As almost everybody who is involved in the world of football will have heard, Neymar has more than doubled the world record transfer fee with a move to PSG said to be worth around £198m, writes chief executive officer Carolyn Radford exclusively for www.mansfieldtown.net.
As a person heavily involved with the business of football I understand how this deal took place, the legalities of it, and the hoops which PSG will have had to jump through to pull off such a deal.
Neymar has already said goodbye to his Catalonian team-mates and has been given permission from Barcelona officials to leave the club, and the move has been finalised. However, the transfer is not without its fair share of controversy, with the Liga president, Javier Tebas appealing the transfer to the CAS (Court of Arbitration in Sport) and accusing the French club of "financial doping".
The rules stated by UEFA are clubs are not permitted to make losses in excess of €5 million over three years, with owners allowed to spend €30m of their own money on top of this. PSG would clearly be acting outside of these regulations, and that is what Javier Tebas is trying to avoid.
"We at Mansfield are not going to be spending £198m on a player any time soon, however, Neymar and others' transfers could have direct consequences for teams like us."
The reason the huge price tag is such a big problem is the fact that Barcelona want the amount in full, whereas most big money transfers are paid out in instalments, which means most clubs can avoid tripping over UEFA's rules.
PSG are also previous offenders, being fined £49m in 2014 alongside Manchester City for ignoring the introduction of UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations. However, they were eventually given a £16m fine and had their transfer cap lifted the following season.
This is the 9th time that the record transfer figure has been broken in the last 20 years, starting with Alan Shearer's £15m move from Blackburn to Newcastle in 1997. The most recent record transfer was Paul Pogba after his move from Juventus to Manchester United cost around £89m, however, Neymar's move is 110% higher than the Frenchman's, and in comparison, to Shearer's move is around 1220% more than that of the Englishman.
The Neymar transfer news has brought to the surface fundamental problems in the world of football. A release clause made to deter and stop clubs such as Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City from swooping in and breaking UEFA regulations has not done its job. You begin to wonder if there is a price that the billionaire owners of the top clubs will not pay for top players, despite rules being directly in place to stop exactly that.
For top tier teams, the UEFA regulations are something which need to be carefully considered and followed, as their purpose is not to stop players moving to the teams they desire, but to promote sustainability within the game. Some clubs may be able to sustain spending millions upon millions on players, however, with the current market expanding the way it is smaller clubs will need to pay £50m+ prices for players who before would have cost them much less than that.
The inflation within the football market at the moment is something which needs to be carefully controlled and the current climate is making it harder and harder for UEFA to do so.
We at Mansfield are not going to be spending £198m on a player any time soon, however, Neymar and others' transfers could have direct consequences for teams like us. If the price for players continue to rise then it is only a matter of time before the prices for League Two players begin to creep up.
Despite all of this we at Mansfield continue to pride ourselves on abiding by all regulations laid out by UEFA and are looking to make profit this year!
