Paris mayor shuns PSG’s attempt to buy Parc des Princes

PARIS 

The Parc des Princes “is not for sale” and “will not be sold” to Paris Saint-Germain, the city mayor Anne Hidalgo said in an interview published in Jan. 14’s Parisien newspaper.

The stadium in the leafy western reaches of the city close to the tennis courts of Roland Garros is owned by the municipality but PSG’s Qatari owners have threatened to take the club away if it is not ceded to them.

The club has made acquisition of the site a condition for carrying out modernisation and expansion works to the tune of 500 million euros. “It is a firm and definitive position,” said Hidalgo.

“It is an exceptional piece of heritage for Parisians.” Her team have said they are ready to discuss the ground issue, even if the sale is not her “priority option.”

“We must support PSG in its desire and its need for renovation, for increasing capacity, for modernising the Parc,” she said, adding that “part of the stadium is on the ring road so we cannot dig.”

In last November, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi told Spanish sports daily Marca that PSG was “no longer welcome” at the Parc des Princes, adding that they were looking at “other alternatives”.

“They are pressuring us to leave,” he said, insisting that the Qataris had “invested 80 million euros” - before Euro 2016 - in a stadium which “is not ours.”

Inaugurated in 1897 then remodelled in 1972, the former velodrome, with its 48,000 capacity, has been home to the Parisian club since 1974. The current 30-year lease kicked in in 2014.

The club has already put in one offer to buy the ground but according to Hidalgo’s deputy Emmanuel Gregoire, it only amounted to 40 million euros.

“It’s cheaper than Paredes,” he joked in reference to the Argentine midfielder Leandro Paredes who cost PSG 47 million euros when he joined in 2019.