A former journalist from L’Equipe revealed that the Parisian president had repeatedly called for his head because of his articles.
Relations between PSG and L’Equipe have sometimes been particularly tense. And not only between Sébastien Tarrago and Nicolas Anelka, who did not hesitate to slap him in January 2001. This was particularly the case at the end of 2018 when the Parisian club declared the newspaper’s journalists persona non grata, whether at conferences press or at the training center. Consequences of the information published in The Team regarding a possible departure of Neymar or Mbappé the following summer.
The article caused a strong reaction from the capital club which denied “ with the greatest firmness these allegations are totally erroneous, ridiculous and only likely to recreate a climate of great tensions between the Club and this media”accusing L’Equipe of ” disinformation “. PSG’s anger against the daily newspaper could also be expressed in another way. This is evidenced by the accusations made by a former editor-in-chief of the sports daily during a portrait of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi in Revelo.
“It happened several times that I gave information that the club considered harmful and they asked for my head in the newspaper, thus launched the journalist in question. The management came under pressure from the president. People around him have expressed their anger to me; whenever he can, he takes advantage of his power to intimidate and he generally succeeds. »
And this former L’Equipe is not the only one to make accusations against the Qatari president. It is the same for Donato Di Campli, Marco Verratti’s former agent. “ PSG’s attitude is still that of blackmail. We decided to go to Barcelona. This obviously did not please the emir. Al Khelaïfi even told me that if I continued to try to do the operation with Barça, Verratti was going to leave me, he said. And that’s how it happened. Marco was probably scared, he wouldn’t admit it, but that’s how it is. »
