Nasser Al-Khelaifi has announced PSG’s intentions to leave the Parc des Princes after a lengthy dispute with the Paris City Council over the acquisition of the stadium.
The PSG Chairman confirmed the Ligue 1 champions’ wishes to leave the Parc des Princes after Paris City Council put sale talks to rest after she stated that the stadium was not up for sale.
Qatar Sports Investment and Al-Khelaifi have for several years been attempting to own the stadium outright to accelerate the €500m redevelopment plans, which includes increasing the Parc des Princes capacity to 60,000, after receiving new investment from Arctos last December.
The 11-time French champions have made it no secret that the redevelopment of the Parc des Princes is part of the club’s growing commercial and fan engagement strategies, seeking to boost matchday revenue by growing the stadium capacity.
However, despite failing in its bid to acquire the stadium in November 2022 and continually pushing the city council to come to an agreement, PSG will now look to move home for the first time since it was founded in 1974.
Al-Khelaifi commented: “It’s too easy to say now that the stadium is not for sale anymore. We know what we want, we wasted years trying to try and buy it. It’s easier for us now, we know what we want. It’s over for us. We want to move out of the Parc.”
Pierre Rabdan, Paris Deputy Mayor for Sports, confirmed the no sale, stating: “A sale is not desirable, because that would be a decision with no turning back. That’s why we have to rule out the sale of the Parc today. We don’t want to sell off Paris’ legacy.”
With redevelopment plans on an indefinite pause, PSG will now continue the search to find a new home stadium which began by looking into possibly moving into the Stade de France.
The French national stadium, boasting an 80,000 plus capacity and has hosted FIFA World Cup, EURO Championship and rugby world cup finals, was shortlisted by PSG as a potential new home for the club.
This initial interest ultimately ended as PSG decided not to apply for a Fin Infra for stadium rights citing logistical and financial reasons.
The Stade Jean-Bouin, – home of the PSG Women’s team – Stade Sebastine Charlety and Paris La Defense Arena have been considered as potential new stadiums for the club, but may have to come to an agreement with the city council on the Stade Jean-Bouin as they own it.
