EXCLUSIVE | Bacary Sagna: ‘When you have Neymar, Mbappé, Ramos and Messi and you push them to leave, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.’

EXCLUSIVE | Bacary Sagna: ‘When you have Neymar, Mbappé, Ramos and Messi and you push them to leave, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.’ Get French Football News had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with former Arsenal, Manchester City and France defender Bacary Sagna to discuss the changing landscape in football. I wanted to talk about the transfer window, which has just shut. The Premier League has just spent €4bn. At the other end of the spectrum, Ligue 1, because of all the clubs’ financial problems, has ended it with €700m in credit. In terms of relative financial strength, it is barely even the same sport. Can we continue like this? The Premier League is the most watched league in the world, the most exciting, the most attractive. The one that sells the most, that has the highest TV rights. So if a club like Arsenal spend a lot, it’s because they’re also bringing in a lot – they have a big fan base, they sell a lot of shirts, they are clever with the sponsors that they bring in. So when you have a high income, you can spend a lot. And that’s not the case with the French clubs, apart from Paris Saint-Germain. PSG are bankable; PSG can spend because they sell shirts, because PSG has a worldwide fanbase above and beyond the backing from Qatar. PSG are back-to-back Champions League winners, so they sell shirts; they can develop – PSG is a brand today. And if they’re a brand, it means that they can make lots of money. So I’m not surprised to see the English clubs spend a lot of money because they are all bankable. They’re the most supported teams in the world. So every year they sell lots of shirts and remain in credit. And they have the highest TV rights.  As for Ligue 1, they made a huge mistake. When you have Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Sergio Ramos, Lionel Messi in the league, but then every weekend you have all the journalists criticising them and pushing them to leave, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.  They had these players and potentially everything would have been better: the TV rights, the investment, the sponsorship, everything. But because they [the journalists] have so much ego, they want to show that the press is untouchable…  When you have such big players in your league, and you’re not able to keep them, you can’t complain today about not having the money because you made them leave.  Who sells the games? Who sells the TV rights? It’s the players! Take Mbappé – if I show you how they spoke about Mbappé in the press because he didn’t want to renew his contract – they don’t value players.  Neymar – Neymar was being whistled by his own fans. Messi was whistled at. Who in the world would whistle Messi? They were criticising Messi for being lazy. In his first season, I think he scored more than 30 goals [Editor: Messi scored 11 goals in all competitions], and I don’t know how many assists; you have a player of this calibre and you criticise him!  And today they complain, “Oh, we can’t compete with the UK because we don’t have the money; we don’t have the same financial power.” I’m sorry, but you need to put smart people at the top of this league who understand football. It’s not good to be only a businessman. You need someone who understands the game. And they were wrong. And they are wrong. And I’m not surprised to see them struggling to have TV rights.  But they’re all playing for the same team, so why would that sell more TV rights for the whole league? They will, because the kids want to be able to watch Messi, Neymar and Mbappé every weekend, so they will buy [the TV rights]. They will buy the membership to subscribe. And then everyone is happy; everyone is making money. So, the TV rights will rise. And if you have more TV rights, the money spread among the clubs will be higher. But no, they made them leave. And now, if you buy the Ligue 1 subscription – would you buy it just to watch PSG? No, you would not. Imagine you come to a country, you score 30 goals, and the fans boo you. I don’t know, at some point we need to get back into reality. If today any player scores 30 goals in his first season in the league, he’ll be treated as a genius of football. But for Messi, it’s not enough. And people start saying he’s lazy? When you buy Messi, you know what you’re buying. You know the type of player. You know he sometimes walks on the pitch. So why would you complain about him not running on the pitch?  But Messi unlocks situations; Messi brings something different to a league. Did you see the stadiums in Miami? [When] I was in the MLS, a ticket was maybe $50. Now you’re not going to find a ticket under $1,000. It’s the Messi effect. When you have that power, powerful players, you keep them. So they [in France] were wrong. Like it or don’t like it, the impact these players have is different. The same with Ronaldo and the Saudi league. Those players, they have the power to shift people, to make people stop doing something to watch them. This is their power. If all of those players were still playing for PSG, that’s one match out of nine every weekend. What about the other eight? When you buy the package, the membership, TV membership, it’s a package. So at the end of the day, Canal+ , for example, instead of selling one million packages, would have sold 10 million packages, and they know that they want to have this type of player on their channel. Why? Because they know the impact they’re having. So they will fight more to have the rights.  I mean, how can you possibly call the league Ligue 1 McDonald’s? Can you imagine having to resort to that because you don’t have anyone who wants the league? How can you reach a point where you have to associate yourself with fast food? For me, it’s shocking. We talk about nutrition – don’t drink this, don’t eat that. And then the kids have to watch Ligue 1 McDonald’s? Is that serious? No, it’s not. But things were done in the wrong way. I don’t watch Ligue 1. But when those players were at PSG, I was attracted. I started wanting to watch; I was looking for the game. This is the effect these players have. They’re different. But do you watch Paris now? Now that they are playing better football and winning the Champions League? No, I don’t watch Paris anymore. I used to watch Paris just because these guys were playing. Now, no. Now, for me, watching Paris play the same way – no, those guys were imaginative; they come up with something on the pitch. And this is why they have so much impact in the world. This is why they’re such big players. Mbappé, whenever he plays, something happens. He will create magic. You don’t see this anymore. We used to see that before with the X Generation, with Francesco Totti, Thierry Henry… but the magic is gone.  Bacary Sagna was speaking exclusively to Get French Football News courtesy of Wiz Slots GFFN | Jeremy Smith