Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has questioned UEFA's financial fair play laws amid Barcelona star Neymar's imminent €222m move to PSG.
La Liga has rejected an attempt by lawyers acting on behalf of the Barcelona forward to pay his buyout clause to trigger a move to Paris which would shatter the world record currently set by Paul Pogba's £89m switch from Juventus to Manchester United last summer.
Spanish media is reporting that La Liga officials believe PSG are in breach of FFP regulations which attempt to limit the money clubs can spend in proportion to their income.
Wenger said: “For me, it [the Neymar deal] is the consequence of the ownerships and that has completely changed the whole landscape of football in the last 15 years.
“Once a country owns a club, everything is possible. It becomes very difficult to respect the financial fair play because you can have different ways or different interests for a country to have such a big player to represent a country. It can't justify the investments and looks unusual for the game.
“That's why I always [support] football living with its own resources. Apart from that, we are not in a period anymore where you think, in some places, 'If I invest that, I will get that back'. We are beyond that. The number today involves a lot of passion, pride, public interest and you cannot rationalise that anymore. It also looks like the inflation is accelerating. We crossed the 100m euros line last year and only one year later, we're crossing the 200m euros line.
“When you think that Trevor Francis was the first £1m player [in 1979] and that looked unreasonable, that shows you how much distance and how far we have come, how big football has become. It's beyond calculation and beyond rationality.
“It will have implications because of the consequences it will provoke. The clubs, when Barcelona will want to buy a player, will say, 'My friends, you have £250m, so £220m is in your pocket'. What costs £15m today will cost £100m for them."
Source: tribalfootball.com