Qatari businessman and sports executive

Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi ( Arabic : ناصر بن غانم الخليفي ; born 12 November 1973 ) is a Qatari businessman and the chair of beIN Media Group, [ 1 ] president of Qatar Sports Investments, [ 2 ] president of Paris Saint-Germain and the Qatar Tennis Federation, and frailty president of the Asian Tennis Federation for West Asia. [ 3 ] Al-Khelaifi is the president and chief executive policeman of Paris Saint-Germain in France. He is besides a member of the organizing committee for the FIFA Club World Cup, [ 4 ] and has been elected as the chair of the European Club Association ( ECA ).

early life and education [edit ]

Al-Khelaifi was born in Qatar, a son of a pearl fisherman, [ 5 ] and graduated with an Economics Degree from Qatar University. He besides has a post alumnus degree in Maritime Studies from University of Piraeus .

Tennis career [edit ]

Playing career [edit ]

As a tennis professional, Al-Khelaifi was the moment most successful member of the Qatar Davis Cup team after Sultan Khalfan, playing 43 times between 1992 and 2002 and compiling a 12–31 criminal record in singles, 12–16 in doubles. Al-Khelaifi appeared doubly on the Association of Tennis Professionals ( ATP ) main enlistment, losing each time in his first gear turn matches in St. Pölten in 1996 ( where he lost to early french Open Champion Thomas Muster ) and in Doha in 2001. He reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 995 in late 2002. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] He besides won the GCC Team Tournament .

Post-playing career [edit ]

Nasser Al-Khelaifi has been president of the united states of the Qatar Tennis Federation ( QTF ) since November 2008. In 2011, he was elected vice-president of the Asian Tennis Federation ( ATF ) for West Asia. [ 8 ]

business career [edit ]

Qatar Sports Investments [edit ]

Nasser Al-Khelaifi has been chair of Qatar Sports Investments ( QSi ) from June 2011. QSi is a sovereign wealth fund dedicated to investments in the fun and leisure industry on a national and external level. [ 2 ] Following the QSi acquisition of Paris Saint-Germain ( PSG ) football golf club in June 2011, [ 9 ] Nasser Al-Khelaifi became the president of the display panel of PSG and besides CEO of the club, [ 10 ] reinforcing Qatari interest in French football. QSi has several early high-profile partnerships. They besides sponsor spanish football club FC Barcelona. QSi besides owns the Burrda sportswear stigmatize. [ 11 ]

Paris Saint-Germain [edit ]

Nasser Al-Khelaifi became the new president of the united states and foreman executive officeholder of Paris Saint-Germain on 7 October 2011. [ 12 ] shortly after being named president, he presented a five-year plan to take Paris Saint-Germain to the top of the tree in France and overseas. [ 13 ] As part of the long-run design for the club, Al-Khelaifi brought in former football player Leonardo as the new director of football. [ 14 ] Although Al-Khelaifi had initially demanded a major trophy haul for the 2011–12 temper, PSG were soon eliminated from the UEFA Europa League and both domestic cups, leaving the team only able to compete $ 130 million on players, PSG failed to dominate, and lost out to eventual winners Montpellier, though they did qualify for the UEFA Champions League by finishing second. [ 15 ]
In the 2012–13 season, PSG won the Ligue 1 style and besides made it to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, thanks partially to the goalscoring of newly signed striker, Zlatan Ibrahimović. They finally lost in a two-legged marry to FC Barcelona on away goals. In the 2013–14 season PSG again finished top of Ligue 1 with a record entire of 89 points. [ 16 ] They reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League where they lost to Chelsea 3–3 on aggregate, again going out lone on the away goals rule .
Again they reached the 2018–19 UEFA champions league knock phase where they lost to Manchester United at home after leading with 2 goals at Old Trafford on the first stage. PSG lost at family 1–3 ( 3–3 on aggregate ) and were knocked out by the away finish rule. In June 2012, QSi acquired the Paris Handball Club and merged it with the PSG frolic franchise to create a wide and more competitive fun offer to the city of Paris. [ 17 ] Since 2012, Paris Saint-Germain Handball has won the LNH Division 1 five times, while reaching the EHF Champions League final examination in 2016–17 and the semi-finals in 2015–16 and 2017–18 .

beIN Media Group [edit ]

On 31 December 2013, Al Jazeera Sport ‘s global operations were spun out of Al Jazeera Media Network ( AJMN ) and rebranded as beIN Sports. [ citation needed ] Few months afterwards, beIN Media Group founded by him was incorporated and became the official owner of beIN Sports branded networks angstrom well as all other non-news and current affairs assets primitively belonging to AJMN. [ 1 ] beIN Sports has 22 channels including 17 HD channels and broadcasts across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. The scheme, digression from building the beIN agio sports network, is to develop the group ‘s ambitions in sports and entertainment in production, distribution and digital media sectors. [ promotional language ]

political career [edit ]

In November 2013, Al-Khelaifi was made curate without portfolio in the Qatari government by the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim. [ 18 ]

Legal perturb [edit ]

In October 2017, the swiss courts opened an probe against him for suspicion of private corruption in the allotment of television rights for the World Cups 2026 and 2030 for the Middle East and North Africa international media market. In March 2019, he is placed under the status of spectator assisted by the french courts. [ citation needed ] On 23 May 2019, he was indicted for active bribery in an investigation into the 2017 and 2019 Doha nominations for the World Championships in Athletics. “ These facts do not concern him ”, pleads his lawyer who contends that Nasser Al-Khelaifi is innocent. [ citation needed ] In February 2020, swiss prosecutors replaced the commit of bribery by indicting Al-Khelaifi for “ inciting Jérôme Valcke to commit exacerbate criminal mismanagement. ” [ 19 ] On 27 March 2020, the Swiss Federal Court rejected the prosecution ‘s latest indictment against Al-Khelaifi for “ inciting Jérôme Valcke to commit criminal mismanagement ”, stating that “ these conditions of mismanagement are absent from the OAG ‘s [ Swiss pursuance ‘s ] accusation ”. [ 20 ] On 14 September 2020, the Swiss Federal Court started to prosecute Al-Khelaifi, due to “ aggravated criminal mismanagement ”, based on charges related to a meeting on October 24, 2013, at the french headquarters of beIN Media Group, in which Al-Khelaifi allegedly promised to purchase a villa in Sardinia for €5m, to be utilized by Valcke, in exchange to granting the 2026 and 2030 World Cups screening rights to beIN Media Group. [ 21 ] Al-Khelaifi was besides acquitted of this indictment by the cour in October 2020. No charges against him remain up. [ 22 ]

Awards and honors [edit ]

In February 2012, he won a french ‘Sport Business ‘ award, receiving the most votes out of 1,500 and finishing ahead of nine people. [ 23 ] His growing charm in the sport was recognised in 2015 when he was voted ‘favourite Ligue 1 president ‘ in a poll conducted by France Football, with 35 % of the votes cast. In 2016, the french daily mutant newspaper L’Équipe named him the ‘most herculean man in french football ‘ in a 30-man tilt, ahead of such noteworthy individuals as Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] In 2019, he was elected by the European Club Association as delegate at the UEFA executive committee, becoming the first oriental to hold an UEFA placement. [ 26 ] In 2020, he was named the most influential person in football by France Football. [ 27 ] In March 2020, Al-Khelaifi was praised by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus after offering to help in the global crusade against the COVID-19 pandemic by using his players and club to send health advice messages to the populace. [ 28 ]

personal life [edit ]

He is close to the Emir, Sheikh Tamim, head of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority. He is married, and has four children who reside in Qatar. [ 29 ]

References [edit ]