Paris Saint-Germain want to secure ownership of the Parc des Princes, their historic home in the capital. But negotiations with Paris city council are at a standstill. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has dismissed the Qatar-owned club's reported 38-million-euro offer.
PSG have played at the Parc de Princes stadium in the city’s upmarket 16th district since 1973. The club wants to expand and renovate the stadium to increase capacity from 47,000 to 58,000 seats, at an estimated cost of 500 million euros.
For its Qatari owners, Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), that work will only be possible if PSG buys the stadium.
But negotiations with Paris city hall over the purchase have proven fruitless.
"We opened the door to the possibility of selling the stadium to our club because it’s true that if you look at the economic model of the biggest clubs, almost all of them own their stadiums," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told RFI on Thursday.
But she added: "There are also prices that must be set and have to correspond to the property in question.
"PSG offered €38 million for the stadium. It's ridiculous."
Hidalgo also reminded PSG’s Qatari owners of how business is done in France.
“It may be a bluff or a misunderstanding about what our democratic rules are. We are in a country where the rule of law works, so there are procedures” she said, pointing to the various, sometimes lengthy, stages involved in selling Paris-owned assets.
Stay or go?
PSG have other options. On Thursday, they threw in their hat as candidates to buy the Stade de France.
The 80,000-capacity, government-owned national stadium in Saint-Denis, just to the north of the capital, was valued at 647 million euros by the French government in 2021.
Both FIFA and UEFA are reportedly also interested in buying the stadium, though the world football’s governing body has denied this and UEFA has not commented.
Whoever acquires the stadium would need to carry out significant refurbishment work.
However, the Stade de France looks like a back-up option for PSG.
A club source told AFP news agency that buying the Parc des Princes remained PSG’s “plan number one, two and three, and buying the Stade de France is number four”.
Another option would be to build a new stadium of its own, perhaps at the Saint-Cloud racecourse just outside Paris or further away at Poissy, where the club is currently building a new training centre.
'Buried at the Stade de France'
Despite the alternatives, Hidalgo didn’t seem worried PSG would quit the capital.
“I don’t think they will leave,” she said, adding "the club's soul is in Parc des Princes."
PSG have said that they will only return to the negotiating table if it is to discuss buying the stadium, which remains their "priority".
"Like all clubs on the European scene, we need to own our stadium," the club source said.
That will reassure PSG supporters who do not want to move.
A banner put up near the stadium reads: "PSG was born in Saint-Germain, grew up at the Parc des Princes, died under QSI and will be buried at the Stade de France".
