QSI open to reducing ownership stake in PSG with complex case opened against club President Nasser al-Khelaifi.
QSI is considering reducing its stake in Paris Saint-Germain amid a row surrounding an investigation into the club’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi.
The supporters of the Ligue 1 team are willing to further reduce their 87.5% investment after Qatar angrily responded to the most recent Khelaifi-related procedures. As part of a larger case involving businessman Arnaud Lagardère, the 51-year-old was officially under investigation in France last Wednesday for alleged involvement in vote-buying, interference with the right to vote, and abuse of power in connection with a case involving a media company based in Paris. Khelaifi denies any misconduct.
In December 2023, the American investment group Arctos Sports Partners purchased a 12.5% share in PSG from QSI. The agreement was presented as a way to increase the club’s capacity to compete on the European stage, and QSI is aware that it would consider reducing its engagement as part of a larger strategy to concentrate on ventures outside of France.
Khelaifi is under investigation in relation to a complicated issue involving Lagardère Group, which had long-standing commercial interests in sports. Khelaifi’s other positions include the powerful post of chairman of the European Club Association. It centres on an internal power struggle between Bernard Arnault and Vincent Bolloré, two affluent board members, in 2018.
The latter was an Arnaud Lagardère fan. The PSG chairman was close because he was on the board of the Qatar Investment Authority, which owned the majority of Lagardère Group through its subsidiary Qatar Holding LLC.
Two and a half years after Khelaifi was exonerated of wrongdoing in a case involving World Cup media rights, the probe has begun. Following a corruption inquiry into Qatar’s bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, he was also exonerated in February 2023.
Part of a QIA statement in reaction to the Lagardère case read: “Mr al-Khelaifi had no substantive role in this matter nor made any decisions in this regard. Day-to-day matters involving companies into which QIA has made an investment are handled by its executives, not by members of QIA’s board such as Nasser al-Khelaifi … Accordingly [al-Khelaifi] was not in any position to influence, or to take any action on behalf of, QIA involving the company Lagardère.”