Owner of PSG since 2011, Qatar has decided to let the club in the French capital finance itself. This is therefore the new Nasser al-Khelaïfi mission: the Rouge et Bleu must play in a large modern stadium, even if it means turning their back on the Parc de Princes, the legendary venue of the Porte de Saint-Cloud club. With Paris City Hall prohibiting any work at the Park, the president of PSG confirmed the construction of an enclosure with at least 60,000 seats in three or four years. This will mark the end of an era and many supporters may well head in another direction.
“I really like the Parc des Princes, everyone loves it. If I listen to my heart, we’re not leaving. But today, everyone in Europe has stadiums with 100,000, 80,000, 90,000 seats… We need them, otherwise we are dead”launched “NAK” on RMC, Thursday, during a broadcast of Rothen ignites live from the PSG Campus in Poissy. The president of PSG thus refers to the renovated Santiago Bernabéu with 78,000 seats and the future Camp Nou with 105,000 seats in 2026, or even to the Allianz Arena in Munich with 75,000 seats.
PSG lagging behind at European level
Is it really a question of life or death for PSG?
” Yes. We are in France, but we also play in Europe. We compete in the Champions League every year. If we want to be at the same level as other clubs, and on financial fair play… We need our stadium. We have no other solutions”. Al-Khelaïfi being president of the ECA, the European club association (which collaborates with UEFA), he now wishes to remain within the framework of financial fair play applied by the body.
And to specify: “The city leaves us no choice. (…) I don’t do politics. For us, we need a stadium ready in 3-4 years, we have no time to lose, otherwise we are behind other clubs in Europe. We need to make decisions, to build as quickly as possible”. Last May, the new track for the construction of a stadium led to the Saint-Cloud racecourse, a huge private space which is established in the towns of Rueil-Malmaison and Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine .
