Paris prosecutors announced on Sunday that Nasser al-Khelaifi, the Qatari president of the French football club Paris Saint-Germain, is being investigated in France on suspicion of an unlawful conflict of interest.
The prosecutor’s office, confirming a report by the sports newspaper L’Equipe, stated that the preliminary investigation concerns his simultaneous leadership of the Champions League champions and the beIN Media Group and centers on a July 2024 meeting about broadcasting rights with representatives of the French football league.
That meeting took place one day after beIN Sports submitted a €100 million ($115 million) bid for the rights to broadcast one Ligue 1 match each week. The beIN offer was subsequently accepted by France’s professional football league.
This latest probe into al-Khelaifi was opened in April following a tip-off from the anti-corruption group Anticor, and the case was assigned to the anti-corruption and finance police.
A source familiar with the matter said Anticor claims that al-Khelaifi, despite serving as chairman of beIN Media Group, participated in discussions about approving beIN Sports’ bid, which constitutes a conflict of interest.
The source added that Anticor further claims al-Khelaifi pressured other Ligue 1 club presidents to back the beIN Sports proposal.
Renaud Semerdjian, al-Khelaifi’s lawyer, dismissed the allegations.
“The allegations made against Mr. Nasser al-Khelaifi are without basis, neither legally nor factually,” he told AFP.
The lawyer stated that his client had “always acted in an independent, impartial, and objective manner.”
The PSG chief, who has guided the French Ligue 1 champions since Qatar Sports Investments took over in 2011 with the ambition of turning the team into Europe’s best, has encountered multiple legal cases in recent years.
In February 2025, he was charged with complicity in abuse of power related to shareholder voting at a company.
Earlier charges against Al-Khelaifi concerning alleged corruption over Qatar’s bids for the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships were definitively annulled in mid-February 2023 by France’s Court of Cassation, which determined that the French justice system had no right to prosecute him.
