Champions League final highlights Al-Khelaïfi ties to PSG, UEFA, beIN and Qatar

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

The Champions League final on Saturday will be an especially busy one for Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, perhaps the most multi-tasked official in world soccer.
As president of Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain since 2011, Al-Khelaïfi's main goal is seeing his team become champion of Europe for the first time against Inter Milan in Munich.
As chairman of the influential European Club Association, he leads 700 member teams increasingly taking over from UEFA in shaping sporting and commercial decisions for the Champions League. It also puts him on UEFA's strategy-setting executive committee.
As chairman of Qatari broadcaster beIN Media Group, Al-Khelaïfi controls exclusive Champions League rights to air the final in the Middle East, North Africa and much of South-East Asia.
'Nasser Al-Khelaïfi is considered a visionary leader in the media industry,' beIN says on its website, adding that in 2016 he 'also acquired the Hollywood film studio Miramax.'
He also is a minister in Qatar's government, a director of its sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and chairman of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) that owns PSG.
QSI and Al-Khelaïfi — a former tennis professional — also are key in the fast-emerging racket sport padel which has ambitions to be an Olympic sport, maybe in time for the 2036 Summer Games that Qatar and its tennis-loving Emir want to host.
Among the invited VIP guests in Munich is Thomas Bach, the outgoing though still influential president of the International Olympic Committee.
Saturday can be a peak of Al-Khelaïfi's 14-year career in international soccer that has fueled talk — despite ongoing investigations of his sports career by French authorities — he could be a future FIFA president.
Al-Khelaïfi declined comment to The Associated Press after a recent UEFA meeting in Bilbao, Spain.
In a statement, PSG said he 'doesn't want to be a distraction and wants humble focus for the team.'
From tennis to soccer
Now aged 51, Al-Khelaïfi was a tennis pro who played for Qatar in the Davis Cup, bringing him into contact with the future Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Al-Khelaïfi's ATP biography shows his ranking peaked at No. 995 and he played two matches on tour. The first in 1996 was against world No. 2 Thomas Muster in Austria. Brief footage shows a good-natured exchange of shots with Muster in a 6-0, 6-1 mismatch.
Al-Khelaïfi's career ended in 2003 and he joined the start-up Al Jazeera Sport as 'Director of Rights Acquisitions,' according to beIN.
Qatar stunned soccer in 2010, when FIFA awarded it 2022 World Cup hosting rights, and PSG was bought within months.
Rising in soccer
The rise of ambitious clubs fueled by Middle East sovereign cash — Qatar and PSG, Abu Dhabi and Manchester City — concerned the storied elite. The ECA helped UEFA introduce financial control rules for European competitions that saw both clubs deducted 20 million euros ($22.7 million) of Champions League prize money in 2014.
Still, while Man City did not get on the ECA board, Al-Khelaïfi was elected in 2016. Three years later he got one of two seats reserved for clubs on the UEFA executive committee (ExCo) — despite in-house cautioning about conflicts of interest.
Conflicted interests?
On election day in 2019 in Rome, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was asked about potential conflicts of interest around Al-Khelaïfi. BeIN was, and still is, among UEFA's main clients also owning extensive European Championship rights.
Ceferin's narrowly focused answer was that ExCo members are not involved in approving commercial deals.
Any conflict worked in UEFA's favor in 2021 when ECA leaders launched the Super League project designed to rival and replace the Champions League, which beIN broadcasts.
PSG's refusal to join rebel clubs from Spain, Italy and England helped to undermine the breakaway that ultimately failed amid a fan backlash and British government threats of legislation.
In the fallout, Al-Khelaïfi took over leading the ECA and quickly repaired relations with UEFA and Ceferin.
One year later, UEFA opened a disciplinary case into claims the PSG president confronted the match referee after losing in the Champions League at Real Madrid.
When UEFA published the verdict Al-Khelaïfi was no longer cited and blame was put on sporting director Leonardo, who PSG had fired weeks earlier.
Challenges in France
Al-Khelaïfi is not always popular in France where PSG has won 11 of 14 league titles during Qatari ownership. His powerful role has attracted criticism, particularly from John Textor, the American owner at Lyon, including that PSG's funding model involving Qatari money allegedly breaks European Union laws.
The pair have argued about poor management of the league's TV rights. In leaked footage from a 2024 meeting of Ligue 1 club owners, Al-Khelaïfi called Textor a cowboy. Textor described his rival as a bully with a conflict of interest given his role at beIN.
Al-Khelaïfi's legal challenges in France include some not related to PSG. The recent preliminary charges about possible alleged corruption relate to his links to a French businessman.
Proceedings were dropped in relation to Qatari bids to host track and field's world championships, which Doha staged in 2019.
In Switzerland, Al-Khelaïfi stood trial twice and was acquitted both times on charges of inciting a top FIFA official to commit aggravated criminal mismanagement from 2013-15.
His lawyers said after the second acquittal in 2022 that "years of baseless allegations, fictitious charges and constant smears have been proven to be completely and wholly unsubstantiated — twice.'
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