Mbappe transfer - have PSG broken financial fair play rules?

PSG is also thought to be ready to pay up to €180 million in 2018 for teenager Kylian Mbappe, who is now on loan to the Ligue 1 side from Monaco.

That fueled speculation PSG was seeking to evade UEFA's monitoring of spending rules created to ensure clubs try to break even on their football income and spending on player transfers and wages.

While UEFA is busy trying to investigate the blatant flouting of rules by the club, it appears that Mbappe may not even be a PSG player when Federation Internationale de Football Association 18 releases later this month. FFP rules now stipulate that clubs can not post losses of more than 30 million euros over the three-year period to 2018, although PSG are hoping the initial loan move will help prevent them from falling fall of the regulations.

"The club is surprised by such a decision since it constantly kept UEFA's financial Fair Play teams informed of the impact of all the player transfers carried out this summer despite not being obliged to do so", PSG said in a statement. UEFA didn't accept that valuation and publicly said only it had used a figure "significantly below that submitted by the club".

PSG have been making all the news lately following their world record transfer for Neymar Jr. from Barcelona.

PSG, owned by the Qatar sovereign wealth fund QSI, has form for breaching FFP rules, having accepted a €60m reduction of prize money and a reduction in squad size in May 2014, after a previous Uefa investigation. In that case PSG didn't break the rules by spending too much or not earning enough, which will be the figures closely scrutinized in the wake of its latest blockbuster deals.

In the scramble to replace Neymar after his unexpected exit, Barcelona have already spent 105 million euros, in a deal that could rise to 145 million euros, to lure another France starlet, Ousmane Dembele, from Borussia Dortmund. From 2013-2015 clubs could only post an annual loss of 45 million euros, which was reduced to 30 million for the next three years, running until 2018. Brendan Rodgers, who manages Celtic - drawn in the same group as PSG in the Champions League, was more emphatic: "If they sign Mbappe, you could rip up Financial Fair Play. The club is very confident in its ability to demonstrate that it will fully comply with Financial Fair Play rules for the fiscal year 2017-2018", PSG said in a statement.

However, FFP rules say transfer fees are written off over the life of a contract, which means PSG will have to deal with only one-fifth of Neymar's five-year contract when weighing their expenditures against their revenue this season.