago Silva, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham and Lionel Messi. In 2017 the club secured Neymar from Barcelona for €222m and Kylian Mbappé from Monaco for €180m.
Money has also been pumped into bricks and mortar – more than €200m has been spent on renovating PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium, and €300m on building a new training centre.
"All this investment in the club, and the capital, helped the team reach the Champions League final," says Rondeau.
But this fountain of Qatari investment has created resentment among other French clubs and their fanbases, with some arguing PSG's dominance is artificial.
The reality, Rondeau says, is that you won't get far without big money nowadays. "You can always say it's only thanks to money that PSG succeeded, but without money it’s very rare to be able to win an average European Cup. You need a minimum budget of €450m to even reach the semi-finals.
"Today PSG’s budget is €800m. Qatar has given itself the ambition [to succeed] and the means to achieve it."
Football as soft power
Qatar's main interest, however, "is not financial – it’s geopolitical," says Le Magoariec. "It wants to appear untouchable on the international scene."
Scarcely bigger than Corsica, with Iran and Saudi Arabia as neighbours, Qatar needed to secure allies abroad, wield influence and diversify its interests beyond oil and gas, Le Magoariec explained.
Marrying one of the most famous cities in the world with the world's most popular sport was a good way in.
"Qatar is looking, above all, to create networks of influence through the image of PSG," he said."It’s like a ministry of defence, with PSG as one of its weapons. It's just one of several cogs forming the backbone of Qatar's foreign policy – a soft power tool."
The Qatar-PSG alliance has its roots in a dinner at the Elysée Palace in November 2010, shortly before Fifa was due to decide which country would host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Qatar had its sights set on 2022.
Among the guests at then-president Nicolas Sarkozy's table were Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Michel Platini, the head of Europe’s football authority Uefa.
"The aim was to get 2022, so Qatar had to find allies," Le Magoariec explained. "Sarkozy was an ally – he was a big PSG fan and the club was in crisis at the time."
Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, and seven months later Qatar Sports Investments had the keys to the Parc des Princes – PSG’s stadium in the upmarket west of Paris.
France, meanwhile, had strengthened its relationship with a big investor.
Qatar to invest €10bn in key sectors of French economy by 2030
A global brand
PSG's superstars didn’t always deliver on the pitch, but they did transform the club into a global brand, says sports economist Jean-Pascal Gayant.
"When the Qataris took over in 2011 Paris was known worldwide, but PSG wasn’t. They helped turn the club into one of the most famous brands in the world, giving it global notoriety to then progress through merchandising, sponsorship and commercial rights."
PSG's largest boutique is not on the Champs-Elysées, but on Fifth Avenue in New York.
"It’s the club that sells the most football shirts on the North American continent, and it has supporters in every corner of the globe," Rondeau says. "Qatar has gained in terms of its reputation, as well as on the sport and economics side."
At the Champions League final, the stadium was awash with the Qatar Airways logo – and not just on the shirts of the PSG players. The airline is also Inter Milan's major sponsor and an official partner of the Champions League. Whoever won the match, it was a guaranteed win for Qatar.
Sportswashing
Qatar has faced international criticism over its treatment of migrant workers – notably those involved in building venues for the 2022 World Cup – and PSG boss Al-Khelaïfi has also had his share of scandals.
As CEO of the Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports, which spent hundreds of millions buying the TV rights to French football, he was tried in a media rights case in 2020, although later acquitted.
In February this year he was charged with complicity in abuse of power concerning shareholder voting at a company.
"He's involved in almost all the corruption stories surrounding Qatar, he's constantly playing it close to the wire," says Le Magoariec.
Yet French media has done a remarkable U-turn in its reporting on the PSG boss. "Two months ago they were heavily criticising Al Khalaïfi in particular and now the Qataris are heroes," Le Magoariec notes.
However, when t comes to so-called sportswashing, the use of sport to polish up a tarnished image, he says: "Qatar didn’t invent this."
Has Qatar succeeded in 'sportswashing' its global image?
He also cites industrialists such as French billionaire Bernard Arnault, CEO of the world's largest luxury goods company LVMH, whose family recently became majority shareholders in Paris FC, as one of several public figures who "use sport to enhance their image and reputation".
Back in 2014, Al-Khelaïfi told the Paris-based Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper that he had a very clear vision. "In five years we want to be one of the best clubs in Europe and to win the Champions League."
It took slightly longer than planned, but Qatar has finally achieved that goal. "Dream Bigger" – the motto it rolled out for PSG ten years ago – has paid off.
