PSG owner Al-Khelaifi alleged buying sports company linked to bribes

Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of the big-spending Paris St.-Germain soccer team, had been negotiating to buy a majority stake in the Argentina-based Full Play Group before the company and its founders were among those charged in the United States Department of Justice’s soccer corruption investigation.

In testimony at the trial of three former Latin American soccer officials, Santiago Peña, a former Full Play executive-turned state’s witness, said al-Khelaifi was involved in secret negotiations to acquire 51 percent of the sports marketing company. The talks were code-named “the New York project” because the purchase under consideration was valued at $212 million, a figure synonymous with the New York area code.

Al-Khelaifi is one of soccer’s most influential figures and a confidant of Qatar’s emir. He is chief executive of BeIN Sports, a state-backed sports network that has spent billions on sports rights since its start in 2012. A spokesman for BeIN confirmed the talks.

“Qatar regularly look at investment with their funds,” the spokesman said. “This investment was proposed and considered. After a review it was decided not to pursue it. This happens very often.”

Qatar Sports Investments, a sovereign wealth fund chaired by al-Khelaifi, had looked at assets including the Formula One motor racing series and David Beckham’s possible venture with Major League Soccer before deciding against those deals.

Peña, who kept a ledger of what bribes were paid to which soccer executives, described in court how he gave officials code names linked to car brands. During his testimony he revealed that two of the payments were labeled “Q2022”, a possible link to Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup. Further details of those payments were not outlined.

Qatar’s bid team has for years denied accusations of wrongdoing. Another government witness, Alejandro Burzaco, the former chief executive of Torneos y Competencias, one of Full Play’s partners in the bribery scheme, testified earlier in the trial about possible bribes related to Qatar’s bid. He said last week that Julio Grondona, the head of Argentina’s soccer federation, and then the senior vice president of FIFA, had complained that the Qataris owed him millions for his vote.

Grondona confronted a Qatari delegation at a FIFA meeting in 2011. He started “insulting them and complaining,” according to Burzaco, who has pleaded guilty in the case in which more than 40 individuals and companies have been charged. “And basically, Grondona told them, you either pay me $80 million or you issue me a letter by print or by top authorities saying that you never pay me a bribe.”

Full Play’s controlling principals, father and son Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, have evaded United States law enforcement by remaining in their native Argentina. They are accused of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy related to millions of dollars in payments to soccer officials in return for lucrative broadcast and marketing contracts.

Swiss prosecutors in October named al-Khelaifi a criminal suspect, accusing him of bribing the former FIFA secretary general Jérôme Valcke to secure World Cup 2026 and 2030 rights for BeIN Sports. Al-Khelaifi has denied the accusations and voluntarily met with the Swiss authorities.

Al-Khelaifi’s negotiations with Full Play were cloaked in secrecy, according to Peña. He told the court that only he, Hugo and Mariano Jinkis and the Full Play accountant Sergio Rabinovich were aware of the talks. Peña testified that he deleted any emails that pertained to the sale to the Qatari businessman.

“I did it in order to protect the company,” Peña said.

Juan Angel Napout, the former president of Paraguay’s soccer federation; Jose Maria Marin, the former president of Brazil’s soccer federation; and Manuel Burga, the former head of Peru’s soccer federation, are on trial in federal court in Brooklyn for racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.