Almost Berlin conditions: Qatar club Paris Saint-Germain threatens Paris with moving out

Almost Berlin conditions
Qatar club Paris Saint-Germain threaten Paris with departure

Paris Saint-Germain is the only world-class French club. With Qatar’s billions behind them, they win the Ligue 1 championship year after year. Football’s biggest stars are under contract with PSG. Because they are so powerful, they are now threatening the city of Paris.

The capitals of Europe are not necessarily the best places for football clubs. In Germany, with Union Berlin, a club has now been able to establish itself at the national top, but local rivals Hertha BSC have been rushing from crisis to crisis for years. Also, but of course not exclusively, because the club from Gesundbrunnen has been playing in the huge concrete bowl of the Olympic Stadium “far outside” in West Berlin for several decades. The stadium is rarely sold out, but all efforts to create a new, modern arena have so far come to nothing.

Hertha has been looking for a suitable location for a new stadium for years. If Hertha has actually found the location, they encounter a lot of resistance from the Berlin Senate, from residents and in general. Hertha BSC wants to leave the Olympic Stadium, wants a smaller stadium, finally wants an arena that doesn’t belong to the city but to the club.

Paris Mayor angers PSG

It is somewhat surprising that the fight for their own stadium unites them with France’s serial champions Paris Saint-Germain. Only the starting position is a little different: PSG actually wants to stay in the stadium and even buy it. But the city is against it. As a result, the billionaire Qatar club from the French capital is now threatening to leave the Prince Park after almost 50 years. However, the city does not want to be blackmailed.

“We have a clear position: the Prince Park is not for sale and will not be sold. That is our position. It is a special legacy for the Parisians,” said the mayor of the city, Anne Hidalgo, on Saturday in “Le Parisien” and caused great resentment among the club leaders of the club of the superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.

PSG has already invested 85 million euros in the modernization of the stadium in recent years and is ready to add another 500 million, reports the US broadcaster ESPN. But only on condition that the Prinzenpark is sold to the club. Now PSG is threatening to move out. “The mayor is forcing PSG to leave their homeland. Unfortunately, we have to look for alternatives,” said a club spokesman: “It’s not the result the club or the fans were hoping for.”

The club spokesman said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Hidalgo’s announcement and referred to the impending burden on taxpayers, who now have to pay for “the maintenance of the building, which is now 50 years old and in need of renovation”.

Paris laughs at the billionaire’s offer to buy

In November, club boss Nasser Al-Khelaifi philosophized about the possibility of moving out in an interview with the Spanish “Marca”. PSG is no longer welcome in the Prinzenpark, said the Qatari and added: “They are putting us under pressure,” he added. As reported by the French radio station RFI, PSG have already made an offer to buy the Prince Park. But the sum of 40 million euros met with more than a lack of understanding from the city of Paris. “It’s less than a paredes,” said deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire, referring to the €47m PSG offered for Argentina’s Leandro Paredes in 2019.

The Prinzenpark was inaugurated in 1897 and has currently held 48,000 spectators since it was renovated in 1972. PSG have played at the stadium since 1974. However, the city of Paris sees difficulties in drastically increasing the capacity of the stadium due to local conditions and PSG currently have no other options than to threaten the city.

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