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BBC News
16 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
A new winner, but is Champions League now a Super League by default?
Paris St-Germain are the champions of Europe - first-time winners after thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in the most one-sided final of the competition's are the first French side to win the coveted prize since Marseille in 1993 and only the 24th different club to lift the famous paper the Champions League and its new format appears a more diverse competition - before you remember PSG's starting XI in Munich cost £403m to assemble, compared to the £137m Inter paid for their starting side."Everyone criticised us and doubted us, lots of people didn't believe in our project," PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told Canal Plus."The objective now is to win again. It has taken 14 years of hard work but we are building something for the future."Qatar Sports Investments bought PSG in 2011. Since then the club has spent 2.3bn euros (£2.1bn) on transfer fees,, external according to estimates from Transfermarkt."If you take a look at their wage bill from last season, it was probably one of the top two or three highest in European football," football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport."It's romantic in the sense they won the Champions League for the first time and the football was absolutely brilliant. But from a financial point of view, you would expect them to be there or thereabouts."The last club to win the Champions League for the first time were Manchester City, who are under Abu Dhabi ownership and, according to Deloitte's Money League, are the second richest club in the world behind only Real Madrid and one place above new Champions League format involves more teams - 36 in the competition proper instead of 32 under the old format - while the new league phase offers fans more games, more goals and a chance to see European heavyweights play one another more was introduced following the collapse of a new European Super League (ESL),, external as most of the teams involved withdrew after a backlash led by is the new-look Champions League a European Super League in all but name? What was the European Super League and why was it controversial? Twelve of Europe's leading clubs - including six from the Premier League - signed up to plans to form a European Super League in Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham were the English representatives, joining AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona as founding league would have essentially replaced the Champions League as Europe's elite competition, but would not have had the same qualification process whereby teams could enter via their domestic position. At the same time, the founding members wanted to remain part of their respective domestic leagues. The plans proved controversial, not just with supporters but with rival clubs who said it devalued domestic founding members of the competition could not be 'relegated' from it, critics argued the tournament was a closed book for Europe's elite and Bayern Munich rejected approaches to join, while fans from the clubs involved held several protests, leading to all six English clubs withdrawing from the process. 'Not right England have six Champions League spots' Next season's Champions League will include six English Premier League teams instead of the usual four. Newcastle United, who finished fifth in the table, will play in the competition after European football's governing body Uefa awarded two bonus spots to the domestic leagues which performed best in Europe in Tottenham - who finished 17th - will also join Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea in the competition after winning the Europa of the 36 places in the league phase will come from Europe's top-five leagues, with Spain securing five spots, Germany and Italy four each, while France will have three addition, the Netherlands will have two teams in the league phase, while Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Turkey and Belgium will have one team 11 of those 29 clubs have qualified for the league phase as champions of their country this leaves only seven places to be decided through the qualifying rounds. "I don't think it's right that England should have six teams in the Champions League," said Ian Dennis, senior football reporter at BBC Radio 5 Live., external"I know why. We're gearing ourselves effectively a Super League in all but name. "But if you think about it, the dominance of the Premier League teams in the various European competitions, the English coefficient unless it's unusual, will always be in the top three, if not the top two. "And therefore the English clubs are always going to benefit with the extra place. "Now England have got six clubs in the Champions League, Spain have got five…I think it's going to be very hard to try to wrestle that away from the English sides." Will an underdog win the Champions League again? Who were the last true underdogs to win the Champions League - and will it happen again?Jose Mourinho's Porto enjoyed a fairytale run to the final, external in 2003-04, which included beating a dominant Manchester United along the way, before defeating Monaco 3-0 in the 21 editions since, there have been 10 different winners - Real Madrid (six times), Barcelona (4), Liverpool (2), Chelsea (2), Bayern Munich (2), AC Milan (1), Manchester United (1), Inter Milan (1), Manchester City (1) and Paris St-Germain (1)."The probability of another Porto winning the Champions League is about the same as another Leicester City winning the Premier League," Maguire added."We've had a concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer clubs. We have got the rise of dynasties now."The Champions League is very much geared and tiered towards wealthy clubs - and that's due to having to give away concessions to the Super League clubs in order to dissuade them from reconsidering setting up their own competition." Arsenal the next first-time winners? After Manchester City's success in 2023 and PSG's triumph in Munich, who will be the next first-time winners?"Arsenal are well placed because they do have serious investment as far as the squad is concerned - probably in the region of £700m to £800m," added Milan were the last Italian club to win the Champions League in 2010 when Mourinho was in added: "Could we see another Italian club perhaps do it? Possibly, but I honestly believe it's unlikely. In France, it's PSG or nobody given the collapse of the French TV deal., external"In Germany? As a romantic you'd hope that Borussia Dortmund could do it. In Spain, if Atletico Madrid can get their ducks in order."That's probably as far as we can go."
The Herald
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Herald
No Mbappé, no problem as Enrique completes PSG transformation with a bang
Discipline, long elusive at PSG, has become a hallmark. When Dembele was late to training ahead of a Champions League match at Arsenal, Luis Enrique left him out of the squad. PSG lost 2-0, but the coach's authority was affirmed. 'That was my best decision of the season,' he later said. And Dembele returned transformed into a formidable forward after years spent being a poster boy for unfulfilled potential. Saturday's final showcased everything Luis Enrique had instilled. PSG showed control, confidence and their high pressing proved too much to handle for Inter. The title ends a 14-year wait for Qatar Sports Investments, who bought the club in 2011 with the stated aim of dominating Europe. That dream is now reality — not with a galaxy of stars, but with a system built to last. Luis Enrique did not just win the Champions League. He reshaped Paris St Germain into something new and as he once claimed, something better. Reuters
Khaleej Times
18 hours ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
PSG's emphatic Champions League triumph gives Qatari owners long-awaited glory
After almost 15 years of huge investment, frequent disappointment and occasional humiliation, Paris Saint-Germain got their hands on the Uefa Champions League trophy on Saturday, allowing their Qatari owners to bask in the glory of an emphatic triumph. PSG could not win European football's biggest prize in previous seasons with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, or later with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and even after that when they added Lionel Messi to the mix. But they have done it now after shifting the focus away from signing glamorous superstars and letting a brilliant coach in Luis Enrique work with a hungry, dynamic young team. PSG have been Europe's best side in 2025, but the display against Inter Milan in Munich topped it all as they romped to a 5-0 victory, the biggest win in the final in the competition's history. It was ultimately worth the long wait for the Gulf owners who arrived in 2011 when Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) bought an ailing club. Qatar got the perfect World Cup final in 2022, when Messi's Argentina beat Mbappe's France on an epic night in Doha, and now Qatari-owned PSG have the most stunning Champions League final win. It is easy to forget now, but they lost three of their first five games in the tournament this season. "We had a difficult start. Everyone criticised us and doubted us. Lots of people didn't believe in our project," PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi told broadcaster Canal Plus. "The objective now is to win again. It has taken 14 years of hard work but we are building something for the future." Al Khelaifi, who is close to Qatar's ruler and holds several influential positions in football including as chairman of the European Club Association, was beaming as he celebrated with the trophy. The first of many? It is just the second time any French club has won it after Marseille in 1993. It surely won't take over 30 years for PSG to win another Champions League, especially as this thrilling young side should now stay together for a long time. The average age of their starting line-up on Saturday was under 25 and their oldest player is Marquinhos at 31 — he has been there since 2013. "I have suffered and I have grown with this team," the Brazilian told broadcaster M6. "My thoughts are with all the players who played here but were not able to win it." It has required 14 years, eight coaches, and over two billion euros ($2.27 billion) spent on transfer fees for QSI to get here. In the last 12 campaigns before this season, PSG reached one final, losing to Bayern Munich in Lisbon in 2020. There were two semi-final defeats, but there have also been humiliating collapses in the last 16 against Barcelona in 2017, Manchester United in 2019 and Real Madrid in 2022. "I said when I came in that the objective was to win important trophies, and the only one missing was the Champions League," said Luis Enrique, appointed in 2023. Club World Cup the next target After Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City's victory two years ago, also against Inter, it is another triumph for a club with Gulf owners. PSG's victory was always only a matter of time. Their revenue last year of just over 800 million euros made them the third-richest club in analysts Deloitte's Football Money League. They sat behind only Real and City, and just ahead of traditional European aristocrats United, Bayern and Barcelona. PSG's last reported annual wage bill was close to double Inter's entire revenues. The difference with past years is that they are now spending the money more intelligently, on the likes of Saturday's two-goal hero Desire Doue, Joao Neves and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Luis Enrique and sporting director Luis Campos recently signed new contracts with the club who also won all three available titles in France this season. PSG will now take away more than 100 million euros just in prize money from winning the Champions League, and there is the chance for more glory and riches as they head to the highly lucrative Fifa Club World Cup in the USA. Qatar-owned PSG's quest for domination will not stop with Europe. "I think it is an incredible competition," said Luis Enrique, whose side face Atletico Madrid in Los Angeles in two weeks' time.
The Independent
18 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Why the Champions League is just the start for PSG's new breed of winners
In the afterglow of victory, Luis Enrique exchanged his trademark black top for a T-shirt bearing the message 'Champions of Europe'. So did many another. The temptation is to wonder that Paris Saint-Germain got them printed in 2011, when Qatar Sports Investments bought the club, and had them stored in a cupboard in the Parc des Princes ever since. An ambition was finally realised in Munich; impressively so. After the annual collapses, the near misses, the late goals from Sergi Roberto and Marcus Rashford came the cathartic 5-0 demolition of Internazionale, one of the genuine aristocrats of European football humiliated by the nouveaux riches with designs on becoming part of the establishment. It transpired that Arne Slot was ahead of the curve in calling PSG the best team in Europe. Over the subsequent months, many another reached that conclusion, too. The club who used to choke at the business end of the Champions League peaked when it mattered most; in itself, that is proof of the transformative impact of Luis Enrique. His cultural revolution has entailed ending the search for proven winners and building a young side who instead won. But it can be difficult to shed a club's identity. There was something quintessentially PSG about last season's 4-1 battering at Newcastle, or their semi-final defeat to Borussia Dortmund, when they hit the woodwork so often it needed a concussion test, but did not find the net. This year felt more of the same. Some 50 minutes into their seventh group game, PSG were – somehow – 2-0 down to Manchester City, outside the top 24, facing the ignominy of their worst European campaign under Qatari ownership. It instead became the best. PSG's modern Champions League history has been an extended exercise in schadenfreude. In Germany, home of the concept, the startlingly brilliant display of Desire Doue could not camouflage who was missing: Kylian Mbappe. It is no coincidence PSG finally won the Champions League without Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. There wasn't a superstar shortcut to glory. It is instructive if there will be an annual procession to it now. It is easy to predict so after a final, yet such forecasts often do not stand the test of time. Manchester City's 2023 triumph did not herald several more: if they regain the trophy, it will be with a very different team. In the last dozen years, only Real Madrid have won more than one Champions League. Right now, however, PSG look far better placed than many another supposed contender – City, Inter, Bayern Munich – to be celebrating again in Budapest next summer. What can be said without fear of contradiction is that PSG are young enough. They will have the resources. What may be pertinent is that they seem to have turned a deficiency – the ease with which they win Ligue Un – into an advantage. For years, the theory was that it did not properly prepare them for Champions League summit clashes. Yet time on the training ground with Luis Enrique and the physicality to blitz opponents can do that. PSG should see a future in their magnificent midfield. It is frightening how good Doue is even before his 20th birthday. If they can conjure more goals from the compelling Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, he will seem unstoppable. It may mean that questions instead surround their unlikely talisman. Luis Enrique argued Ousmane Dembele should win the Ballon d'Or for his defensive work alone. But after 28 goals in five years, can Dembele have another 33-goal season or was this the most wondrous of one-offs? PSG's new striker-less model suggests that, whatever the answer, Luis Enrique will want wingers who can interchange positions and runners who can work. It helps, too, that PSG no longer overlook the cradles of talent that are Paris or Ligue Un. Doue was bought from Rennes, Bradley Barcola from Lyon. It proved a better business model than raiding the Nou Camp, beyond getting the transformative manager who is a Barcelona alumnus and who became the seventh manager to win the competition with two different clubs. He altered the ethos. PSG stopped copying and found their own way. In one respect, they helped remedy a historical imbalance: this was just a second European Cup win for a French club. In another, they are a global club who have ruined the competitiveness of Ligue Un. It is the fifth domestic league in Europe, but a distant fifth. With its diminishing television rights, and broadcasters struggling to make it pay, other clubs can be financially challenged, often forced to sell. And yet the initial French surge in the Champions League this season came from the relatively impoverished. PSG underachieved in the group stages. The rest overachieved. Lille defeated Real and Atletico Madrid, Monaco beat Barcelona and Aston Villa. Brest took more points than Juventus and City. But they were beaten 10-0 on aggregate by PSG when the force from the capital gelled. Then PSG took aim across the English Channel, eliminating Liverpool and Villa and Arsenal. The Italian challengers from Inter were then vanquished, PSG's arc of triumph complete.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PSG win Champions League for first time with record 5-0 final hammering of Inter
The suffering only makes it sweeter and how Paris Saint-Germain had suffered in the Champions League after the Qatar Sports Investments takeover of 2011. Prior to this season, it had been 12 consecutive qualifications for the knockout rounds and 12 assorted sets of heartbreak, some of them scarcely believable. A first success in the competition consistently eluded them. This was the night when the French champions broke through, when they delivered on the obsession of their owners, of everybody connected to the club; 13th time lucky. All of the emotion came pouring out as Luis Enrique's swashbuckling team tore into Inter, the result not in doubt from the moment that the nerveless Désiré Doué made it 2-0 before the midway point of the first half. Advertisement Related: Champions League final – Paris Saint-Germain v Inter: live It had been possible, in fact, to fear for Inter from the first whistle. PSG were in that kind of mood. They have been the dominant team in Europe since the turn of the year, sweeping all before them, and they were determined to drive it all home. It would become impossibly grisly for Inter well before the end, Simone Inzaghi's team powerless to resist the PSG waves and a record margin in a European Cup final. After Doué had scored his second for 3-0, teed up by the irrepressible Vitinha, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made it four, there was a moment when the substitute, Bradley Barcola, tied the veteran Inter defender, Francesco Acerbi, in such a knot that it felt cruel. Barcola would then blow the chance. PSG toyed with Inter. When a fan of the Serie A club was pictured on the big screen in floods of tears, it was the defining image from their point of view. There was a time about six weeks ago when Inter were on for a treble. They have finished the season empty-handed; utterly broken. Advertisement PSG were not finished. Doué had already made way and it was another 19-year-old, Senny Mayulu, on as a substitute, who made the final incision, shooting home from a Barcola pass. For PSG it was the completion of a treble. At long last, they have their grail. PSG had gone straight for the jugular. There were 12 minutes on the clock when their ultras lit a few red flares because they loved what they saw from their team during the early running – the positional interchanges, the unusual overloads, the slickness of the passing. PSG brought a fierce press; Inter could not get out, the pressure intense on the goalkeeper, Yann Sommer, when he tried to play – a theme established. Moments later, there were flares everywhere in the PSG end, the celebrations for the breakthrough goal suitably wild. Luis Enrique had promised that his team knew 'how to unpick opponents like this, how to get that tight-knit defence to unravel.' It was just the way he said. Vitinha held the conductor's baton, watching Kvaratskhelia and Fabián Ruiz make moves off the left, pulling at the seams of the Inter defence. When Vitinha got the ball back, he fizzed it up to Doué on the left of the area, a breathtaking incision. Hakimi was already on the move from right-back, attacking the six-yard box. Doué took a touch as he spun and found him. It was ping-perfect. PSG would tighten their grip in the 20th minute and at that point, Inter were gasping. Nicolò Barella thought he had won a corner but that was before Willian Pacho jumped into a challenge on him, hooking the ball away and the end-to-end PSG counter was devastating. Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembélé were prominent, the latter going right to Doué whose shot deflected off Federico Dimarco to beat Sommer. Advertisement Inter fought to clear their heads. Maybe a set piece could offer them a lifeline? Acerbi went close with a header from one, Marcus Thuram thumped another header from another one just wide having got above Kvaratskhelia. Barella also took a heavy touch in open play when well placed. The first half was mainly about PSG's movement, the spaces they were able to enjoy. Dembélé dropped deep from his central attacking role. He went right. He went pretty much wherever. Doué's license to roam off the right was pronounced. Then again, it helps when you have Hakimi thundering up that side. Vitinha was a delight. It was a night when the contrasts were everywhere. It was PSG's youthful swagger vs Inter's experience. It was 4-3-3 without a pure centre-forward vs 3-5-2 with twin No 9s. It was attack vs defence. And it was big budgets vs tight economics, cuteness on the market. In Inzaghi's four years at Inter, his most expensive signings have been Benjamin Pavard and Davide Frattesi, each for a little more than €30m. Only two of the PSG starting XI cost less than that. Inzaghi needed a punch to land as the second-half minutes ticked by. Perhaps his team could unsettle PSG with a long throw? Balls slung high into the box seemed like the best bet. It was wishful thinking. The alarm bells started to sound for Inter when Vitinha got on the ball and started to scuttle and probe, the ball under his spell, his markers close and yet miles away. The give-and-go with Dembélé was beautiful, his teammate finessing it with a backheel and Vitinha was up and away. The pass to Doué was measured to perfection and he was never going to miss the one-on-one. Game over.
