Tareq A. Al BehairiProject Management Consultant| Independent Consultants and TrainerGcc, Kuwait
There are no words describing the football craziness practiced by F.C. Barcelona players at Camp Nou in Barcelona versus the French club team - Paris Saint Germain (PSG) .
Where they achieved the best Remuntada !! in a historic coming back from defeat (zero - 4) to win in the final minutes ( 6-1) in the UEFA Champions League 2017.
(in the Catalan language: Remuntada = come back)
The Champions League Cup lifting is a great moment sought by every club each year in Europe, but it is also a risky investment be sought by the investors from inside the old continent and outside too.
From six years ago, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) - (www.qia.qa) come to buy the PSG Club’s shares , became the sole owner and had spent hundreds of millions to acquire players , develop talents and establish the club football infrastructure.
All that was in order to lift the cup of Champions League by 2017 ,if that happens, one of the most important project objectives will have been achieved and will be the first time that the Parisian club raise this cup.
But the March,8th historic defeat at the Camp Nou has served as occurrence of a minor probability event especially, that Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) was after 7 minutes or less about to exceed F.C.Barcelona obstacle and move forward for completing his project successfully.
Undoubtedly, this painful failure will not pass quietly for PSG’s shareholders in Qatar that may be terminate the coach contract and brings many changes in the club's management and the team formation.
Not only that, but the PSG exclusion from the champions league this year represents a big loss for the worldwide projects of state of Qatar which it seeks to invest the surplus of
the oil & gas revenues away from energy investment in order to achieve a strategic goal of diversifying the sources of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and reduce Qatar's reliance on single income source .
But the legendary victory of the F.C.Barcelona team, which it described by a Spanish newspaper the Miracle of Life may carry on the other side a success for another Qatari project at Catalonia Province ,the stronghold of F.C.Barcelona team.
Where, Qatar Airways Corporation ( ww.qatarairways.com) implements a project of sponsoring the F.C. Barcelona club T-shirts and lays its logo on the T-Shirts of the most elite players in the world at every match.
There is no doubt that Barcelona's historic win will ensure sitting the F.C.Barcelona T-shirts on the throne of shirts best-selling list in the world for the second year respectively , achieving the success of the sponsorship project provided by one of the institutions in Qatar. Also ,the F.C.Barcelona win might be a great opportunity to the Catalan club management to accept the offer submitted by the State of Qatar to nominate Barcelona stadium as The Qatar Camp Nou for 350 Million Euros lasting 30 years along the lines naming stadium of the English Club Arsenal as the Emirates stadium.
Today, in the soccer world, the team losing and out of big tournament has become not a shame or humiliation, but it is a risk may lead to loss a huge investments that require better management of those risks and diversify their portfolios in this kind of Sporting investment. The defeat of Paris Saint-Germain shock is no longer something the fans should accept in the spirit of sports and just forget it only,but it has become a faltering project has failed to achieve its goals so far, and needs to make an appropriate changes for debugging and return to the successful completion course. Saving Changes...
