Ah okay, thanks for the information.
Also, Sarkozy was very much involved with them and PSG, so the political roots are far dipper than meet the eyes. PSG is perfect for their soft power and they need France more than Italy for protection.
Can you please explain this passage above? ^ What protection and soft power? And how is it political connection to a prior president of france relevant? How does it explain that psg was chosen in stead of for example an italian team?
Well, "sunk cost and escelating of commitment"-bias is relevant here. If the project isnt succesfull, it would make sense to look for another team / country. What france is lacking are at least 1 or 2 teams to compete against like la liga with barca, madrid and athletico. Emir / nasser would get that in italy, a leauge with huge potential, and juventus as a european powerhose.
It is Sarkozy that brought Qatar at PSG.
Sarkozy is a well known die hard fan of PSG. He can be seen at almost every game in Paris and he is seated next to Nasser or the Emir (when he rarely comes).
He extended favorable fiscal convention for Qatari investment in France. In exchange of buying PSG, he promised them he would use his influence to get them the 2022 World Cup. Platini even said that one day, he had a scheduled meeting with Sarkozy and when he arrived, he saw an high ranked qatari there waiting for him.
PSG is just the flagship of Qatar in France, but they have invested in numerous high end hotels, in a lot of CAC 40 firms.
All, a new fidelity program created by Accor is the new sponsor of PSG, replacing Emirates. Qatar has some 10 % stake in Accor and Sarkozy is in the board. PSG will net something between 60 and 75 M a year.
Also, France had some difficulty to sell their weaponry and Qatar thanks to those links has become a reliable consumer.
For World Cup, french firms are well placed to build some sensible infrastructures. The metro of Qatar, some stadium, parking etc.
And all those intertwinned relationships give Qatar the support of France to stop their gulf rivals from starting a takeover of Qatar.
Qatar knows too well you can't rely on only one "friend", so they cultivate good political and financial relationships with the major players of this world like USA, UK, France.
Italy is a great country but they are a minor nation in the worldwide politics : no permanent seat at UNO, no military might.
Also, when i see the racist climate around italian football and the repeated "weird comments" from italian people like de Laurentis about PSG owners, i'm really not sure they would be well accepted there. I can already see the shitshow from Lazio fans (and Atalanta and Inter since some are linked with Lazio ultras).
Also, sporting wise the project is not where they want it to be but it is hard. Even City with the big TV rights of Premier League are failing to win it. And they simply took Barca men to succeed, still no success in CL.
Brand wise and finance wise, PSG is a success. In a league with so few perspectives, they managed to develop the brand up to the size of top 10 clubs in the world.