Cyrille de la Morinerie, edited by Solène Leroux
modified to
8:30 a.m., May 13, 2022
Event tonight! The Red Star is playing its first match since the sale of the club to an American fund, the investment fund 777 Partners. The formation of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis will receive Concarneau at 8:45 p.m. In the stands, the atmosphere promises to be less festive. Because some supporters are afraid that their favorite club, currently 11th nationally, will lose its values.
Opposite the Bauer stadium is an unmissable bar whose frontage is unpretentious: “The Olympic”, the headquarters of Red Star supporters. Inside this establishment is a small Red Star museum, the soul of the club still lives there. There are vintage photos of the Red Star team on the walls, pennants and a press article on a table explaining that the Red Star has just been sold. One of the clients and who is a loyal supporter of Red Star takes her coffee and clearly opposes the sale of the club to an investment fund from the United States: “It’s weird. It’s a popular team , it’s Saint-Ouen, it’s 93.” The fact that the United States bought the club? “For me it has nothing to do, I’m against it.”
Why do these Red Star supporters fear for their club?
For this club in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis which is 125 years old, with communist and popular roots, it’s a cultural revolution that goes very badly, as reported by Yacine, the son of the bar owner: “C It’s super contradictory. That’s why we are not in favor of their coming,” he says.
“The investment fund doesn’t know anything about football, we’re not even going to talk about communism or anything else, they’re there to make money on the backs of the club. That’s not Red Star, it’s not his fiber, we can only show our dissatisfaction,” he says. The supporters we interviewed are generally skeptical of this sale.
© Cyrille de La Morinerie/Europe 1
What does the Red Star answer?
But on the side of the club, we deny having sold our soul to the devil. With this sale estimated at more than 15 million euros, the objective is to have the means to develop the Red Star while preserving its identity, affirms on Europe 1 its president Patrice Haddad.
“These are pure fantasies. I’ll answer with a question. Who would have the malice to destroy 125 years of heritage, social, educational like Red Star?”, He asks. “It is not me who has been at the head of the club for 15 years, nor is it the new owner who has perceived, through the work we have done together, the singularity of this club.”
Will the new owner of Red Star invest?
The Audonian club will benefit from a financial effort. Its budget will be increased by 20%. The Red Star will prepare for next season and hope to return to Ligue 2. Another challenge is to develop its training center. As for the dilapidated Bauer stadium which was until then the property of the city, it was sold to the Réalités de développement territorial group. Work has already begun. It will be renovated within two years. But it will be necessary to wait until 2025 for Bauer to regain its capacity of 10,000 places and definitely have a facelift.