Jean-Baptiste Sarrazin
modified to
9:25 p.m., January 15, 2023
It is a showdown that could continue in the coming months. Paris City Hall and Paris Saint-Germain have entered into a remote duel over the Parc des Princes, the stadium where PSG is currently playing. The Parisian leaders would like to buy the stadium, currently owned by the Paris City Hall. The club’s objective is to increase the size of the stadium to accommodate more people. An idea that the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo rejects outright.
“It is a firm and definitive position. It is an exceptional heritage of Parisians,” declared the elected socialist to the readers of the daily Le Parisien. The municipal team said so far open to dialogue, even if the sale was not its “priority option”. After this publication, a spokesperson for the club said he was “disappointed and surprised” that the Town Hall wanted to “dislodge Paris Saint-Germain and its supporters from the Parc des Princes”.
“The mayor is forcing PSG to leave her house,” he regrets. The club repeats that it needs a stadium larger than the current 45,000 seats, a modest capacity compared to its European competitors and their own stadiums between 60,000 and 90,000 seats.
The Stade de France option
Facing the wall erected by the town hall of Paris, now seems to have desires elsewhere. Two situations could then arise for the capital club: the first, that of renting a new stadium like the Satde de France which is available. “In 2010-2011, as soon as Qatar arrived at PSG, there were contacts made with the Stade de France because they have been looking for a resident club for 25 years which they have never found. PSG would then have installed at the Stade de France so as to make 80,000 spectators at each match or almost”, explained the head of the sports department Jean-François Pérès in the program Europe 1 Sports (every evening from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.).
Relocation is the threat therefore brandished by Paris Saint-Germain, which is trying by all means to convince the mayor of Paris. The club notably highlighted its investment of 85 million euros in a tool which does not belong to it and which the town hall, by refusing to sell it to it, is sitting on a promise from the Qatari owners to inject “500 million additional euros” to modernize and enlarge the Porte de Saint-Cloud enclosure.
“Greed”
“It is obvious that such a large investment will only be made by PSG if we become owners of the Parc des Princes,” the club recently complained. “By refusing our very significant investment (…) the mayor is imposing a tax burden of several million euros on Parisian taxpayers”, insisted the PSG spokesperson, “to maintain the structure of a stadium which has more 50 years old and needs a complete renovation”.
A PSG leader for his part pointed to the “greed” of the mayor of Paris, while adding that the club “does not want to be hostage to the town hall in these negotiations”. This source even went so far as to evoke a “financial suicide”, because the municipality would have to pay “30 million euros just to bring it up to environmental standards, the stadium in its current state is not “green” in the everything, if ever Mrs. Hidalgo thought to seduce the elected environmentalists by this decision”.
Stalled situation
The former candidate of the Socialist Party for the presidency did not mention the hypothesis of a departure from the club. “We must support PSG in its desire and need for renovation, increase in capacity, modernization of the Park”, even if “part of the stadium is on the ring road, so we cannot dig”, has she declared. Inaugurated first in 1897 then in 1972 with its new architecture, the former velodrome has hosted the Parisian club since 1974. The current lease, which came into effect in 2014, runs for thirty years.
A situation which is therefore at a standstill and which worries the supporters but also the former figures of the club who have the genes of the Parc des Princes in their skin. “I would react badly because we can’t imagine Paris Saint-Germain playing anywhere other than the Parc des Princes. We are threatening to leave the Parc, the club is talking about going to build its stadium outside Paris, that would be a new story and even a new club”, saddened the former player of the club Jimmy Algerino in Europe 1 Sports.
Building a new stadium? “Impossible”
But for the latter, the construction of a new stadium seems impossible. “The Qataris’ vision does not go beyond five to ten years and when you want to build as Qatar and the owners would like, it would take at least five to ten years so it’s almost impossible,” he said. .
Since 2011 and the takeover of PSG by QSI (Qatar Sports Investments), the club of planetary stars Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar has won eight French championships and six French Cups, in particular. But he failed to conquer the Champions League, his main objective, failing in the final in 2020.