Paris Saint-Germain will travel to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for the most important match of their season, yet there is a secondary battle behind the scenes against UEFA's Financial Fair Play initiative which continues to rumble on.
The French club were stung by the spectacular collapse against Barcelona which saw them eliminated from the 2016/17 Champions League and immediately started on a collision course with the governing body by signing both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Qatari finance has backed the club since 2011 and millions upon millions have been spent on both transfer fees and salaries as the club has desperately tried to win the Champions League.
Every single year they have fallen short, yet following the summer blitz in which they broke the world transfer record, they now look incredibly well placed to win the tournament, provided they can get past the defending champions.
In less than a month, UEFA will begin their investigation into PSG with regards to FFP with the club having already been forewarned of such an eventuality.
Neymar's 222 million euro fee set the alarm bells ringing at the headquarters of the governing body; however the decision to defer the 180 million euro payment for Mbappe by a year may well work in their favour.
The club's hierarchy believed everything to be under control, however it seems as though a small detail has been neglected by Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
This issue is the sponsorship deals which justify the incredible expenditure and in March the Committee of Financial Control for Clubs will dictate a judgement on the sponsorship deals signed by PSG.
They will determine whether they are legitimate deals, however to this point it is understood that UEFA considers them to be illegitimate and akin to a state owned team.
PSG fall into this category as the real owner is Jasim Al Thana, the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Qatar; he has merely left the club in the hands of Al Khelaifi.
Qatar is behind the club and their funding comes directly from the country, hence why their sponsorship deals haven't passed the initial assessment.
There is a deadline of June 30 in place for PSG to balance their finances, as recently as October there was an imbalance of around 70 million euros; they have since sold Lucas Moura.
UEFA's procedure is the same with all clubs in this position, there are numerous warnings and meetings before a decision is taken, clubs are given every opportunity to rectify their fiscal situation.
A sanction would actually be PSG's second since the takeover and would hand UEFA a difficult decision with regards to the scale of punishment, for the French club they are already preparing a defence.
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