France's Ligue 1 put on a show in China last week, with its figurehead club, Paris Saint-Germain, finishing off a tour of the country with the staging of the Trophee des Champions in Beijing.
All-star PSG and provincial Guingamp did not quite sell out the Workers Stadium in the Chinese capital, but from PSG’s point of view, the expedition was about setting down markers, part of a long-term process to elevate the club’s global appeal.
Ligue 1 is mostly happy to hang on to super-rich PSG’s coattails in raising its own profile.
The French league, which begins play in the 2014/15 season tonight with PSG raising the curtain at Reims, strides along on a competitive catwalk – not as popular worldwide as the English Premier League, not as dashing as Spain’s Primera Liga, lacking the traditional cachet of Italy’s Serie A, and not quite as entertaining offensively as the German Bundesliga.
What Ligue 1 does have, though, is a powerful motor to drive it up the European hierarchy, where it currently jostles with Portugal’s Superliga for the status of Uefa’s fifth-best league. That motor is the wealth and ambition of Qatar-backed PSG.
PSG won a second consecutive Ligue 1 title last May, and they did so at a canter. But their summer has presented some difficulties.
The club’s owners have been more aware than ever that they are obliged to observe the principles of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play initiative, which means curtailing spending on fees and salaries so that expenditures more closely match what the club can generate in ticketing, TV sales and merchandise.
The China trip, and the effort to make PSG a powerful global brand, was part of an endeavour to address income issues.
PSG have so far spent less than in previous summers, but they still managed to set one individual record for outlay.
The close to €60 million (Dh294.7m) they agreed to pay Chelsea for David Luiz eclipses the sum they handed over to AC Milan for Thiago Silva two years ago.
Thus, their central defensive pair are the first- and second-most costly defenders in the history of football.
The two are also fresh from a World Cup in which their Brazil were humiliated in the semi-finals. There must be a concern for PSG coach Laurent Blanc that both men bear some psychological scars.
Blanc’s position would become vulnerable, were PSG to begin the domestic campaign with a similar sequence of results as they finished the last. Their title was achieved thanks to an impeccable start, but it was actually clinched after a run of four games in which they lost twice and won only once.
It was a stumble that might have been graver had Monaco, their nearest pursuers, not faltered at the same time.
It did raise questions about Blanc’s capacity to focus the team. He has a tough job, despite all the budgetary muscle PSG can flex over other French clubs.
“Everyone assumes we are favourites of all the domestic competitions,” he said. “So we have to shine.”
His bosses have made it clear to him the priority is success in Europe. Blanc’s PSG came within minutes of an Uefa Champions League semi-final last April, edged out of the competition by Chelsea.
In the decisive second leg, they missed their leading scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a significant detail. Ibrahimovic is the centrepiece of PSG's image-making, and their game plan.
He also will soon turn 33. Blanc needs to make PSG less dependent on the Swede, but he needs to somehow keep Ibrahimovic and his teammates happy, too. Last season, the coach was aware of the Uruguayan forward Edinson Cavani's grumpiness in relinquishing the central striking role to Ibrahimovic.
Domestically, Blanc will come up against ambitious coaches keen to exploit any PSG frailty and polish their reputations by taking points off the Parisians.
An unusually high number of Ligue 1 clubs are guided by men new to the league. There is the venerated Marcelo Bielsa, a big character to take on a big project, at PSG’s fiercest rivals, Marseille.
At Monaco, who despite the loss of James Rodriguez to Real Madrid remain the best-equipped squad to challenge PSG, the managerial talents of Portugal’s Leonardo Jardim, 40, will be further assessed.
Jardim galvanised Sporting Lisbon last season, and if he can count on the services of Radamel Falcao for the whole of this term, he has a weapon to match Cavani and Ibrahimovic for firepower. The Colombia striker missed four months of 2013/14 with an injury.
Among the opening weekend’s most-intriguing fixtures will be Bielsa’s Marseille at Bastia, where Claude Makelele, the former France, Real Madrid and Chelsea midfielder, makes his debut as coach. Makelele was a watchword for organised, authoritative football as a player. He also served as an assistant at PSG and may know how to probe the champions’ weaknesses.
Meanwhile, Willy Sagnol, a former France teammate of Makelele, takes charge at Bordeaux.
Ligue 1 is intrigued by these new managers, probably more than by the fresh names playing on the teams. The reality is that glamorous new recruits are beyond the budgets of most clubs beneath the upper tier occupied by Monaco and PSG.
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