Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain have won the Champions League for the first time, the culmination of the Gulf state’s 14-year project to turn the French club into a football superpower.
Inside the Allianz Arena in Munich, PSG cruised to victory over an ageing Inter Milan side, who failed to register a single shot on target. The 5-0 scoreline was the widest margin in any Champions League final.
Qatar Sports Investment, a state-backed fund, bought PSG — then a team with little record of success and a reputation for violence at matches — for around €70mn in 2011 at the suggestion of then French president Nicolas Sarkozy. A few months earlier, Qatar had won the right to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup.