Many gifts, favors, invitations and a very special relationship with Pascal Ferré, former director of France Football in charge of organizing the «Ballon d'Or» in exchange for lobbying and pressure to ensure that the most prestigious award in the world of football ended up with Leo Messi, former Argentine jewel of the company owned by the emirs of Qatar. The hypothesis of illicit is at the center of a judicial investigation triggered last November and revealed by Le Monde and other French newspapers, which were also able to examine the content of the minutes drawn up by the investigators. PSG has had a special relationship with Ferré for years, who has now become the club's press officer. But until 2023 he was the editor of the magazine that founded the prestigious recognition.
PSG's Moves
In particular, in 2021, PSG would have put significant pressure on the journalist so that Messi, just landed in France, could win his 7th Ballon d'Or. And this operation, according to what appears from the minutes, would have been conducted by Jean-Martial Ribes, then director of communication of the company, who worked to smooth the corners of the difficult relationship between the L'Equipe publishing group, to which France Football belongs, and the Qatari ownership. Among the moments of significant «contact» between the protagonists, which emerged in the investigation, the presence of Ferré in the VIP stand of the Parc des Princes for a match against Lyon after Ribes would have told his collaborators that he wanted to «lobby» in favor of Messi, for him a legitimate candidate for the Ballon d'Or as a winner, that year, of the Copa America.
Messi won that Ballon d'Or, even though Ferré's personal vote went to the Pole Lewandowski (with the Argentine in second place). And, according to what appears to Le Monde but also to the Mediapart investigative site, the work of persuasion with clubs and jurors by the director of France Football was important. Among the gifts received by Ferré, various invitations to the Parc des Princes in the VIP stand for him and his friends, completely free trips to Qatar (top class plane and luxury hotel). Both Le Monde and Mediapart add that Ferré, at the moment, has not wanted to comment on the news about the investigation that involves him.
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