French football club PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) is considering leaving its long-time stadium, the Parc des Princes, and potentially moving to the country’s national stadium.
“Paris deserves a better stadium,” said Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of PSG, in an interview in Doha.
The team currently features mega stars Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar. The Parc des Princes holds just 48,000 spectators.
PSG explore sale
Al-Khelaifi also said he is discussing the possibility of an investor buying a minority stake in PSG, and that a strategic partner could add value.
European rivals Manchester United and Liverpool Football Club are also exploring strategic options or potential sales.
While Qatar is not considering selling the club in its entirety it is looking at selling a share to a strategic partner.
Al-Khelaifi told reporters this week: “We received an offer of more than €4bn but we are not going to sell, of course, just a percentage of the club, we’ll think about it”.
Under the guidance of Qatari owners PSG has seen the club’s value soar in just over a decade.
Al-Khelaifi said: “We took the club at €70m and today it is more than €4bn euros. It’s a good project.”
PSG, France’s football champions, has played at its current stadium since 1974.
Al-Khelaifi said the club has been in talks with its landlord, the City of Paris, about expanding and improving the facility for the past four to five years, but he believes the city hasn’t been helpful.
“My first option is we don’t move. But the city of Paris is pushing us to move,” he says. The team has three other options if it decides not to stay, he said, without disclosing more details.
People familiar with the situation says these options include buying the national stadium, the 80,000-capacity Stade de France, from the government, or moving to a couple of unidentified greenfield sites.
“We’ve spent 70 million euros upgrading the Parc des Princes, but it’s not our stadium,” said Al-Khelaifi. He said the club has offered to purchase it but the city wanted too much money.
Several of PSG’s challengers in the UEFA Champions League, which the French team has never won, have added seats or modernised their facilities to help bring in extra revenue.
PSG announced earlier this year that it had sold out 100 consecutive matches in a row.
Al-Khelaifi said the desire to improve the size of PSG’s facilities is motivated in part by UEFA rules that strive to limit clubs from spending more than they earn. Earlier this year PSG was fined €10m euros for breaking financial fair play rules.
PSG is set to end the season with €700m ($721m) in revenue, a club record, according to people familiar with the situation.
That would be around the same level as some of Europe’s other top clubs. Manchester City reported record revenue of £613m ($736m) earlier this month.
Follow us on
