When Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) became Paris Saint-Germain's majority owner in 2011, the club was Europe's 48th-best team, according to the numbers at EloFootball.com. And this was a major improvement -- they were 90th a year earlier.
They had just finished fourth in Ligue 1, their best placement in more than a decade. They had fallen to Benfica in the UEFA Europa League round of 16, and it was encouraging. At this moment in the summer of 2011, PSG were a VfB Stuttgart (tied with PSG for 48th at EloFootball) or a Werder Bremen (41st) -- a club with a proud and intense fan base, and no major history of success.