Undeterred PSG to bid for Stade de France

Article posted by Coliseum, March 16^th, 2023

Image: Stade de France, Zakarie Faibis, CC BY-SA 4.0

Despite being knocked out of the Champions League at the hands of the Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich (Germany) recently, the Ligue 1 club PSG (France) are not changing their expansionist ways that are thought to open the door to a new era in the club over the next years.

‘as’ stated that as well as being about to unveil a new training complex in Yvelines, Poissy (France), the club are in line to bid for the Stade de France, the home of both the French football and the rugby national teams.

The Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as the Paris Saint-Germain or simply PSG, is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As France’s most successful club, they have won over 40 official honors, including 10 league titles and one major European trophy. Their home ground is the Parc des Princes.

The 47,929-capacity Parc des Princes is an all-seater football stadium in Paris, France. It is located to the South-West of the French capital, inside the 16^th arrondissement, near the 19,904-capacity Stade Jean-Bouin and the Stade Roland Garros.

The Stade de France is the national stadium of France, located just North of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national football team and the France rugby union team for international competition.

‘as’ further stated that the French State, that owns the rights to the stadium built in to host the 1998 France World Cup, launched a request for bids starting in July 2025. The current license expires in no more than a couple of years, which makes it imperative that an offer is made once the right of the State to use the stadium expires. Both a request for bids and a pre-sale procedure are options at this moment in time.

FIFA Interested (?!)

On top of PSG wanting the stadium, FIFA are also interested. It would be, in the case that the pre-sale agreement is completed, the first stadium in the world that the football organization would own. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, would not be against the idea and the negotiations with the FIFA President Gianni Infantino and company began at the start of March.

Earlier, reports stated that top gun PSG was also mulling to buy the Stade de France.

A Lot of Money for a Lot of Seats

The sporting directors of the French team, meanwhile, have in mind the idea of acquiring the stadium for €600 million, which holds 80,000 people, a near 50 percent increase on the Parc de Princes (47,000). They want a stadium that fits the standards PSG hold against themselves. The priority, however, is to remain in their current stadium, although the difficulties of increasing the capacity to 58,000, given the rigidity of the Town Council in the negotiations, above all from the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, oblige Al Khelaïfi (head honcho of PSG) to seek alternatives.

The group ‘Legends’ were assigned by PSG to look for a new stadium for the club. Although they at first took the option of the Stade de France off the table, the difficulties with finding a new home and the impossibilities regarding the potential full ownership of the Parc des Princes has forced the club’s hand. Let the bidding war commence.

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