Today dominant on the national scene, PSG has had a tumultuous history. With its gray areas.
He was president of PSG for six months, in 1998, during one of the least glorious periods in the club’s history. Seven years earlier, Charles Biétry had been one of the great architects of the takeover of the Parisian flagship by Canal+. A central figure in the revival of reds and blues in the 1990s, the media man had a hard time going from shadow to light. He confides today to L’Equipe the difficulties he faced during his reign.
” I still won a Champions Trophy in six months “, he begins in a touch of humor. Before admitting: My time at PSG can only be a very bad memory. At the time, you could still have contracts that weren’t very square, get paid abroad, stuff like that… I liked it moderately, I knew that the tax authorities would make major raids on the clubs. I didn’t understand everything in some contracts. I tell myself that I did well to leave since my successors, Francis Graille (2003-2005) and Laurent Perpère (1998-2003), were sentenced (for wage and tax fraud, editor’s note). »
“The nazillons who hung around everywhere”
Behind the scenes at PSG, Charles Biétry also sacrificed a long friendship with Michel Denisot. Regretfully. And to remember another dark side of the history of PSG: ” I also cleaned up the nazillons that were lying around everywhere. The first days, they came to the club with rottweilers to terrorize the secretaries and I found a rope hanging in my office. My children also had to be looked after by boxers. It was unlivable. My family suffered too much from these morons and I didn’t want to go to prison for contracts that weren’t in order. »
