One Of the World’s Largest Football Clubs, Paris St. Germain, Enters League of Legends
The Paris St. Germain football club has reported partnered with media company Webedia to create an eSports team with PSG’s branding.
The football team will be lending its name to the former Team Huma, a European Challenger team. PSG did not outright but out Team Huma but will instead lend its name to the buyer, Webedia.
Team Huma was in headlines early this year when its former owner, Behda Jaafarian, was forced to sell his team by Riot Games over cases of financial mismanagement. Players and staff on the team were consistently late in paying out salaries resulting in a lifetime ban on Jaafarian from owning a team in any Riot-owned title.
But Webedia’s purchase of Team Huma might spell a different kind of controversy as Webedia also has stakes in Millenium, another European Challenger team. As per Riot rules, no team owner may own multiple stakes in the same league.
Millenium failed to qualify for the EU LCS and will therefore go back to the Challenger circuit. That puts Webedia in direct violation of sec. 3.1 of the Team Ownership rule as per Riot:
“No Team Owner or Team Manager or Affiliate of an Owner may own or control, directly or indirectly, or have a direct (e.g., ownership) or indirect (e.g., a contractual arrangement) financial interest, or be an employee or contractor of, more than one League of Legends team in the Challenger Series, including the qualifier.”
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